Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-28 00:00:00

THEATRE ROYAL-THE NEW PANTOMIME.

On Saturday night the reign of the new Pantomime
began in the;Theatre Royal, Considering the unusually
large number of rival attractions displaying themselves
in all the public halls of amusement throughout the town,
the attendance was probably greater than might have
been expected. The performances of the night opened
with the comedy of " Delicate Ground," in which Mr.
Villiers sustained, with appropriate ease and nonchalance,
the part of Citizen Sangfroid, a character which Charles
Mathews hss made remarkable, and which, in this
instance, lost but little of its effect in the hands of Mr.
Villiers. The pantomime commenced about eight o'clock,
when the expectation and anxiety of the younger specta-
tors, who crowded the front of the boxes and pit, were
reaching their climax. We have already briefly described
in outline the plot of the pantomime; and we hope few of
our readers have so completely forgotten the legend of
" Puss i❑ Boots " as to render any revival of it needful,
although we perceive that Otto Spekter's pictorial version
of it forms one of our new Christmas books. The scene
upon which the curtain rises, the Den of Discontent, where
Geumbitina (Mrs. Walton), with her ill-humoured con-
clave, isencountered by the Fairy Thankful (Miss Oliver),
is well got up,, with appropriate gloom and horrifying
grimness. A pretty landscape of the mill and distant
country follows, in which we ara introduced to Ralph,
the miller's son (admirably performed by Mrs. Power),

ffho receives, with the contentment of true filial piety,
the Bole legacy his father has left him—his Cat. Of the
Cat, the famous Puss in Boots, performed by Master S.

Lauri, we must say some few words, at least, of the
commendation which the realisation of so highly-import-
ant a personage in the drama deserves. The young
artist entered, vs it were, into the very dep'hs of the
feline nature, created for himself the abstract idea of the
animal Cat, and then constructed its outward presentation
with a ♦ery pre-Raphaelite exactness. It very well
brought out the scene which followed in the palace of the
King (Mr. Appleby), where the miller's son, now arrayed
as the Marquis of Carabas, is presented to his majesty,
and falls at the first glance in love with the Princess (Miss
Edwards), who, it need not be added, returns his ardour
with a passion equally sudden. One of the prettiest and
most graceful incidents in the pantomime is the Dance of
Reapers, which shortly after succeeds, and which, for its
scenic background, as well as the performances of the
dancers, presents an object of attraction such as no piece
we have ever seen excels. Passing over the scene in the
Ogre's Castle, where the Ogre (Mr. Rignold) is duped and
devoured in the shape of a mouse by the ever wide-awake
Cat, the transformation scene, where the Fairy Thankful
comes in to cut the entangled knot of embarassments, is
as gorgeous a display of lights and colours as ever drew an
involuntary burst of app!ause from a Christmas
assemblage. Then, the climax is, as it were, inverted,
and becomes a new starting point. Instead of Ralph and
the Princess Grumbleina, and the King, we have Ilarle
(Signor J. Lauri) ; Ce!umbine, (Miss. Lauri) ; Mien,
(Signor C. Lauri), and Pantaloon, (Mr. Power.) We
have never seen the fun of the pantomime kept
up in more lively and incessant fashion than in

the mad succession of humours which follows. Perhaps
a greater number of scenes and hits of a peculiarly
local character would have rendered this portion of

the piece more effective, but there was nothing slow,
heavy, or dragging. One or two local scenes, such as
that spot very familiar to all frequenters of the Theatre
Royal, in which one entrance of St. George's Hall, the
back of St. John's market, and portion of Q teen's-square,
are principal objects, were recognised with much amuse-
ment and applause. The most effective, however, of
the local passages was the Rivington water scene,

in which the Clown subjects that questionable liquid to a
series of chemical tests, the result of which, after all man-
ner of tadpoles, frogs, and other reptiles of an amazing
size have emerged from the dark depths of the field,
is a sentence of public condemnation, which we
are bound to say, the universal acclamation of the house
seemed emphatically to ratify. The pantomimic closed
with a splendid tableau, representing the Lotus Lake of
the fairies, and an allegorical group, typifying the 'pro-
tection of England to the oppressed and helpless, and her
vengeance upon Indian ferocity and cruelty. Many of the
allusions and hits in this latter part of the pantomime
are not remarkable for freshness or novelty, and perhaps
the libretto, generally, has less force and point than that
of several of its predecessorA. But, so far as the
resources of the Theatre Royal were concerned,
we have never seen a more effective pantomime.
The performers wore excellent, and, making
allowance for some of the inevitable obstructions

and imperfections of a first night, the mechanical opera-
tions were ;rapid and successful. The scenery designed
_ _

and painted by Mr. R. Dearloye, jun., and Mr. G.
Dawson, was as splendid as any theatre could exhibit.
The masks and other properties got up by Mr. Bromley,
were peculiarly effective. The machinery was managed
by Mr. Cawdrey. On the whole we feel bound to pro.
rrounce the pantomime a successful one, and especially
successful in those characteristics of scenery and effect
which are the points most likely to be criticised, and
most needful to secure the approbation of the spectators.