The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-12
CHINESE
THESP |ANS.
Their New Theater Is
Opened.
A DRAMA OF The DAY
War and Love Mixed in the Grand
Performance Of the Opening
Night.

| The new Chinese theater on Liliha
street played to large business for the
first time last night. The house has a
seating capacity of about 1900 and con-
sists of a parquet and gallery. General
admission is Is cents.
| There are no footlights, the illumfna-
ltion coming from six oil lamps suspend
ed Immediately above the stage. The or
lchestra is situated in a place especially
reserved for it at the back of the stage.
lin other details the fixtures are on the
| scale of those at cheap vaudeville
house. with the exception that every
thing is of the plainest possible order,
mo attempt at ornamentation having
been made.
| The spectator on making his entree 10
the house during play hours is confront
ed with a sea of straw hats and smell
tof wet paint. The next thing that at
tracts his attention is the music rendered
lby five performers, who trif1e, with ap-
parent gusto, with unnameable instru-
l1nents 1t is a bad place for man with
a headache.
| The majority of those present are Chi
nese interspersed with few natives
Japs and curious haoles. There are few
women and many children.
! With a flourish of changing instruments
the curtain rises ana six men fearfuily
and wonderfully CARRIED are discovered
In the act of mortal combat.
They fight, they die, and the house is
filled with the shrieks of the dying,
which scent the air with blood The
emperor's troops are routed by the reb-
els and their leader appeals in vain for
lreinforcementS.
| In the second act a man appears in a
garden; he is hungry and has helped
himself to lichee nuts which are not his
lown. He gorges till he falls asleep. Two
ldamSelS enter and regard him with sur
prise and scorn. He is evidently, in their
destination, bad fellow. They avoid
him.
Suddenly one of the ladies approaches
him and hits him on the head with her
fan. He wakes up. She runs.
The ladies do a pleasing fan act for
item minutes and then ask the intruder
what he does there.
He tells them that he is the son of a
millionaire on his way TO be examined
for the bar and adds that he has been
robbed.
/ The lady says that by strange coinci-
dence she is a millionaire's child, too,
and proposes to him then and there.
They kneel down on rugs brought for the
purpose by the property man and the
(, engagement is on.
L
liner which would have done credit to a
Cherry sister and no eggs are thrown.
4 After the song the man makes use of
1.-THE orchestra for ten minutes and the
lgirls father appears on the scene clad
richly in whiskers which WOO the floor.
The young man touches his father-in-
law for $1,000 and passes his examination
with honors in mathematics and surgery,
after which a wedding occurs and the
gentlemen who dust the pots and pans
feelingly render Lohengrin in Chinese
Also the man is initiated into the illus
trious order of the peacock's feather.
When the husband gets a sufficient
stand-in with the family he seeks to re-
Itrieve the defeat of the imperial troops
by the rebels, in the first act. He calls
for volunteers and appoints a wood
chopper commander in chief of the re.
tcruits.
More fighting in the third act and the
total defeat of the rebels by the wood
choppers men (the wood chopper weds
the maid of the bride as reward fol
!. Iyalor) and the curtain falls mid a fan.
fare of frying pans.
over the stage reposed a legend which
read, He Who Patronizes This Show
Will Become Rich; there was nothing
mentioned, however, about the state Of
. the managers health.
, The wings of the stage We're thronge6
Will ABOUT HIty SuperS or men WITH
"a pull at headquarters-it was difficult
to determine which
Everything went as smoothly as could
, be desired, considering that it was frs
. night and the actors did nothing wrong
but sing.
That the enterprise is in touch with the
IOrpheum circuit, a ,refreshment bar snt
a Free list entirely suspended notice
would seem to indicate. A remarkable
, Feature of the entertainment to stran
ger was the fact that the performances
was entirely devoid of applause