The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-25 00:00:00

SADLER'S WELLS 71-IEA7R.E.

A dramatic version of Miss Braddon's novel,
" Run to Earth," has been produced at this theatre
under the title of "Stolen." The adaptation has
been well done, although various alterations and
liberties have been taken with the original tale,
some of which, although necessary, cannot be looked
upon as improvements, as they rather tend to
cloud the plot than to simplify it. The principal
part, Jenny Milson, the street ballad singer, was
supported by Miss Hazlewood with much effect,
but had she dressed for the part a little more ap-
propriately the effect would have been heightened.
A fashionably-made cotton dress and a black
lace shawl is not quite the costume of a street
vocalist. As Lady Eversleigh:and Madame Brewer
she was also very good, and, taken altogether, we
have to compliment Miss Hazlewood for her
performance, which was one that called forth loud
applause from all parts of the house. Mr. J. H.
Fitzpatrick, as Larkspur, the detective, acted with
judgment and care; and Mr. Robertson, had he
infused a little more life into the part of Victor
Carrington, would have greatly improved it. Mr.
H. Perry was but an indifferent Reginald Eversleigh,
and Mr. Loome and Mr. Smythe supported the
parts of Sir Oswald and Black Milson in the true
Victoria style. The piece has been very well put
upon the stage, the scenery is well painted, and the
dresses for the most part appropriate. The house
was crowded in every part, and at the fall of the
curtain Miss Hazlewood had to acknowledge the
flattering applause of the entire audience.

TILE DESTURCTION OF MESSRS. GRIEVE
AND 2'ELBIN'S PAINTING ROOMS.

The fire which, within five weeks of Boxing-night,
demolished many dazzling scenes of enchantment,
is one of the calamities that might seem to be
specially meant to dispel the glorious theatrical
illusions of youth. The names of Grieve and Telbin
are well-known as those of the most industrious
planners of elfin homes, bowers of bliss, dwellings
of delight, and temples of eternal beauty, in the
whole world of stage experience. The atelier of
these celebrated painters is—or, as we most re-
gretfully say, was—in Charles-street, Drury-lane;
a neighbourhood well fortified against idle visitors
who interrupt the labours of art. Even the
managers of theatres, it is said, very seldom cared
to pay a visit of inspection, however desirous they
might be of knowing the progress of work
in hand for pantomimes, burlesques, or other
spectacular pieces. But though conveniently hidden
away behind rickety blocks of houses, and only ap-
proachable through the most forbidding streets and
lanes, the painting room of 'Messrs. Grieve and
Telbin had scarcely a second of its kind in London.
Mr. Calcott's, on the other side of the water, is,
perhaps, the only similar establishment, apart from
any of the theatres, that could have come into ri-
valry with the spacious and busy studio in Charles-
street, which was built by Mr. Grieve some twenty
years ago, on a freehold plot of land, fifty feet
wide And about a hundred deep. The building,
now a mere shell, was two storeys high, the lower
part of the premises being used as stables. In
these, it is believed, the fire broke out at seven
o'clock on Monday morning, and one or two of the
horses were burnt before they could be got out of
their stalls. The premises are on the north side of
the narrow and squalid thoroughfare, and reached
back to the almshouses of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields.
The flames, which, as we have said, are supposed
to have had their commencement in the stables,
spread very rapidly, and all the workshops above
were soon in a blaze. Openings in the floors for
raising and lowering scenery helped the draught ;
and there was hardly a lapse of five minutes from
the outbreak before the carpenters' shops and
colour stores, with their inflammable contents, were
lurning furiously. Oils and varnishes, painte]
canvas, and dry wooden framework, invited the
spreading flame, which had seized on everything in
the place, and reduced it to a total ruin bef ire the
immense bodies of water thrown upon the blazing
mass were of any perceptible effect. Yesterday
the scene was deplorable. Trampling the black
slush on the
.charred and dripping frag-
ments of floor now open to the sky, fire-
men lowered bits of half burned and wholly
ruined scenery to those beneath, who piled them in
a van for removal. Much of the canvas painted for
the forthcoming pantomime at the Theatre Royal,
Dublin, was among this wreck ; and, as a dismally
curious and interesting episode, it may be men-
tioned that this is the second year that Mr. Telbin's
work, intended for the same theatre, has been
destroyed ; he having been engaged in painting the
Dublin pantomime scenery at her Majesty's
Theatre when that establishment was burnt to the
ground. Piece after piece of spoiled painting came
sliding down from the first floor of the Charles-
street premises, yesterday morning, as a miserable
handful of speetators, inhabitants of the wretched
street, looked on. Ideas of beauty must be spon-
taneous or instinctive ; for a little girl, whose
taste had received no better education than
Charles-street affords, looked on in melan-
choly admiration, at the marred handi-
work of the scene-painter, and said, with a
sorrowful heave of the voice, to an infant who
sucked his thumb reflectively by her side, " Oh !
look there, Billy dear ; isn't it a pity ? All them
beautiful picturs !" She was like Alton Locke, The
had his first glimpse of natural loveliness through
the magic crystal of art. In her case the crystal
was dimmed and shattered ; but she saw into it with
her round, wondering eyes. There was, unfortu-
nately, the furnishing for more than one Christ-
mas stage in the workrooms of Messrs. Grieve and
Telbin. The Prince's Theatre, Manchester, has
lost two important scenes. of the pantomime ; and
this is the more mortifying since they were finished
two or three weeks ago, and might have been taken
away. On the other hand, it is matter of congra-
tulation to Mr. Calvert that all the rest of his pan-
tomimic scenery was painted in another building.
The two scenes destroyed were the work of Mr.
Grieve. The drop curtain painted by Mr. Telbin
for the new Globe Theatre, soon about to open,
has been consumed ; and the Gaiety Theatre has
suffered a more serious loss in the whole, or
nearly the whole, of the scenery designed for
the extravaganza of " Roberto." An elaborate
Watteau scene, a view of Palermo, another of
Pandemonium—which was to have been the great
scenic hit of the piece—and the interior of a palace
have disappeared in a shower of sparks and a cloud
of smoke, as have many adjuncts in the shape of
wings and borders required for the fitting of a new
stage. But the Gaiety's loss can be repaired in
time for the opening, which, according to the an-
nouncements, will take place at Christmas. The
scenery for the comedy had not been begun when
this fire occurred.

" Building and contents insured in the North
British and Mercantile Fire Office" is an announce-
ment which will be read with some gratification ;
but it may be questioned whether a loss such as
that which Messrs. Grieve and Telbin have sus-
tained can be covered by any insurance. The in-
trinsic value of wool, canvas, and paint has little
to do with the worth of time, thought, and labour.
It is only to be hoped that a month of arduous
work will enable these clever and energetic artists
to recover all that they have lost.

MR. H. J. BYRON AT MANCHESTER.—The
author of innumerable burlesques, Mr. H. J. Byron,
having latterly succeeded more legitimately as a writer
of comedies and dramas of real life, is acting at the
Theatre Royal, Manchester, to crowded and appreciative
audieuces. The part chosen by Mr. Byron for his own
performance is that of Spraggs in " Blow for Blow ;" and
the unanimous verdict has been highly in favour of his
representation, the theatre being nightly filled.