The Sun. — 1845-03-25 (London, England)

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 improved. The principal object intended by the talcnted adapter of the piece, was to introduce 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, between 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 interspersed, 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 warparty 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 Fielding'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 principal ; and while he is punished all the others are rewarded. A petite comedy, entitled The Plague of Plymouth, went off very trippingly, Mr. Roxby- sustaining 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 original, grand, romantic, chivalric, burlesque extravaganza, 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 gentleman 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.