The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-25 00:00:00

OLYMPIC.

This house opened for the Easter holidays with three
new pieces. The first, indeed, is stated to be only an
adaptation from the American stage, by Leman Rede,
but it may with much greater truth ba termed an
original drama, as not only is the dialogue re-written,
but the plot itself is considerably changed and im-
proved. The principal object intended by the
talcnted adapter of the piece, was to intro-
duce Mr. Marble, the eminent Transatlantic
comedian, in the character of a thorough Kentuckian,
one of the earliest settlers in the back woods, " half•
horse, half-alligator, with a pretty considerable dash
of lightning," the connecting link as it were, be-
tween the red man and the civilised dweller in the
city. Samson Hardhead, therefore, "the game-cock
of the wilderness," is in fact the only character, the
others being merely auxiliary ; and though 111 r
Marble in this, as in all his efforts, kept up the in
terest of his audience, yet we could have wished
.that
the stale Jonathanisms had been less frequently in-
terspersed, and that something more akin to real
life and real feelings had been substituted.
The plot is of the most common-place character.
Colonel Mereville (Mr. Mellon). a landed proprietor
on the Ohio, is attacked in his residence by a war-
party of Indians, and his son is in his presence
knocked on the head and thrown into the river.
That son is rescued, and, at an after period, proves to
be Samson Hardhead. Until the discovery is made,
however, he settles in the neighbourhood of his
father's house, forms an acquaintance with Roderick
(Mr. Binge), a young gentleman affianced to his
sister, and, as might be expected, regards with a
corresponding hatred Dorrington (Mr. F. Burton),
that friend's rival, and Clara Mereville's (Miss Field-
ing's) rejected suitor. Then there is Nance Butler,
" the Yet:ow Flower cf the Forest," Hardhead's ina•
marata, most felicitously represented by Miss Kate
Howard. Dorrington, chagrined at the refusal of his
suit, determines on the murder of his rival ; and with
the assistance of Dodger (Mr. Tumour), afterwards
conceals the purse, &c., of his victim in the cabin of
Hardhead. The latter is taken into custody, and, on
the presumptive evidence, condemned to die, when, in
the nick of time, the Dodger informs upon his prin-
cipal ; and while he is punished all the others are re-
warded. A petite comedy, entitled The Plague of
Plymouth, went off very trippingly, Mr. Roxby- sus-
taining the principal part. Then followed a dance by
Miss Wright, very beautifully executed, so much Et),

indeed, that she was punished with an encore. The
amusements of the evening concluded with (we Onto
the bill) an entirely new, novel, and perfectly origi-
nal, grand, romantic, chivalric, burlesque extrava-
ganza, neither adapted, nor taken from, the French,
but founded upon the well known history of the
" Seven Champions of Christendom." The thing, as
we could gither, was entitled St. George and the
Dragon, and, if we recollect a newspaper paragraph
aright, was announced as being written by a gentle-
man of " considerable literary celebrity." We have -
no desire to know any other of the author's doings,
for a more vapid effusion than that under notice we
have never witnessed; and we were only sorry to
observe Miss Davenport, Miss Kate Howard, and
other clever artistes, trying ineffectually to impart an
interest to halting metre, unbrightened by the most
distant approach t 9 an idea. We have remarked with
regret the absence of Mr. Waldron from the boards
of this theatre, and we rrgret his absence the more,
that none seem to have been engaged able to supply
his place in the coming season.