THE THEATRE.
A PUPPET SHOW.
Mn. GAnt Wrmetesos's Puppet Show, which the curious may see for nothing at Messrs. Heal's, is one of the moat charming little theatrical performances that I have ever seen. It is both fresh and erudite. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson have made all their puppets themselves. These represent, more or less, the traditional commedia del arte characters : Pimpinella, a kind of child's version of Columbine; a clown, a Pantaloon, a nice apple-checked old lady, a Scotsman in a kilt and a swash- buckling bravo in a cloak and high boots, a negro and, chief of all, Harlequin. During a great part of the performance Mr. Wilkinson plays a mandolin in front and exchanges remarks with the children in the audience. At this he is an adept, never giving way to the bad manners of sowing off innocent questioners. There was not very much in the " book " of the plays on the day that I saw the show, but this was, I think, because there were some particularly small children in the audience whose one idea was to " see the toy men dance," their sense, both of wonder and rhythm, being thus extra- ordinarily satisfied. There never was anything so agile as Harlequin. I think, indeed, the most sophisticated of us gave a little gasp of delight when he contrived his Transformation Scene, lighted his coloured wax candles with a taper that he held in his hand and conjured flowers out of empty green tubs. Nor were the children less delighted when the very professorial Pantaloon was barked at by the string of sausages or when the beautiful, gaudy, black slave wheeled him off in a wheelbarrow which he had made poor Pantaloon believe to be a taxi.
In one of the episodes there is a sword fight of amazing realism between the swashbuckler and the Scotsman. The two very small children who went with me were much concerned, because they considered that the toy men were so much too wonderful to be allowed to hurt each other. They hardly dared breathe until, at the end, the combatants were reconciled.
The performance lasts about three-quarters of an hour. Anyone who has a children's party in view at which there are to be, besides sophisticated schoolboys, small, romantically minded children, could not do better than induce Mr. Wilkinson to give his show.
The little theatre with its black and orange curtains is charm- ing, and Mr. Wilkinson's simple patter and mandolin playing, and the technique of the " wire pullers," are perfect. I wonder if he ever contemplated adding fairy tale characters to his collection of fantoccini. I cannot help thinking that this would be an ideal way of presenting such tales as " Beauty and the Beast," " Tomtit Tot," or " The Three Bears."
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