THE THEATRES.
POWER reappeared at Covent Garden on Monday, in a piece he has written for himself, called O'Flanniyan and the Fairies—" a Midsum- mer Night's Dream—not Shakspeare's." Phelim O'Flannigan, ander the all-powerful influence of love, had made a vow to refrain from whisky and the shillelagh for a whole year ; which having religiously kept, at the expiration of his penance on the eve of his wedding, he resolves to do honour to his probation by exercising his forbearance at a neighbouring fair. But the spell under whose charm he had made his vow is the cause of his short-lived sobriety after its expiration. His bride-elect comes to the fair disguised as an old woman (a relented witch), to sell her darling Phelim a beautiful red nightcap she had knitted for him ; but the country-people make an attack on the sup- posed old witch, and threaten to duck her in the river. Phelim, like a true gallant, rescues the female—not knowing who it is he is protecting; and a general fight ensues, in which Phelim's party are victorious. To treat his brave companions and drink to them, follows of course; and the end of the matter is, that Phelim being strange to whisky, is only just sober enough to find his way home, as the song says,
" With a heart soft with whisky, A head soft with blows."
In his dream he is haunted by the apprehensions of his bride's anger. The fairies or " good people," with a jolly friar at their head who keeps continually drinking, dance about the room : Phelim interposes, and finds himself transported into an English Justice's wine-cellar; whence lie is transferred to Lancaster Gaol for burglariously swallow- ing the claret ; and in a trice he is conveyed tinder the gallows, where the old witch brings him a red cap to wear on the occasion, which he has no sooner put on than he is whisked, cart, donkey, and all, to his own cabin-door : on it he finds a notice, signed by his intended bride, who has now become the wife of his rival, from which he learns that he has been missing eight days and has never been heard of. His despair is now complete: and so strongly has his dream taken hold of his fancy, that when the bridal party come to fetch him to the priest, before he is well out of bed in the morning, he receives his Mary with silent reproaches. An ecdaircissement ensues, and Phelim and Mary are happy.
All the fun of this piece is furnished by POWER. The opportunities
afforded for his quiet, easy, Irish humour, may be guessed from the story : how happily he avails himself of them, those who have ever seen him can fancy. He kept the audience in continual laughter. Some persons were startled by the absurdities of a dream being enacted—or perhaps forgot that it was an Irish Midsummer night's dream—arid ex- pressed their disapprobation ; but it was soon drowned by applauses ; and O'Flannigan's career will, we dare say, last us long as the " fare- well engagement" of the author,—for Powza, it scents, returns to America.
An amusing interlude, called The Assurance Company, in which a bevy of hoarding-school gills dress themselves up as soldiers, 111111 per- limn the manual exorcise, with Miss ToitPIN for their captain, and the buxom Aliss lisysasEv as drummer, is the only othet novelty here. Zazesizazu continues to attract, by its comical absurdities and scenic ingenuities.
Previous page
