The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-27 00:00:00

SURREY.

'I he transpontine atmosphere is congenial to pantomime,
and Messrs. Shepherd and Creswick, the lessees, and always
successful caterers of this *pular establishment, never
allow a boxing-day to pass without:producing one of the best,
if not the best, specimen of this peculiarly English class of
entertainment, which mark the introduction of the Christ-
mas theatrical season. " Harlequin King Holiday, or the
Fairies of the Enchanted Valley, and the King that Wunce
Killed a Cat," which is the title of the Surrey pantomime for
the season of 1859-GO, is quite equal in all its main features
of broad burlesque, grotesque situation, uninterup table puns,
satirical hits at follies, fashions, and fears of the day
—clever harloquinade, wonderful transformations, first-rate
daneing, and last, but not least, beautiful scenery and artis
tic groupings, to any of its predecessors. Perhaps there is
less of plot in the burlesque introduction than usual,*the
whole point turning on King Holliday, tho sovereign of the
merry boys, and King Carewuncekilledacat, the ruler of
the miserables. There is, as usual, something of love and
of jealousy—persecuted lovers who, after escaping a thou-
sand difficulties in propria persona, are permitted to win
happiness by a probationaryepervitude in that doubtful state
of existence, Harlequin and Columbine pursued by their
relentless enemies, Clown, Pantaloon, and their attendant
sprites—but always to the disadvantage and discomfiture
of the pursuers. Thore are numerous combats between the
hostile armies of the rival potentates, but although that of
the Miserables is composed of giant spearmen, whose height
would have made Frederick of Prussia indeed believe him-
self invincible, they are most disgracefully beaten by a com-
pact band of diminutive but well-drilled little lady soldiers
who form the body-guard of King Holliday, and who are
represented by thovery efficient corps de ballet under Miss
Elizabeth Webster, assisted by Mr. Chapino's juvenile
troupe. One of the most important characters in the bur-
lesque is a certain continental magician, the friend and ally
of the King of the Miserables, one Grimgribber, in the
shape of whose nasal organ, formidable spearlike moustaches
and general make-up, and above all his ruling propensity
to get into quarrels, we are at little loss to discover a strik-
ing likeness to a powerful continental sovereign. This im-
portant personage, who belongs to the questionable order
of beings, and seems to have as many friends in the lower
regions as on earth, is the chief plotter and planner of all
the mischief, but finds himself outwitted at last, and com-
pelled to undertake the unthankful office of Pantaloon. Mr.
E. Marshall played King Carewuncekilledacat, and with
great humour parodied Mr. Chas. Kean's Lear, Charles Fox
of the Campbell Minstrels, and Mario in some of his leading
characters. Mr. J. Lauri as Harlequin, Mr. Crouste as Clown,
Mr. Tapping as Pantaloon (in the absence of J. Lupino, who
had been cast for the part, but was prevented by illness from
attending), Miss Lizzie Marshall as Columbine, and the
Zolekis as sprites, formed a pantomimic corps rarely excelled.
Amongst the scenery the Fairies' Home in the City of Love
and the Transformation scene, the Enchanted Valley and
the Lake of Silver Waters, are specially deserving of notice,
as being perhaps the most successful efforts of Mr. Dalby's
pencil, and displaying a combination of light colour, and
groupings of the highest order of stage art. The house was
full to overflowing-, and with an audience entirely composed
of King Holiday's adherents. There wore one or two un-
rehearsed effects before the curtain—the most noticeable of
which was a voluntary chorus, in which pit, boxes, and gal-
lery joined, of the two popular songs, "Willie, we have
missed you," and " Wait for the waggon."

ST. JAMES'S.

The production of two new pieces in addition to a panto-
mime, on Christmas Eve, proved that the zeal of the ma-
nagers of this theatre is still unflagging, while the charac-
ter of two out of the three novelties showed that experience
has not yet taught them wisdom in selection, or art in pro-
duction. Moro preposterous nonsense than " Garibaldi's
Englishman," a farce which commenced the evening, was
probably never seen. The notion that an English dealer in
pickles who had some contract with the Italian army, should
pass himself off on his return as " Garibaldi's Englishman,"
and that he should in consequence become the hero of
those mistakes and designs only to be met with in farces,
might have been made funny enough had it been treated by
Mr. Coyne or Mr. Morton, who know every trick of the
school ; but the genius on the present occasion, who is de-
scribed in the bill as a "popular author," has given the
merest conventional outline of plot, set in the dullest dia-
logue, and laden with the heaviest fun. Mr. Charles
Young worked hard, and did his best with a part from which
it was impossible to extract humour, and Mr. Barrett had
an opportunity of wearing that singular deformity of fore-
head which he imagines represents old age, and of being
generally bluff and hearty.
This damp and dismal farce was succeeded by a very
pretty, graceful, sparkling little sketch called the " House-
hold Fairy." Tho notion is originally French, but it has
been very cleverly rendered by Mr. Frank Talfourd, who
has supplied a great deal of telling, pointed dialogue, and
performed his work throughout in a thoroughly artistic and
satisfactory manner. The plot is as follows :—Julian do
Clifford (Mr. H. T. Craven), the last scion of an old family,
has run through all his means, has sold almost the last
stick of his furniture, and as he looks upon working for a
living as a disgrace, is about to commit suicide, when he
is interrupted by a knock at the door, and by the en-
trance of Katherine (Miss IVyndham), who recalls her-
self to his remembrance as having been found by him
when a child asleep in a forest, and since educated Band
reared by his grandmother, who is just dead. She
has now come, she says, to pass her life with him, her
adopted father. Bustling about in the most charming man-
ner, she soon contrives to throw an air of domestic comfort
over his rooms, and by her engaging ways induces him to
take part in some of her most menial oceupations. All this
time she sermonises him on the digr!,ty of labour, the neces-
sity of playing our part in life., kc., until he throws aside
all thought of suicide, deterr:iines to labour like a man, and
finding that the girl of 'whom he was enamoured is a jilt,
and has married arthther, he offers his hand to his "house-
hold fairy," Wile not only accepts him, but brings as her
dower his family estate, bequeathed to her by the relation
recently dead. Miss Wyndham played with great good
taste and discrimination, tempering her vivacity with a
sufficient touch of sentimentalism, and acting naturally
throughout ; she was very well supported by Mr. Craven,
who, somewhat nonchalant at first, warmed up with the
situation and showed considerable artistic capabilities. The
applause at the fall of the curtain was loud and general,
and the piece may be looked upon as a very well de-
served success.
We presume it was for the sake of the attraction of the
title that the author called his patomime "Punch and Judy,
or Harlequin and the Fairy of the Crystal Caves," for the
story has nothing to do with the old Italian street drama,
and the principal character, Punch, is dragged from his
proper sphere and made the hero of duller incidents, and
the speaker of duller witicisms, than have previously fallen
to his lot. Tho plot of the opening is totally unconnected ;
•but what we cleaned from it was, that Punch was engaged
by the Queen of Something to lead her armies against
King Humbug (called by everybody 'Umbug), that he
accepts, overthrows the most notorious humbugs of
the day, including Big Ben, the Palace Clock, the In-
dicators, the Great Eastern, and the Four Liverpool
Merchants, dethrones the King, and causes the trans-
formation. The opening, indeed, is remarkable for
nothing but its dulness and its length ; it is poorly acted too
by all except Miss C. Ranoe,whose delightful self-sufficiency
is really quite prepossessing. The transformation scene
called forth a great deal of applause, and looked as though it
had caused a large outlay; a portion of which might have
been judiciously turned to advantage on the contumes and
masks. The harlequinade went briskly enough, principally
through the exertions of Mr. Paul Herring, one of the best
of old-fasnioned Clowns; his companion, Mr. Alfred Glan-
ville, is neat and agile ; the Harlequin, Mr. Ash, is a fair
dancer and posturer, but ho should be instructed to wear
his mask constantly on his face ; and the Columbine, Miss
Fowler, and Pantaloon, Mr. Parker, are up to the average
mark.
Tho house was crammed to inconvenience.

SA'S
The Sadler's WellsD LER
company, who,WELLS. on their visit to
Germany in the past year, have shown the Berlin people
the humours of a jolly old English pantomime, showed us
last night one of the jolliest and most humorous that ever
a London boxing-night assembly came together to enjoy;
yet its fable is of foreign and Gorman extraction, the
" Little Man in Red," well known to the learned Brothers
Grimm, being introduced among the huts of the charcoal-
burners on the edge of the Black Forest, as a demoniacal
yet beneficent meddler in the affairs of one Hans, a very
ludicrous and love- lorn lout, who ultimately triumphs in
life by the possession of the golden goose. The costumes
and comic heads are of the very drollest, admirably con-
trasted and full of character—only to see these figures is
worth the price of a box admission ; but the supreme at-
traction is the scenery, prepared by the most tasteful and in-
genious theatrical artist, Mr. Charles James. Between the
lumineus glories of his " Golden Gardens in the Plains of
Plenty," and the concluding splendour, after the harlequin-
ade, entitled " The Palace of Peace in the Realms of Com-
mon Sense," we are treetee with several very beautiful pic-
tures, one of which exhibits a delicious moving waterfall,
besides the grass and foliage of dreamy fairyland. The
practical jokes and bustling incidents of the latter pact of
this pantomime contain allusions to every notable event and
topic of the day. Altogether, " Hans and the Golden
Goose" is an excellent pantomime.

STRAND,
Miss Swanberough having c.pparently a mission to turn
into burlesque all that is noble or touching in history or
litel•ature, has in due course taken the story of Tell in hand ;
but no reasonable fault elm be found with the way in which
her pact has executed her commission, for Mr. Francis Tal-
fourd ha's prlncipally directed his comic powers to the laud-
ablo task of mating tyranny ridiculous. Indeed, there is
very little AAA about this new Tell, except in the fact that he