3-052-365 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Christmas Pantomimes, 1880. In '"Blue Beard," at Drury Lane...the cruel tyrant appears with the guard of gigantic negroes, armed with [huge] scissors, while the elephant he has ridden lies prostrate at its master's feet...How the fierce marital despot, no other than Mr. Fred Vokes, is raging here against his devoted wife, the interesting Fatima...Her part is borne by Miss Jessie Vokes, and that of Selim by Miss Victoria, while Mr. Fawdon Vokes appears as Shacabac...At the Gaiety Theatre, which has taken its subject from "Gulliver's Travels," there are Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians..."Red Riding-hood and Little Boy Blue"...have combined their faculties and adventures in a pastoral extravaganza at the Imperial Theatre..."Sindbad the Sailor," [at Covent Garden] exhibits a superb magnificence of scenic effects...the foundering of this ship at sea, and its descent to a reef of rocks under water inhabited by the strangest fishes and other aquatic animals...Mr. Harry Payne, the humorous clown, sits wearily awaiting his turn below...[In] the Canadian skating festival at Hengler's "Carnival on the Ice," at the Cirque, a North American bear, as well as our English Mr. Punch, are enabled to disport themselves with natural grace and agility'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.