THE THEATRE.
"THE RUSSIAN BLUE BIRD" AT THE NEW SCALA.
I DO wish that agreeable foreign entertainers of the more intimate sort would not in their innocence choose the Scala for their entertainments. The Scala has rather a fine interior, but it has the fault uncommon in theatres of being rather grim. It is very easy to understand and respect the archi- tect's reaction against the usual "explosion of all the upholsterers," but in his indignation he did not manage to build a sympathetic place for an evening's entertainment of the type either of the marionettes or of the new Blue Bird.
The effect of the theatre's grimness was allowed moreover to sink in, on the evening I went, during the course of rather long waits. However, though on that occasion I cannot say that they provided the total of a "good entertainment," the Blue Bird company did some very clever things. Their sense of colour is delightful, they have a wonderful command of simple yet startling stage effects, and they seemed to me to sing quite admirably. Some of their costume is extremely strange.
"The King called for his Drummer," for instance, they dressed in a variant of Henry VIII. dress which in the case Of the women developed into huge rolls of padded material. I wish they had not recalled the Red Queen in "Through tEe Looking Glass," but they did.
Russian peasant songs were delightfully sung and danced by a group of women dressed in wonderfully coloured shawls,
aprons and kerchiefs. The standard of dancing both here and in other turns is marvelously high, and the same per- formers contrive to sing well, dance with great accomplish- ment, and look beautiful, a combination very rare in England. There is no doubt about it, there are admirable things to be seen at the Scala.
Could not Mr. Yuzhny do something to stop what seem like leaks in the vitality of the performance as a whole ? He might, for instance, increase his orchestra, he might make his introductions to the turns shorter, and above all,
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