The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-27 00:00:00

SURREY THEATRE.

The Christmas festivities at this favourite place of
amusement commenced last night with Colman's
pretty drama the Mountaineers, Mr. T. Mead playing
Octavian, and Madame Tonisi Floranthe. As far as
we could judge amidst the noise that prevailed
throughout the house during the performance of the
piece—which, we may observe, was got through in a
remarkably short space of time, for the gods were
madly impatient for the pantomime—these actors sus-
tained these, the principal parts, very ably. Both are
veryexcellent performers, and will doubtless rise in their
profession. Many of the scenes were enacted in dumb
show, and when the curtain fell the greater part of
the audience seemed to experience a relief,
and that at length they were about to
obtain the gratification for which they had
paid. After some twenty minutes or half an hour
had passed away, during which time the audience
seemed to roar and howl like an angry and stormy
sea—after two or three fights in the pit and gallery
had sub!ided, either from the pure prostration of the
physical powers of the combatants, or from the sum-
mary and elevated ejection of the weaker, and, per-
haps, less offensive gladiator, and just as the band had
commenced what appeared to be the overture, and
the noise had slightly subdued (though a fight was in
full swing in the pit), a "slight quarrel" took place
before the curtain, which, to use the words of the play-
bill, "must be settled by the public." The affair took
the audience by surprise, and as the prologue, for such
it was spoken by Burlesque (Mr. Raymond) and
Pantomime (Mr. Rogers), contains some smart hits
at the prevailing passion of the day, we give it
entire :
" A scuffle heard behind the curtain. Enter Bur-
lesque, who attempts to prevent the entrance of Panto-
mime. Burlesque is dressed splendidly, but outre.
Pantomime is dressed as a gentleman, his head being
made up as a Clown's. He has a boot-jack in his hand.
Pantomime asks—

" Are you so sage that you resolve no more
To laugh at that which tickled you of yore?
Shakspere's neglected, Comedy's grown stale,
Weighed, and found wanting, by chromatic scale.
All cat•a-wauling now! that not by the natives ;
The harvest's cleared by foreign operatives.
Let not Burlesque, then, kick out Pantomime,
Be not ungrateful, let me bide my time."
B urlesque rejoins—
" You ought to blush at this fool's motley crew;
A sorry knave, a thief, with mischief big,
All petty larceny, quite infra dig.
No aspirations from the great and grand,
Like we of Charing-cross and of the Strand,
Who stab, in lofty verse, the people's vices,
And, like Reformers, work at lofty prices!
PANT.—Tbis fellow is a fool! without the rouse
To know what 'cis that brings a Christmas house;
'Tis Folly's bells that sound a joyous chime,
To cheer our hearts, and bid us laugh at time;
He shakes his bauble on his magic staff—
Makes children of us all by childhood's laugh.

Not wiser than our fathers, let us fairly laugh;
Care,' says the song, is but a silly call !'
I wave my wand [waves a boot-jack], let it not be
in rain;
Beneath my spell—be children all again !"
The pantomime, which shortly after began, is entitled
The .Iloon Queen and King Night; or, Harlequin
Twilight, and is from the pen of Alfred Crowquill.
The plot is as old as the hills, and doubtless the follow-
ing quaint description of the different characters and
the parts they respectively play will be more accept-
able to our readers than any attempt of eurs to epito-
mise the one or to apply ordinary historical rules to the
other :

Immortals—King Night, Mr. J. W. Collier; the Moon
Queen, the inventor of moonlight walks, Miss Eleanor
Bromley; Silver Ray, Miss Laporte; Silver Ripple,
Miss Daly; Light-the-Lake, Miss Bloomfield; and the
other little Rays, that the Moon can raise at any time,
are named Sparkle, Scintillate, Silver•tinge, Tip• the
clouds, Light-us-home, Guide-the•barque, Dance-the-
wave, Silver-drop, Sleep-on-the-Lake, Tip-tinge, Silver-
leaf, and a whole host of the bright, the light, and the
beautiful; Electric Light, Mona. J. Lupino (his first
appearance at this theatre).

Mortals—Baron Blazen4f, afterwards Pantaloon, Mr.
Naylor ; Kurlyvviggus (the Baron's barber, with his
tongs always too hot), Mr. Rogers; Myrra, afterwards
Columbine, Madlle. Luiaa; Fritz, the Lover, afterwards
Harlequin, Mons. Lupino (his first appearance at this
theatre) ; Grindumlyn, afterwards Clown, Mr. Dew-
huret (his first appearance at this theatre); Huskygrain,
Mr. Rivers.

The first scene to which we are introduced is the
Cavern of Night, in the centre of which we behold a
gigantic chamber-candlestick, surmounted by an
enormous extinguisher, which rises slowly, and dis-
covers the King of Night upon his throne—sitting
cross-legged upon the sconce. His helmet is an ex-
tinguisher, encircled by a bright and glittering
diadem. His sceptre is a latch-key. His dress is
alternate bands of black and red. lie descends from
his seat with a solemn air, and waves his latch key
sceptre. Ilis dark troops rise through the candlestick,
and form into line.

King Night and his army, who ►ear extinguishers
upon their heads and on the top of their spears.
Master and imps resolve to aid the Baron in his
love after singing a distich, in which the following
verses occur—

" Gents who got very little to pay,
Rather disliking the brightness of day,
Go to casinos to banish ennui,
Then sneak off to bed with a little latch-key.
Dark! dark! dark!
Very dark.
" Policemen vanish from every beat,
Taking up, Heaven knows, bow much cold meat—
Good people snore, but the rogue aed the rake
Find it much better to keep wide awake."

We are next introduced to a very gorgeous moon-
light scene, filled with enchanting fairies in superb
attire, with an immense moon in the back ground
" blazing away " in a fashion to dazzle the eyes with
the shivering prismatic introduced fur the first
time into the magnificent orb of night.
The scene was much applauded. These good
and gentle creatures resolve to circumvent the
nefarious practices of Night and summon "electric
light," a brilliant looking sprite, to their aid. We
next behold the Baron at his boudoir, who summons
his vassals, who shake and tremble at his voice, and
they sally forth under cover of night to carry off the
miller's maid. The miller's house follows, where we
become acquainted with the lovers, who encounter
the usual pantomimic drawbacks to their felicity.
The scene is suddenly changed by the sprite
to a fairy bower and lake the most
beautiful and effective scene in the piece.
The lovers arrive in a shell on the lake, about which
float the court of the Queen in nautilus shells. The
court and the lovers are disturbed by the night, but
escape under the cover of the night. In the succeed-
ing scene the transformations take place, and the
pantomimic fun begins. Many of the leading inci-
dents of the year were well hit at. For instance a
great Russian bear is laid hold of, and several pieces
of his shaggy coat torn from him, on the back of
which were " Turkey," " Poland," " Hungary," An
amusing caricature of the skating scene in the opera of
the Prophet caused much laughter—an indiscriminate
crowd skating about the stage with a velocity perfectly
alarming. Some of the tricks were good, but one or
two worked stiff-11y, and thereby lost their point, which
was otherwise good. On the whole, we may say that
the pantomime was very successful. No zeal on the
part of all engaged in its presentation was wanting
to render it so, and the managers appeared to have
left nothing undone to please the audience of this
season. Mr. Dewhurst was a very effective clown,
and performed some feats with considerable skill and
smartness. Mademoiselle Luiza is a pretty Colum-
bine and an excellent dancer; and Mr. Lupino
proved himself a very agile and experienced Harle-
qt6a. The house was crowded to excess.