Show COMIC INCIDENTS e r 1 How Theatrical Performances are Interrupted by Odd Happenings The performance of a play like the course of true Jove does not always al-ways run smooth Interruption will constantly occur and whatever want of effect there may be in the play itself there generally plenty of it in the unrehearsed incidents They are frequently those touches of nature which make the whole house for the moment kin There are iiideea sarcastic people who consider the unrehearsed effects as the best part of the show and wish that the plays themselves could be only half a = 5 natural One source of these effects is the strong hold which the itlusiou of the scene takes upon unsophisticated unsophisti-cated spectators Wo have all heard of the aailor who seeing the virtuous virtu-ous heroine of the piece beset by wretches jumps over the footlight to her defense An adjura ion to Let that gal alone wont yer T has often been heard at the East End and over the water It is not always gallery occupants who are thus overcome In The Lights o London Lon-don there is a sene where a police ivan comes upon the heroine lying in a doorway taint and helpless His business is to arouse her by a shake and then to administer restoratives One evenipg a well to do and pretty dame in the stalls misinterpreting the friendly shaking shak-ing screamed out Leave her alone you brute I much to the con sreruation of the audience and of the representative of the law A comic incident caused by the absorbing ab-sorbing interest of a piece occurred not Jong ago in the performance of the sensational play Mankind One of its scenes is a coffeehouse the separate compartments of which are occupied by various people Here two villains abstract from its lawful owner a will which is immediately afterward snatched from them through a window by a woman One night when the woman appeared at the window intent in-tent on this purpose the villains were startled by receiving from a i sympathizing spectator in the pit a warning in a thundering voice to look out for the old woman A critic records that toe heartiest laugh heard for many years past in a theatre was when on the first night of New Babylon another sensational play an outraged pro fessional in the gallery roared out to the inexperienced actors of the villains parts who were about to force open a safe just where they could be seen from the outside Why dont you pull the bUnd down7 Seldom is illusion carried so far as to disturb the majesty of the law as embodied in the attendant attend-ant policeman but this was once the case at a performance of My Wifes Bonnet In this piece it will be remembered one of the actors plays his part from a seat in the house The constable on duty not aware of this arrangement arrange-ment and regarding the actor as a brawler endeavored by main force to turn him out of the theatre The audience hugely enjoyed and ap plauded the new effect and urged the policeman on in the execution of his duty xue interpolation oy the audience of remarks not as a result of aLlusion aLlu-sion but of malice pretense is another fruitful source of unre hearsed effects Thus a story is told ef Mile Cerito who in the height oi her fame was engaged togo to-go with an opera company Dub lin Ireland was then in the throes of the repeat agitation and many of the performers did not care to goto Dublin at all Cerito however was not of them and duly made her apr pearance in the ballet In the open ing scene she was raised through a trap reclining as the 5 PSleeplng Beauty When her heal and shoulders appeared the stage an enthusiastic admirer screamed out Begorr shure shell not afraid to come amonj g the woild Oirish There were thunders of applause and roars of laughter in which the Sleeping Beauty heartily joindd Spectators tQo are not Above mak ing useful suggestions There was one practical man at least in the audience at the Cincinnati theatre when the manager announced an-nounced with pride that the theatre was being illuminated with gas manufactured from lard The lights played a number of fantastic cricks ana seemed aoouu to take their leave of the audience when the practical man urged loudly that they should drive in another hog It is not unusual for a large part of the audience to interpose when the motive Is strong enough There was a tedious play not long ago produced in London in wh ch one of the characters a theatrical manager had to say to another If any of the public are not satisfied their money will be returned Upon this the gallery rose as one man and with outstretched hands shouted Me me melLondon Globe |