The Press.
London, England, 1853-12-31 00:00:00

zle puma.

THE absence of all matters of interest dining the
last fortnight having rendered it necessary that we
should till our dramatic columns, which we never like
tAi leave in blank, with anticipations as to the huture,
it, remains for us to notice shortly the various perform-
ances during the past week at the principal theatres,
reserving to ourselves the right, on future occasions,
to criticise at length the more important of these
Christmas entertainments, for the pu►pose of cso►.i-
dering what their influence may be on the progress
of the various branches of art in this country.

Toys are the great attraction to children, and chit.
dren, naturally enough, are the great attraction of
the toys wide,' form subject-mutter for the Dittitv-
LANK pantomime. It is entitled harlequin Hum-
ming-top, or the Land of Toys. There is an army—
two aunties—of juveniles in the opening, disguised us
tops and hats, who tight like heroes in mortal and
laughable combat. There is a child's story-book
in the pantomime proper, whose leaves bud forth
with a series of bantlings, prettily dressed as Cin-
derella, Puss in-boots, and other diameters dear to
the infantine mind. And there is a whole l'anto.
mime family—Charn, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and
Columbine—complete, but of the smallest dimensions,
and imitating their bigger namesakes very winningly.
Altogether the chiltimn carry oil the honours this
Christmas in Drury Lane. The fun allotted to the
full-sized performers is rather slow. The grown-up
pantotnimists, inticed, seem approaching to years of
discretion—awl what worse can he said of them ?
The boxing-night audience Odiously kept up the
charter for uproar; and the gallery-gods—emulous
of the clients out of doors—snowed paper flakes
thickly over the pit (luring the evening.

The Christmas piece at the HAYMARKET is founded
on the nursery tale of" Silverhair and the Three Bears."
The mythological part is tar too tedious, but it intro-
&tees us to smile beautiful scenery, and the change
from the ruined abbey to "Lotus Lake" is worth a spe-
vial visit. A novel feature amongst the dramatis per-
son►e is the versatility displayed by the ( Urn (Mr.
Henry Marshall). Ile produces strong comic effects
upon the violin, on which he is a most skilful per-
former, and his imitations of Mr. Robson (whose
" plints" he burlesqued) greatly amused the au-
dience. The ludicrous caricature of the camp at.
Cleobleam was excessively droll, with its carbineers
upon donkeys, and a regiment of boy-grenadiers, in
which every soldier was the merest " Little Tod-
dlekins. " The " Haunted Chamber" had also most
successful incidents, with its ghost of the Clown
lighting a " Coreican-Mothers" style of duel with
the real Churn. lint this enjoyment of these and
other capital " bits " is spoiled by the piece being
protracted too long past the midnight hour. Fully
one third of it should be omitted. We may add
that. Miss Mary Brown made a very pleasing
Ce/antbine.

It need hardly be said that Mr. Platiche's burlesque,
Once eepon a Time' there were Two Kings, at the
I.v.•E vt,was completely successful, mil added another
to his list of victories in the regions of burlesque. Yet
the materials of which the present piece is composed
are very slight, and atberd but few opportunites for
the exercise of that happy wit and easy now of ele-
gant diction which aro the distinguishing character
isties of the author's works. Possibly, however, he
may not have judged it neeessnry to put forth all
his strength when, as in the present instance, he is
so ably supported by the genies of "spectacle," im-
personated by Mr. W. Beverley, whose new scenes
rank among the happiest eft; Tts of the tend!, and
are the chief attraction of the piece. In design, as
w.ll as execution, Mr. Beverley displays an origin-
ality of thought, as well as a power over the material.
which entitle him to take high position amongst
the artists of the
injustice
day; and in our opinion
it is the height of mjastice to consider a gentleman
of so much ability a= a mere decorator, or to lose
sight of the great merit of his works, because they
are necessarily of so perishable a character. The last
scene of the second act is a masterpiece of painting,
arrangement, and pwspective and the concluding
scene blinds the tit ectators with its magnificence, and
impresses (bent did they have, indeed, been permit-

SATURDAY,

ted a glimpse of fairy land. The costumes, too, are
excellently conceived and executed : a more happy
idea was never suggested than that of attiring the
personages of burlesque in that strange mixture of
Roman armour and flowing periwigs in which our
ancestors, at the beginning of the last century, de-
lighted to portray themselves—verily, we thought
sir Cloudesley Moven had left his marble canopy in
Westminster Abbey to figure on the boards of the
Lyceum. The dances ure beautiful. In short, to
our mind, Mr. Mathews' is the best Christmas
entertainment we have yet seen.

The Christmas piece at the Ancwit is called
Number Nip, ur the Spirit bride. It is a dramatised
version of one of the numerous legends of the Hartz
mountains ; the scenes being laid in Germany and on
the shores of the Mediterranean. It is supported by
the talent of Madame Celeste, Mrs. Keeley, Miss
Woolgar, and Mr. Paul Bedford, for whose abilities
parts have been written. There is a very witty
dialogue, especially where the author puts into the
mouth of Mrs. Keeley some bard hits at " wife-beat-
ing" husbands ; but there is scarcely enough of hearty
roaring fun in the incidents. The scenery and dresses
are in a more highly-finished stye of picturesque
illustration than has been customary at the Adelphi.
The figure-dance of Madame Celeste, in which she
portrays a Spanish bull fighter, recall some of her
best efforts in the part of Miami in The Green Basle r.
It would be an improvement to Number Nip if a
more copious dialogue was given to the actors em-
ployed in it.

The Of.vmric pantomime is:the work of Mr. Tom
Taylor. The introduction is clever, the scenery very
good, and the masks excellent, the best, indeed, we
have seen for many years. It is with no small plea-
sure, moreover, to us old-fashioned folks to witness
once mole a pantomime in which there is but little
speaking. The barlequinade is poor, partly owing
to the absence of novelty, partly caing to the in-
efficiency of time Harlequin, elen. and Pantaloon.
We must, however, notice with infinite approbation
the effiirts of the Columbine (Miss Wyndham ), whose
expressive pantomime and graceful dancing will
alone amply repay a visit to this theatre.

The pantomime at the l'ittxcEss's is put upon
the stage with great cam. The introduction is
mousing, but there is too much speaking, and the inces-
sant falls and slaps interfere touch with what fi,llows.
No expense has been spared to render the harle-
(minute as effective as possible. Mr. Kean hal re-
imported from the Porte St. Martin at Paris'la clever
trick of furnishing at a moment's notice an un-
furnished apartment, originally, we believe, invented
by Mr. Bradwell at Covent Garden some years ago.
Many of the comic scenes are very well connived, and,
if they be found dull and heavy, it is attributable to
the barrenness of the Clown (who is nothing but a
clever tumbler), rather than to any want of energy
on the part of the manager. We humbly beg Mr.
()scar Byrne's pardon for having last week sus-
pected him of an intention to reproduce a hackneyed
subject. The portion of the pantomime committed
to his charge does him infinite credit. The evolutions
of the children who represent the Coldstream Guards
are perfectly marvellous to behold,—in short, the
counterfeit presentment of the camp at Chobham
is by far the best part of the Christmas entertain-
ment at this theatre. The scenery, by Messrs.
Gordon, Cuthbert, and Sanders, is sadly indifferent.
It is a matter of surprise to us to find that the
management retrogrades rather than progresses in
this department.

Christmas at the STRAND also is enlivened by a
child's pantomime, Harlequin Nutcracker. or the
World of Toys, whose author is Planate, and whose
moral is sanitary. Mr. Flexmore, that most audacious
of tumblers, takes the part of Clown, and, though the
limited stage somewhat circumscribes his agility,
capers and frisks to the infinite wonder of the au-
dience. During his late visit to I'aris he seems to
have put more mercury into his heels and more
indiarubber into his joints than ever.