The new burletta at the Olympic, Barbers at court—so long
an- pounced— was at last produced on Monday ; and turns out to be un- worthy of the expectations it raised, and the pains and expense be- stowed upon it. It is a clumsy English version of the incident so admirably acted on the French stage, where a barber who had plotted to cut the King's throat while shaving him, is made to take the place of his intended victim; the Monarch being content with frightening the traitorous tonsor by threatening him with the death he had planned. LISTON'S acting as the Barber-assassin is not equal to the situation, much less comparable with that of LEMA/TRE ; it wants that intensity without which there is no semblance of reality. The terror and appre- hensiveness of the Barber's son, and unwilling coconspirator, are much more vividly depicted by KEELEY. Moreover, the Barber is too sud- denly and on too slight occasion converted from a servile shaver into a sanguinary regicide. Grave as this censure may seem for a farcical adventure, it is nevertheless just ; for the objections mar the success of the fun, and make the difference between tine comic personation and mere buffoonery and grimace. The most irresistible drollery is that produced by a comic actor in a serious dilemma, if he seem to be really alarmed.
CHARLES MATHEWS is already more at home on the stage ; and an- other sight of him has confirmed our opinion of his talents. His per- sonation of Frank Poppleton, in Too Late for Dinner, is very real. H he is not completely the harebrained scapegrace whose vagaries are the effect of uncontrolled animal spirits and thoughtless gayety, he at least gives us the idea of a reckless goodnatured fellow, who indulges in these mad frolics to gratify the whim of the moment ; and this is the next kin to what we take to be the original idea of the dramatist. MATHEws is the gentleman without assumption, and the groom without vulgarity ; and in both he is lively and genial. He has the neatness and finish of JONES, without his stiff precision ; and the address and glibness of WRENCH, with more freshness and gentility.
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