The GLIO Site

PETERSFIELD.

AMATEUR DRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENT.

     Was given by the Cricket Club on Tuesday and Wednesday.—It having been known for some weeks past that the cricket club of this town was arranging a dramatic performance for the benefit of its funds, expectation was on the tip-toe of excitement as to how our native artists would acquit themselves; no pains were spared in making every arrangement possible to ensure success. Nearly all the gentry of the surrounding neighbourhood were solicited and became patrons. Mr. Crafts, of the Dolphin, most generously placed the Assembly Room of that hotel at the disposal of the committee, Mrs. Crafts was indefatigable in contributing in many ways to the detail of ornament and taste, which was conspicuous. An admirable stage was erected by Messrs. Wright and Lawrence, and the ‟tout ensemble” was complete.
     The evening’s entertainment commenced with the prologue written by Miss Nichols, of Petersfield, for the occasion, which we give as delivered by R. S. Cross, Esq., vice-president of the club, viz.:—

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with much delight
We welcome you to see our play to night;
You will repent of having ‟dropped in” here:
For we propose to bring upon these boards
Not kings or queens, fair ladies and proud lords,
Enamour’d knights with pages golden-hair’d,
Enchanted damsels for whom warriors dar’d
To face the terror of an Ogre’s might,
And close with dragons in disastrous flight:—
No more of these:—you’ve seen them oft before,
And p’rhaps won’t care to see them any more;
Besides they’re ‟passé,” out of date, absurd,
By far too full of fancy,—in a word,—
Unfit for this most realistic age;
So we have to bid them go elsewhere to wage
Their wars ’gainst giant foes, and in their stead
We’ll introduce some moderns, who, ’tis said,
Have less of grace, but more, much more of art,
And therefore play a longer busier part
On this world’s ‟vasty” stage. May be, ’t is so;
We will not stop to ask, but straightway show
Them to you as they are, and you shall say
How well you like the men of this our day
When you have seen their conduct on the stage,
We only hope that they will so engage
Your int’rest that with them you’ll sympathise
Too much, indeed, to care to criticise.

     The comedy of ‟Still Waters run Deep,” by Taylor then commenced, and, from the first scene to the last, it was evident that the ‟corps dramatique” had been made well acquainted by frequent rehearsals with every point and part of this pleasing play. In speaking of the artists who hold ‟the mirror up to nature” and reflect the follies and vices of the age, we must be brief, for to do justice, every one who bore a part should be mentioned, and we should then have to begin with that very funny old gentleman in black (we hate nick-names) we believe his real cognomen is ‟Potter;” and then describe the excellent acting of the ladies and gentlemen, and end only with the flunkeys and call boy, but when all acquitted themselves in such an admirable manner it would be invidious to particularize. They won for themselves the repeated applause of a first-class and discerning audience. Before and between the acting Mr. Finley and Miss Aldous kept ‟ennui” far in the distance by relieving strains on the piano.After the comedy Mrs. Faulkner most kindly sang a song, which gained an encore. Then followed the farce, in every sense of the word, of the ‟Irish Tiger.” The continued merriment of the company must have unmistakably told those representing, that they were well up in their parts, and their endeavours fully appreciated. At the close of the performance Mr. Bonham Carter, M.P., president of the cricket club, congratulated the performers on their success, and expressed himself highly delighted with the entertainment. We subjoin the caste of the play:—

     Act 1.—Drawing room in Mr. Mildmay’s house.
Act 2.—Scene 1 the same. Scene 2, office of Inexplosible Galvanic Boat Company (Limited)
     Act 3.—The same as Act 1.

     Scene.—Drawing room in Alderman Marrowfat’s Villa.