THE THEATRES.
THE week before the Holydays is usually balm) of novelty at the Theatres : they are so busy behind the scenes, concocting the magical changes to be wrought by Harlequin's bat, rehearsing tumbles and slaps, and planning larcenies and street-rows, and other incidental drolleries of the Pantomime.
The Olympic, however, has added two successful trifles to its stock of amusements. In the Bengal Tiger, FARREN personates a liver- dried East Indian, arbitrary, irritable, and suspicious ; and Mrs. ORGER a specious, canting spinster, who tries to entrap the peevish old fool into a marriage, for the sake,of his money ; but is foiled by an honest servant, (capitally played by licEr.Ey,) to whom she offers a bribe. The principal characters are disagreeable, though the finished acting redeems them ; the machinery of the plot, moreover, is as obvious as the subject is hackneyed ; but the poetical justice of the denouement overcomes all defects ; and the Bengal Tiger growls nightly, to the great satisfaction of the audience. The Ladder of Love is apparently a French piece of intrigue ; which has lost much of its piquancy in the process of purification. VESTRIS and CHARLES MaTtiEws in the costume of Louis the Fifteenth, and KEELEY as a comical little gardener, who sings it droll .ditty of a cock- robin), mid is aghast at meeting his wife dressed R5 a court lady and passing for the wife of a marquis, are:the principal points of attraction. The Christmas bills are not in general circulation ; but the other Peeping Toms seem to have drawn in their heads, and the curious varlet of Covent Garden is left without a rival. STANFIELD'S scenery must be something extraordinary, for it has positively elicited a puff front Mit:READY ! We are sadly disappointed to find that this is to be STANFIELD'S nrrueo to the lamps: let us hope it won't prove a last adieu—we shall be Grieved if it be. Harlequin Jack olaantern is the subject of the Drury Lane pantomime, and Whittington and his Cat are to figure on the Haymarket. The Adelphi is not yet announced, nor the title of the Olympic entertainment. Mr. FREDERICK LAwaENca has addressed a letter to the Times accusing Mr. RANGER of not delivering the dialogue of bis bad drama as he wrote it, and attributing its failure to the actor: but Ire does not make out a good case. He threatens to get it acted elsewhere. He Led better let it be forgotten quietly, and efface the recollection of his failure by producing something better : many a dramatist has bad a better piece damned, and wisely said nothing about it.
Previous page
