Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Monday 2 April 1883, page 9


OPERA-HOUSE.

THE SUNNY SOUTH.

A five-act drama of a sensational character, by Mr, G Darrell, was produced at this theatre on Saturday evening, amidst so many and such frequent manifestations of applause from a large audience that it may be pronounced to have been entirely successful The scene of four of the acts is laid in Australia Most of the characters are Australian, the incidents are Australian-borrowed mostly from those which occurred in connexion with the Kelly gang of bushrangers and the hero and heroine are Australians-of the stage type, like the rest. 'The opening of the drama takes place man English country mansion, the ancestral home of the Chesters, and residing there are the ostensible owner Worthy Chester, and his daughter, Clarice and a nephew.Ivo Carew Chester, by a series of rash speculations, has placed himself in the power of a money lender, one Eli Grup, who is the possessor of a mortgage over the estate and other papers and securities telling against Cheater Ruin impends, and Grup offers to save the credit and honour of the Cheatere if Clarice will consent to become his wife This young lady is in love with her cousin Carew, the attachment being mutual, but poverty is a bar to their union, and under pressure of circumstances Clarice is almost compelled to accept his suit At this juncture a deus ex machine appears, in the person of one Matt Morley he announces himself as a returned Australian and an old friend of the family anxious to renew his acquaintanceship with it Ultimately Chester indignantly rejccts Grup's offer, preferring ruin and exposure to his daughter a self-sacrifice Grup, furious thereat, throws off his mask of civility, and warns the old man that on the morrow he will take possession of the mansion, and not one of the proud race of the Chesters shall ever set foot within its walls again the Australian thereupon inter posed, declaring himself to be Morley Chester, the long supposed dead son and heir to the late owner of the estate, and claims his right and title to present possession Subsequently Grup assumed formal proprietorship, den] lug Matt Morley's identity, the latter having lived under that assumed name for 20 years in Australia. At this period " Bubs Berkely, an adopted daughter of Morley a, arrives with a cablegram from the colonies announcing the discovery of rich gold in Morley's claim, and urging his immediate return Morley, with Bubs, sails for Australia, to gain sufficient money to establish his English rights, and Carew and Clarice and

erato with them in the third act the characters, with divers others, are discovered on the El Dorado rush, and in the midst of the Queen's Birthday festivities a nugget worth 10 000 in unearthed from Morley s elwin by his mate Ben Brewer This nugget is placed in the local bank, and on the next night the bank was stuck up by Dick Duggan,

bushranger, and his males, and a desperate struggle ensued between the gang the officials, the diggers, and police, and ultimately the gang is overpowered and the gold saved. Meanwhile, Grup, hearing of Morley's good fortune, and fearing his return to England, has arrived in Australia, and subsidises Duggan (who has broken gaol and his mates to molest Morley and prevent his departure Duggan, bearing a grudge against Morley, readily consents, and abducts Bubs Berkely, and the last scene of the act shows the attack of Morley and the police on the bushrangers' lair, the rescue of the girl, the burning of the hut, and semi destruction of the gang In the last act Bubs and Morley are married, as are Clarice and Carew

the villains are unmasked, and justice meted out to the wrongdoers all round There is thus a rapid succession of exciting incidents, attended by numerous melodrama the situation, a copious discharge of rifles and revolvers, many hand to hand encounters, much tribulation on the part of the heroines, a considerable display of muscular energy on that of the hero and the doughty bush rangers, one of whom he got up like an old friend in the " Miller and his Men, and a great demonstration of valour by two successful diggers, as well as an exhibition of ferocious vindictiveness and general " CUB sadness" by the wicked outlaws It must be added, in justice to the author, that he makes no attempt to create any sympathy for the ruffianly bushrangers, one of whom is represented in so odious a light that he is called before the curtain more than once to be hooted and howled at by the audience Among the more stirring episodes of the dramatic story are the burning of the bushrangers' hut, and the attempt to throw a special train off the rails at the close of the fifth act, when there is a mortal conflict between the Baganda and the happy couples who are on their way to the vessel which is to convey them to England, and the stage is littered with a not very choice assortment of corpses Fortunately it is the reprobate characters of the drama who are shot down, while the virtuous people escape, if not with out a scratch at any rate with their lives and with their gold, which they are taking home, with characteristic imprudence, instead of bank drafts

The character are well cast and satisfactorily sustained the part of the heroine devolves upon Miss Essie Jenyns, who has in her the materials out of which a good actress may be made, provided she does not fall into the mistake committed by so many youthful members of the profession in these colonies of imagining that success, or a good position on the stage, is to be achieved at a bound, and that incessant study and persevering hard work can be dispensed with. There were portions of her performance of the character of Baba Berkley on Saturday evening which denoted a natural aptitude for emotional acting. but represent her expression of it is crude and unequal, and wanting in that light and shade and delicacy of gradation which nothing but practice, experience, and intelligent observation and reflection can supply In proportion as Miss Alice Deorwyn, the representative of Clarice Chester, discards that self consciousness which gives too much prominence to the young lady who mats and too little to the part she portrays, and which is altogether destructive of the necessary illusion, she becomes more accept

able and her scenes in the first and fourth acts benefited accordingly Mr Charles Holloway's

Dick Duggan, the bushranger, was one of the best played characters in the drama Bound in conception-and uniformly excellent in the execution Mr. Darrell is ruggedly vigorous as Matt Morley, the Anglo-Australian, who walked unannounced into the drawing-room of a young lady, commences smoking a cigar, accosts her with imper-tinent familiarity, speaks and acts with a brusque rudeness, and is then assured, in all seriousness, and without a touch of sarcasm, that he is a gentleman. If Mr Appleton would only drop the habit he has acquired of indulging in an occasional whine and drawl, his ability would qualify him to make a part like Ivo Carew very much more effective than be does Mr Olly Deering rendered the part of Eli Grup appropriately repulsive and Mr Harry Leston did his best to infuse a certain amount of humour and vitality into the character of Plantagenet Snuffer, who is on AEsthetic foot-man in the fourth act, and a lorry caricatured Minithorpe in "Patience" during the re-selector of the piece female domestics who mistake their aspirates are becoming a nuisance on the stage, for the vein has been already worked out, and Rebecca Ann, as impersonated by Miss Constance Deorwyn somewhat de crop Mr E Palmer, Mr W J Holloway, and Mr. H Daniels each contributed to the success of the drama, which will be repeated until further notice, and there were enthusiastic calls for all who had taken a prominent part in it at the end

of each mob

Tus marriages celebrated at the civil offices, on the Capitol, dome, during the Carnival week, reached the extraordinary number of 165. One day alone there were no fewer than JW.

Tra Moorish Governor of Casablanca Morocco, having sentenced eight Jewesses to be publicly bastinadoed by order and in presence of an interpreter of the British vice consulate, great indignation was manifested by the European residence, and protests were lodged at the American, French, and Spanish Consulates. The outrage has been reported by the vice consuls to their respective Ministers at Tangiers, who have addressed notes to the British. representative.