The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-04 00:00:00

DRURY-LANE THEATRE.

The production of " Macbeth" will certainly be regardeill
as the great event of the season, and moat justly so, he;
cause it has been placed upon the stage in a manner wil°l4

without parallel since the termination of the g

Macready's management of this our national theatre. WI

havo Messrs. Falconer and Chatterton kept faith with

public. They promised that "Macbeth" should be

formed in a manner worthy the transcendent genius of I
immortal Shakspero, and they have redeemed that pro:01

to tho very letter. That the utmost confidence

placed in the announcement was plainly shown by

immense, we may say with truth, the extraordinary OP;
ber of persons who s:ruggled for admission to the theatre.
last evening. For upwards of an hour 'previous to the`
opening of the doors the crowd assembled at each of tlie°
entirely blocked up the respective thoroughfares, and olie:
the time for opening arrived the rush was terrific. I°l'4a
of persons anxious to pay their money to witness
dramatic performance, it bore the appearance of a 1343e/1;
that might be imagined supposing the directors °
the Bank of England had intimated their Well;
Lion of making gratuitous distribution of five pound 11°14
to all who chose to apply for them at each of the doll "
the establishment in Threadneedle. street. In a few nailillle.
4
every available seat in the interior of the theatre was °leo;
but the declaration that the house was full was of Lio a/
is
to those still struggling outside. Thousands insisted 1100,
paying their money for standing room, and this, of Ottro%
led to another scene as extraordinary as that we half )
mentioned. When every square inch of space in di. 1
of the house had been appropriated, it was -
that quite as many as the theatre would hold VI
remained in the various lobbies, and the only way (3;
dealing with such a disappointed and by no means g°l).
tempered congregation, was to persuade thc;na to pass °PA
through the various passages leading to the pay-oilice; 11/1'
there receive back the money they had insisted on piYi°s.
The scene was altogether, as we have before remarked, esi
traordinary, and one that no person could for a moo°s
have anticipated. ,
It is, of course, quite unnecessary to enter into detail whit : i
respect to the Macbeth of Mr Phelps ; it has its thousand° of
admirers and the usual number of opponents. To our thing
m ;
g he embodies the spirit of this most complex charnete. ;
and gives all its personalities, if he does not entirely retlll6l
the long, intricate, and varied portrait of a guilty, and ~140
certain periods a remorseful man. It will, of course, vo
admitted that the part is a difficult one, and until we °e° e
better representative of it, we shall consider it an admirable
performance. Miss Helen Faucit's Lady Maebellt 1
marked with an intensity of expression; but without i° ,
the least wishing to detract from her acknowledged abilitil
we are inclined to the opinion that characters of a ge1111:
nature are more especially her forte. In proof of ail;
although her acting was exceedingly fine in the 80111
act, the great sleepwalking scene was the el
feature of the performance. Her exit, uttering tile
words "To bed, to bed," was magnificent. Mr Creavriel
as Macduff, gave us a very praiseworthy performance; an l
he deserves the highest commendation for the manner 1
which he, like a sensible man, avoided those stereolge4
i
ranting passages invariably uttered by actors of lesBeB ~
ability, solely for the purpose of " bringing down ill-
house." Mr Rayner's Banque; was good; and with a trir
compliment to the representatives of the wierd aieterlll
Messrs. Belmore, Edmund Phelps, and Mr R. Itiosil;
we pass over the rest of the performance, remarking ti/s,
each did their parts excellently well. Ths saner/
by Mr W. Beverley was superb, more particularly al,
opening of the fourth act—the pit of Acheron, It iti:
fine Salvator Rosa like scene, with high frowning rc'ei,nt
and streaming moonlight. The entrance and tower
Macbeth's castle is a noble painting, and the banqueti"
hall is also remarkable for its barbaric grandeur. 5136,
last scene, " A Plain before the Castle of Duneinallef
with the assault of the besiegers, is a wonderful effortt.
of stage illusion, and called forth tho most enthusitiSt-
plaudits.
At the fall of the curtain all the principal perforoler:
had to appear to acknowkdge the applause they had °
i justly won.

CAPT. SEMMES AND THE NEW ALABAMA .-1
few weeks ago the departure from Liverpool t 0 °g
place of a steamer called the Laurel, with about 100 neelllg
board, many of whom had served with Capt. Semmes' d,
was also hinted that Capt. Semmes was himself on h°i'tto
A. despatch just received in Liverpool from Madeira 0
the effect that the Laurel had been lying in Funchal V1:0
for several days previous to the 17th, and early on tPe
morning of that day she steamed out to sea and met a 1310
screw steamer (understood to be the new Alabama)' °d
board of which were transferred the crew of the Laurel
cargo, consisting of guns, ammunition, &e. The sere
steamer then made for the direction of Bermuda.
IMPORTANT TO RAILWAY EXCURSIONISTS."'
the Clerkenwell County Court, on Wednesday' ~
case was heard of some interest to railway excursionisio d
The plaintiff was Mr Frank Taylor, a compositor, wile °11.4e5,
the London and North-Western Railway Company I°l.,
odd, for luggage lost on the 30th of July last. It apPef'"Def
that on the day in question the plaintiff was a passenger. to
Marcus's excursion train to Shrewsbury—that he get:Pior
a carriage at Euston Station, and that after being in iiLlo
some time he and others were ordered to leave that s'eP-,;(1
and get into another, as it was found that it was a dafousa
carriage, and therefore unsafe to travel. By this °blot
of carriages the plaintiff last his luggage, although g
told him at the time he would see it all safe. For the let
fence it was ruled that the railway company were not 11 d
as it was distinctly stated on the excursion handbills itgo
i ll
the railway tickets that excursionists must take their;.olo
gage at their own risk. The solicitor fur the defeu"alt
quoted a case from a recent number of the Law t
he
similar in every respect to the above facts (exceptift
lii
damaged carriage), in support of the plea, after will
Honour decided in favour of the defendants.
„,„
THE LANDSLIP ON THE NORTH-EASTER, .je
extensive landslip which occurred on the main line ofoo
North Eastern Railway at Sherburn, near Durhayit'ope
Saturday, and which caused the entire northern trafpe
and
sent round by Bishop Auckland, has, by the enefgl
tie
perseverance of the engineers and other officials, and bi,ailf
employment of a great number of labourers, been sPe',,,or‘
followed up and remedied, and the main line at lilt': ;41/
was ready for traffic on Wednesday evening, Bove°
before it was anticipated it could be done,