The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-29 00:00:00

LYCEUM.

This time last year we chronicled the success at
the Lyceum of the Chain of Events, a piece of six sets, and
occupying, in the playing, the whole of the evening. The
"hit' of so great a novelty has induced the same manage-
ment to repeat the experiment this year: and a crowded
and curious house attended last night to elucidate A
:grafts% History, "in nine chapters.' That is to say,
there were nine acts, which took five hours to play, the
curtain rising at seven and falling at twelve.
On this occasion the result is not so satisfying. As we
said last year, we are very strongly of opinion that •
dashing assault of the unities is very desirable. When
• French company attempted three or four years
ago ti give us in London the Conte de Morns!
and Monte Christ." as one piece, extending over
two nights, the British taste was appalled, and the
speculation was • failure. In time we might have one
piece per season and be content and take our theatre. as we
take our courses of lectures , but we must begin by de-
grees. The Main of Events was • capital commencement
of a plan worth trying—of • plan of developing character
and story on the stage just as in novels ; and, as far as re-
gards further testing of patience sad further educating
metropolitan audiences into • new system, the strange His-
tory was very duly and properly constructed. It is, how-
ever, absolutely necessary in long plays, as in short plays,
that they should be good plays ; and, judguss
from the obvious tone of the house last nignt, it
' is doubtful whether the new piece is calculated
I to accredit the theory on which the authors have proceeded.
It is too long for the plot and the interest ; and, melan-
eholy as it is to make so recondite an observation, the in-
evitable criticism must be that judicious curtailment is
desirable. We question, however, whether in this instance
the management had not set out with the determination of
rendering the drama completely subsidiary to the spectacle.
Mr. Beverley had painted nine wonderful scenes; and a
play would appear to have been provided for these scenes.
Certainly that is the effect: the play is not a hit ; while the
scenery will be the talk of the town fur months. The authors
were not called, and were not mentioned; the painter
was enthusiastically shouted for at 'he fifth act, and walked
across the stage triumphantly, as the hero of the evening.
The Lyceum has undoubtedly exceeded all its former
efforts: Mr. Beverley has surpased even his fame. The
scene at sight of which the whole theatre rose and de-
manded his presence, to receive their plaudits, represents
a leafy foreground, on which villagers dance,—behind a

lake into which the sun is toning. This t • aquisittly
painted. The tint ant is performed in an Alpine valleys
with blue water in the di-tanee, a superb scene. Not le•le
beautiful is a moonlight scene, in the foreground centime
which us a chateau. But the ay./d'art/ere ut what we may cats
the exhibition is in the eighth act,a sceue representing *water-
fall in a wonl. Here is not only the "nee unattainable
"real water," trickling Irani a vast clii.tauct —the pen?. la
titre is wonderfully rendered—but on rust landscape itself
the action of the plats go on—the character* actually play-
ing in the beautiful landscape. It is net the ordinary
Beverley scene, with the stage in trout; thnstage and tbe
picture are one ; and so daring an originality, derivable as
touch from Managerial as train erttstle ingenuity, is en-
titled to take the audience by storm. '!'here etc
other realities. In the Chain of Ernnh there was a
huge ship, wrecking in a tong.. sea, and c tug down,
ice sight of the appalled pit ; in the Nramirs ifistory there
is au Alpine avalanche, thundering from the topmost flies,
and threatening the orchestra. NVe may have Ittst the legi-
timate drama, but our coups from mechanic. compensote.
All this brilliant scenery and all these great " effects" pre-
serve the theatre from an Hauer failure; but they haid,y
constitute, with a play which staggers a slow length along,
a success. And for the first time it is oh...evade, in a
theatre in which Madame Vestris superintend -, that tine
scenery contrasts unpleasantly with dingy appointments.
The dresses were not only unworthy of the Livetina, they
were unworthy of any first class London theatre. In • ball
rootu all gilt, and guts, and satin, iadiestinuCen in calico and
gentlemen in nankeens, cud danced (sadly.
Of :he drama itself, it is difficult to give a clear account.
Here and there it is French adaptation ; but it is tint from
any distinct French piece, unit must rank as original
writing. The scene is in the Alga and Brittany—period.
French revolution—and the action extends over 20 year'.
':Madame Vestris is a Vivanilire of a French regiment,
mulled to a sergeant by roily' drum" (mat, jimmy ii Gs
mititaire), and in possession, when matters open at the
Lyceum, of two children. In the first act, or
chapter, the mother is separated from t'e chil-
dren ; the village where they, with the regiment, us
halting, is atteekto by the Austin,,,,, then at aur wit It We
Repuhlic ; the mother is wounded; the children are ear-
tied to the mountains by a friend (Miss St. Utorge, who
acted charmingly). In the second veeile the another is lyiug
ill in an ilia ut a fever from her wound. In hi r sickness
she has observed the landlady secrete money, which ob-
servation she speaks of. In the third scene (where the
avalanche is episodically, and to no particular purpose, in-
troduced) she is about ',joining her children, when
gensdanues arrive to arrest her for a robbery at tile inn;
the seemed money has been miowd, and shc is suspected.
Between that and the neat seine fifteen years tlapse. The
mother has been ell the time in prison as a this; ; the chil-
dren under the care of a !''rarer couuteu. '!'here is a boy
and a girl; and their matrimonial advent urrscollstitu'e the
after plot. 'these are complicated, in a French and supere-
rogatory way ; and we need out describe them. It is suf-
ficient to say that in the fifth act the mother has obtained
a release from her dungeon, re appears on the scene to
aid her hulthand, who ilea become, as soldiers did in those
days, a colonel, in the niamigentriat of her utl-pring, and
that the young lady and young gentleman are eventually
married happily, and according to their chuice ;—the mural
of the piece being rendered satiefactery by the aged eunple
- ging to admit the Driest to the endorsement of the
drum-roll ;—and poetical justice being appeased up the dis-
covery of the real rubber of the golden hoarder the inn,—
this criminal being, of course, the hither of one of the
young persons who marry the children of the injured
Woman.

it
Of the acting is only necessary to say that there is but
one good part—that of M idame Vestris—which she pl ,ye
consummately. Mr. ebar:es Mathew. has nothing to do
suited to Lim—no points to make, nu bustle to sustain, and
no illo.looo* to eulorce. Mr. ). Matthews has nothing to
do but lie down, chronically inebriated, and I.erpetua:ly
smoking ; and, though he does realise a character by dint
vi constant appearance, in every act, it is one totaly
disconnected with the progress of tits story. Mr. James
Bland, who used to roar and sage with such
tine results at the Haymarket is lamentably out of plate in
• tame corporal. Of the sixteen other ladies and gentlemen
who perform in the nine chapters we eau hardly speak,
since, if they produced no impression, it may be because
they had no impres,ionable business to perform ; hut what
they had to do they did not do well : none knew Muir
parts. We never saw a first night su bungled ; and that is
to be taken into consideration in an estimate of the play de-
rived from a first night's experiences. Such as they are,
however, we state them, with the expression of our ..stonish-
' meat that, whatever their reliance on Mr. Beverley, the
accomplished authors could have been misled into a trust in
such materials. Better acting and more briskness will pass
the Strange History on for a month ; bet it. can scarcely
become that enduring attraction which the outlay ou it
would deserve.