The Courtneidge-Holloway Com-yarly left on Tuesday and everyone who hag seen their really admirable artistry will wish them a bon voyage, coupled with hopes that they may not preserve recollections of Shanghai so unkind that they will not return to us. They had bad luck in coming on the heels of the Gilbert & Sullivan company, which, with a long run, cleaned us all out of ready money. To this alone was it due that the Courtneidge-Holloway productions did not always get the support they deserved, It is necessary ta go back a very long way to find any parallel to the uniformly high standard of their acting. We mention no names here; to do sd would be invidious; because the special feature of their acting was that the little st parts were as distinctive as the greatest and every member of the company seemed equally at home, -however different the character he played one night be from that of the night before. Great dramatic criti ies are born. But everyone who enjoys a good play can tell who ther it is indifferently, passably or superbly acted, though he may be quite unable to say why. In the latter cass he has a senso of the absolute conviction and truthfulness of the -representation; and this we all felt profoundly in watching the Courtneidge-Hollowa~ Company. Some plays, of course, appeared better than others, and also, of course, there were degrees in the acting. But always our visitors brought to their work an instinct for detail, an enthusiasm finely tempered by perfect taste and an ability to realize the parts they played that made their productions a@ rare pleasure..We wish them well, a. pleasant voyage and, we trust, ere long a return that will be welcome to many admirers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.