It rarely falls to the lot of a young and promising author to be the son of "our greatest living actor" (for so I saw Sir and it seldom happens that a young play Henry Irving characterised a few days ago), writer is so lucky as to have his first important work staged as Peter the Great is staged at the Lyceum, and yet with all these advantages and the still greater one of having each part taken by the best ible exponent of it, I am fain to confess it was a dull performance, and but for its wonderful accessories I doubt if it would uvea month. Irving is wonderfully powerful and is almost continuously on the stage, but the piece is too gruesome altogether. "Were it not for the ray of brightness Miss Ellen Terry brings to bear on the part of Queen Catherine the whole piece would be too unbearably dreary. One hears the scream of a child being run over and killed, the groans of unfortunate prisoners being tortured, and what is worse one sees them, as they are brought in covered with blood, and finally, after Alexis, Peter's son (most ably played by Mr. Taber, an American and a new comer), has been shot by his father's stern decree, his dead body with glazing eyes is brought in, and about two minutes is allowed to look at it before the curtain finally down. That the scenery and staging are perfect goes without saying; in fact, it seems it would be impossible to go further, as the stick Peter uses is the famous and_historical ''Doubina" once used by the Peter of real life. One always expects accuracy at the Lyceum but never before I should think has such detail been studied as this.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.