Punch (73.1877)

RECEIVED WITH THANKS

TO CLE0PATR4, ERASMUS WlLSON, AND THE KhBDIVK.

OUR REPRESENTATIVE MAN.

[Retrospective, Nuncspective, and Prospective Remarks on Theat-
rical Matters generally, in an all-round Letter to the Editor.)

Sir,—When noticing the new piece at the Folly, I should have
mentioned the funniest thing in The Creole—funny in conception,
funny in realisation ; and that is where the two Sailors sing " All's
Well! " to the Commodore in the last Act. This tickled me hugely.
Haying done justice to those who did justice to themselves and
their Authors, I now proceed to say a few words on the Olympic
programme.

If Good_ for Nothing continues to be the lever du rideau at the
Olympic, it is well worth going to see on account of the fresh, un-
stagey performance of Miss Gerard in the role of Nan. This young
Lady has true artistic feeling, and is not afraid of sacrificing
a pretty face to the exigences of the character. With careful
study she has, I venture to say, a fair future before her in a certain
line for which her voice, figure, and manner peculiarly fit her. The
little Comedy in one Act (as the French say, never using the word
"farce") is well played all round, both Mr. Pateman and Mr.
Fobbes Robertson being very good in it.

The Moonstone, by Mr. Wilkie Collins, must owe its success to

its dramatic situations. I have not read the novel, and therefore
am better able to judge of the piece. It is undoubtedly clever, but,
somehow or other, unsatisfactory. The situations are startling,
coming upon you, that is, suddenly, after a considerable rest, and
re-fixing the attention just as it is beginning to wander away
from the subject. Mr. Harcourt has made himself up so as to
suggest a family resemblance between Mr. Geoffrey Abblethwaite
and the present Archbishop of Canterbury. Mr. T. Swinbourne,
as the Detective, is as sly and cunning as clever Detectives ought
to be. For the moment he enters he suspects everything, in-
cluding the water-bottle, which he examines most carelully,
probably submitting it to a mental microscopic analysis. By
the way, I wonder if Mr. Wilexe Collins got the notion of a
Detective so fond of gardening from one of Gaboriau's novels, either
La Corde au Cou, or La-Clique Doree f I fancy it is in the former,
but I won't be certain. However, a similar character does occur in
one of Gaboriau's where the people who wish to employ the Detec-
tive go to his house aux environs de Paris, and find him in his
garden dress and slippers, among his flowers and his family.

Mr. Neville is excellent throughout. Since Rob Rrierly and
Henry Dunbar, he has never been seen to greater advantage. Per-
haps Miss Pateman has by this time lost her train—it was a very
express train. In her great scene with Mr. Neville, where she