Song—"Give a Poor Fellow a Lift" Mr. Phil Margetts, Jr.
For the last time, the great Specialty of the Mulligan
Guards ……………. By W. T. Harris and H. E. Bowring
The performance will conclude with the side-splitting farce,
"A BASHFUL BACHELOR."
Hector Timid ……………………… Mr. J. C. Graham
Captain Cannon …………………….. Mr. Mark Wilton
Dr. Wiseman ……………………… Mr. H. E. Bowring
Thornton ………………………….. Mr. J. E. Evans
Louisa ………………………….. Miss Lina Mousley
Chatter …………………………. Miss Sarah Napper
It would be unreasonable to expect an audience to sit through such a lengthy performance nowadays, but such was the dramatic pabulum with which we had to entice them into the theatre "in that elder day."
The "cast" in the above program shows that the stock company had become decidedly weak, a number of amateurs were worked in, and the three comedians, Margetts, Bowring and Graham, are playing parts altogether out of their line. The lady assigned the "leading lady's" part (Miss Mousley) was a clever amateur and this was about her first appearance at this theatre. The "leading ladies" "seem to have been all in retirement." Mr. Wilton, "a serio-comic," playing the "leading heavy," Lord Say, and Mr. Graham playing" the "second heavy," Courtney, shows there was a great sparsity of "heavy men," and Margetts and Bowring both playing serious "character parts," plainly indicates the low ebb the company had reached. It was now a difficult, nay an impossible, task to adequately "cast" one of the great classical plays.
Such was the status of the stock company at this period, its efficiency having been gradually weakened by the steadily increasing innovation of the combination or traveling companies.
Many of the most popular stars had not up to this time surrounded themselves with their own supporting companies, but continued to flit to and fro across the dramatic firmament, pausing to shed their luster for a new nights wherever they could find a cluster of nebula (stock company) to shine among.
On April 1st a bright and attractive star appeared in the person of Mr. Edwin Adams. Mr. Adams made a splendid impression on his first visit to Salt Lake and a full house was on hand to greet him. The train on which Mr. Adams arrived was several hours late and the audience was kept waiting more than an hour after the specified time of commencing. It was nearly ten o'clock when the curtain rang up on "The Marble Heart," but the audience exercised great patience, and when at length Mr. Adams appeared as Phidias from between the curtains that concealed the statues, exclaiming "The man whose genius formed them," he received such a warm and generous welcome as must have banished any doubts or misgivings he may have had as to how Salt Lake would receive him. As he had not rehearsed with the company, some apprehensions were felt as to how the play would go; but, after it was over, Mr. Adams warmly complimented everybody—especially the stage manager—and declared it went just as well as if he had been here to rehearse it with us. This was a notable engagement, Mr. Adams playing ten nights in all, his engagement running through the April Conference. In addition to "The Marble Heart," he played "Hamlet," "Richelieu," "Rover" (in "Wild Oats"), "Narcisse" and "Enoch Arden."