Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-04 00:00:00

AMUSEMENTS, &c.

Tu AMPHITHEATRE.—This night concludes the engage-
ment of the trio of talented performers who have en-
livened the Amphitheatre during the past fortnight. It is
long since such a combination of theatric power was seen
upon our boards, as the engagement of Mr. Webster, Mr.
Wright, and Mr. Paul Bedford presented, and we feel
regret that many causes co-operated to prevent the attend-
ance of as numerous audiences each night as we expected
to have seen. During the past week there has been a more
varied list of entertainments than in the preceding,
when "Janet Pride" was performed every night, with one
exception. The past week we had Dian Bourcicault's new
drama, "The Willow Copse," apiece possessing all the
elements which produce success among popular audiences,
and in which Mr. Webster's acting fully equalled his per-
formance in "Janet Pride." In the "Maid of Croissey,"
Mr. Webster reproduced his original character of Sergean
Austerlitz. Mr. Paul Bedford also revived a part in which
his name and his acting have been long familiar to the
public, that of Blueskin, in "Jack Sheppard," in which
his peculiar characterist;cs are connected in the minds
of most play-goers with the equally original and
nimitable Jonathan Wild of the late 0. Smith.
Several of the peculiar Adelpbi farces gave Mr.
Wright an opportunity of displaying to the • fullest
effect his unapproachable realisation of Cockney humou-s
and oddities. While mentioning the performances of
London celebrities, we must not omit to add that our local
comedian, Mr. Baker, in his own class of characters, did
not suffer by comparison, but maintained his credit as a
representative of the "old fogey" parts not to be surpassed
by any actor. Indeed, justice to the local performers
generally obliges us to say that all sustained their parts
well, and some with no common deg-ea of merit. Mr.
Villiers, in the comedietta entitled "Who's your Friend ?''
represented a fine gentleman of the George the Second
days, with a nonclealapl grace and easy effect which would
have been deserving of commendation in any actor. Mrss
Page, during the recent engagement, has evinced capa-
bilities which we did not believe she possessed; and Miss
Sedgwick has proved herself a most valuable accession to
the corps of this theatre.
GORDON CUMMING, THE LION HUNTER.—Oar advertis-
ing columns announce that this very remarkable individual
is about to transfer himself for a short time from Hyde
Park-corner to Clayton-square. Few popular celebrities
ever had the fortune to be more talked of than Gordon
Cumming, and even at this late period of his renown, his
appearance in Liverpool cannot fail to create some
sensation. Those who have nerves strong enough to hear
the recital of wrestling matches with lions, battues of
panthers, trials of strength with boa constrictors, and ele
phants bagged like pheasants, can now hear of all these feats,
and many others more wonderful still, from the lips of the
conqueror himself, who displays more terrible trophies of his
prowess than Hercules ever won in all his labours, or
Bacchus brought home as Indian spoils.
ZOOLOGICAL GrAanays.—At this season of the year,
when all out-door amusements are of vital importance to
our well-being., it will be a great pleasure to many of our
readers to learn that this day (S'aturday) and evening,—
there will he an '• extraordinary amount" of entertainment
presented at the ab)ve gardens, in honour of the American
Independence, when many distinguished " foreigners," at
present visitina the town, are expected to be present. A
Saturday's entertainment at this place is of so rare a nature,
that no doubt, many of our classes who leave their business
early, will avail themselves of the opportunity to do honour
to the Americin nation, and support one of our best con-
ducted places of healthful recreation.
ROYAL PRINCZSS'S THEATRE, LONDON.—The marvellou
creations of Shakspere's fancy, presented in his play of the
" Tempest," revived by Mr. Charles Kean, and produced
in its new form on Wednesday evening, have at length
found a worthy exponent. Of course, the student who
lives in a world of his own may still revel in tae gorgeous
imagery with which the poet has clothed his sublime
conceptions, and may tax his imagination to conceive
of what kind might be those beings of the e-arth
and the air whom he has invested with superna-
tural powers, for the purpese of carrying forward the
action of the drama. B this abstract pleasure satisfies
scarcely one in a., theueeed. The mhsea,
handle. The ideal must be tangible to them, and the
nearer it approximates to the real in appearance, the
better do they appreciate it. Hence the necessity of scenic
appliances to the stage, which, as public taste improves,
must keep pace with it, and with the advancing
intelligence which is the result of a more extended educa-
tion. Mr. Charles Bean has been -one of the first to
seize upon this idea and to work it out, and there
can be no question that he is thereby becoming himself
a great public instructor through the medium of
the stage. A hundred years ago, Shylock in ruin c and a
powdered wig did not offend the rude dramatic taste of
the period, but what would even the "gods" of the trarr-
pontine theatres say to see Hamlet stalk across the stage
in smalls and a swallow-tail coat. Between tha taste, how-
ever, which tolerated " This is the sea, this is Athens,"
chalked on a black board, in lieu of a representation of
them, and that which is satisfied with scenery and cos-
tume such as are employed at the majority of our theatrue,
the difference is only in degree; and in introducing those
innovations in the shape of scenic effects, which Mr.
Bean has been condemned by some critics for doing, as a
departure from the canons of dramatic propriety, he has
only attempted to supplement what was generally felt to be
wanting to render dramatic representations more real and
life-like, and with respect to appointments, more in accor-
dance with the advancing enlightemnent of the age. That
the attempt has proved eminently successful is a proof tha•
the masses appreciate excellence when it is set before them,
and the experiment tried on Wednesday evenine may be cited
as not the least successful of the kind upon which Mr. Kean
has ventured. As usually represented, the "Tempest" opens
with Miranda and Prospero on the island, and only from
Miranda's appeal to her father, that he shauld allay the
storm he has raised, and her description of what she has
seen, can the auditory infer there has been a ship wrecked.
It was, therefore, a happy idea to intmduce a scene before
the commencement of the action of the play, representing
a storm with a ship sufficiently real in appearance to
render the illusion complete, rocked about on the foaming
billows, and illuminated by those weird ligh`s of which
Arzelis afterwards made to speak. And a
marvellously
contrived scene this i!, to which the closest descripticn
would do faint justice. In the first scene of the play we
have other effects as beautiful as they are navel and
surprising. It is a real sunrise, with all the gradations of
light and colour; it is a real abating of the " roar of wild
waves," for they subside under your eyes, and the tide
recedes as naturally as if the sea shore were really there,
leaving only the golden sands for Ferdinand to cross,
under the guidance of the spirit Ariel. With respect to
Arid, we have a creation approximating to the eon-
conception cf the poet. Now a phantom flame of fire
darting across the stage like an electric flash, then rising
radiant from the sea, bathed in light, flitting hi her and
thither, and floating harp in hand in the air, without visible
agency ; appearing at the least expected times, and in the
most improbable of places; sometimes a bat, sometimes
an owl ; but ever shadowy and spirit-like, until released
from the earth after doing his master's biddings, he is seen
in the distance suspended in mid-air, bright as a meteor ;
Arid is a constant surprise from his entrance to his final
exit; a brilliant and artistic embodiment of one of our
immortal poet's finest creations. Pass we now to the
third act, in which occurs the banquet, conjured up
by Prospero for his visitors. The scene is a barren,
rocky plain, dark as midnight and as cheerless, but
suddenly the light breaks ; flowers spring up and
burst into blossom ; trees grow out of rocks, and develope
branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits ; cascades and water-
falls form and roll liquid silver in a constant tide, and the
who'e Is bathed in a flood of light, warm end cheering as
light is only in southern climes. Then we have an army
of strtn4e shapes, Naiads, Dryads, and Satyrs, the like of
which we have seen in mythological paintings, but never
on the stage before, which presently dance a weird branle.
unlike anything mortal, and anon disappear in a bower of
flowers, formed in the twinklirg of an eye, and which also
constitutes a banquet table for the royal company there
assembled. All this is marvellously contrived and happily
executed. But what is to be said cf the masque, in the
fourth act? In this we have half (lympus impressed,
and beneath a rainbow, a gorgeous group of female figures
suspended in air around lino, whose car drawn by peacocks
of irreproachable briliancy of plumage, is itself a marvel,
and who, in regal magnificence there, looks indeed the very
Queen of the Olympic divinities. How does she come ?
H, w does she go ? We know her attendant bowls are
real flesh and blood, for we can see thous breathe, though
their linat s are motionless as eta' n sty ; but by what film do
they hang? And the urchin Cupid, with his torch !—a
live boy of smallest proportions, and the unliveliest of
propensities surely—suspended, too, and quiescent t This
scene alone is a great achievement, and deserved the up.

roarious applause it obtained. Anotber grand effect is '
reserved for the last scene, in which Night descends. The
spirits of the island are released from 'durance in the enchant-
ed island ; morningbreaks, and discloses the King's ship in-
a calm, on the quaint poop of which•stands Prospero to
deliver the epilogue; which done, the ship gradually sails
off, the island receding, and .Ariel is seen, bathed in a
flood of light, balanced in mid-air on invisible pinions,
bidding adieu to his master. All that is here described
actually takes place. Nothing is left to the imagination,
and we quit the place impressed with a conviction that we
have been resident for some indefinite period in fciry-
land, and have there made actual acqnaintance with the
Arid Shak.peare dreamt of, and with the personages be
created. We have confined ourselves to giving a succinct
description of the " Tempest," considered as a spectacle.
We must reserve our notice of it as an histrionic repre-
sentations. It remains for us to add that Mr. Bean, the
magician whose wand had conjured up this vision, was
obliged to come forward, with Ariel, to receive the plaudits
of a crowded house.—Star.