The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-18 00:00:00

ADLLPHI THEATRE.

Mr. Mark Lemon has contributed a piece to the reper-
toire of this establishment which bids fair to rival in
longevity the most popular of those celebrated produc-
tions which never appear to lose their charm over an
Adelphi audience. This interesting drama, produced
last evening, bears the title of Sea and Land, and the
plot runs thue.—The inhabitants of a village on the
English cost (time, the close of the last century) are
all smugglers, or friends of smugglers, in connexion
with a merchant named Crouch, the " bad man" of the
story. This Crouch is enabled to do a world of mitchiet
in all directions. Hiving failed in a venture through
the untimely interference of the Government efficers, he
contrives to fix the failure upon Ned Bradley, a seaugglsr
just about ta quit his profession, so that poor Ned is
not only imprisoned as a contrabandist, bat runs
great risk of being torn to pieces by his
yellow-cantrabandists as a trailer to tlitir cruse.
Then he manages to learn of a !cern which occurred
some ten years back between Sir Thomas Burton,
ihe great gentleman cf the piece, and his own game-
keeper, and terminated in the death of the latter. The
scuffle loses nothing in the hands of Mr. Crouch, fer
though the gamekeeper was killed by the accidental dis-
charge of his fowling-piece, the ingenious merchant
twists the story into a case of murder, which he is able
'o employ in terrorent against Sir Thomas, thus melting
the woi thy Baronet lock very Ll and careworn, and
almost obtaining the band of his daughter, Miss Burton,
notwithstanding that young lady has bestowed her
affections on a well-looking young gentleman named
Msjor Brownie ite; However, with all his faults, Mr.
Crouch has one being in the world to love him. He
employa as a sort of spy a ragged girl, called Wild Meg,
whom in the largeness of his munificence he rewards
with an occasional shilling or sixpence, at last extending
his bounty to a donation of some tawdry clothes.
\leg, who is only knocked about at home by her father,
Shambling Will, and has never met with aught but rough
usage from her companions, regards with posittve ado-
ration the one creature who has given her a kind word.
When she hears that Crouch is likely to marry Miss
Burton she flies into an agony of jealousy, and frustrates
his plan by giving a faithtul account of the gamekeeper's
death, which she witnessed in her childhood, and when
at last he is led off to justice to receive the reward of his
misdeeds she falls dead upon the stage. Mrs. Keeley's
performance of Wild Mcg was stamped with ex-
traordinary talent. The part is not what may
bo termed a gracious one. It is the delinea-
tion of a semi-savage, tieing ragged, halfwitted,
yet with flashes of natural feeling occasionally illuming
the gloom, but it gives Mrs. Keeley occasion for a thril-
ling display of article skill. Mr. Emery acted the
young smuggler, Ned Bradley, with admirable propriety,
and Mr. Hughes and 0. Smith, as Sir Thomas Burton
and Crouch were, what they always are, excellent. Mr.
Worrell and Mr. C. Smith satisfactorily sustained the
characters of Major Browalow and Shambling Will.
The comic eleraent consists of a group, formed of
Mr. Wright, a retired cockney, who indulges in a yacht,
and engages Paul Bedford and Mr. Cullenford, two
Greenwich pensioners, whom he designates his cook and
housekeeper. how Mr. Wright enacts a cockney who
goes to sea, how he translates the nautical terms, how
he ultimately becomesttery ill, and is at last seen only in
a rear view, with his legs up in the air, and his poor
head over the side of the heaving vessel, he himself
being in an equally heaving state, must be seen to be en-
joyed. It keeps the house in a perpetual roar fur a long
scene, and he never makes his appearance after but the
laugh is renewed. Mr. Bedford, as a boatswain, also
obtains his share of the approbation, and this part of
the drama was singularly felicitous. Miss Kathleen
Fitzwilliam sang with great applau,se a pretty ballad
composed by Mr. Mellon. "A thunder of applause,"
says the Times' critic, " and an universal shout for the
author marked the conclusion of a piece which promises
to rival Green Bushes in popularity. Wild Meg, as
played by Mrs. Kt eley, is just one of those creations
which are likely to become a town-talk." The house
was crowded.