The “triple bill” made its reappearance at the Court Theatre last night, its constituent elements being a new one-act piece by Mr. Seymour Hicks, entitled The New Sub, Mr. Gilbert’s well-known burlesque of Hamlet, and the still popular Pantomime Rehearsal. As the work of a young actor (now engaged at Toole’s Theatre), The New Sub is a piece of no small promise. It is concerned with the fortunes of a young lieutenant who makes his first acquaintance with barrack life; and, though the story is somewhat trivial, it serves as a vehicle for several cleverly-observed types of character in officers and privates alike, the more notable of these devolving upon Mr. Brandon Thomas, Mr. Elliot, and Mr. Vaughan. There is but one lady in the piece, the mother of the young sub, a widow, and by a somewhat conventional device, which is the one blot on the author’s scheme, she discovers in one of the officers an old flame and agrees to marry him.

In their new setting, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and A Pantomime Rehearsal lose nothing of their proved attractiveness. The new Hamlet is Mr. Weedon Grossmith, who invests the character with solemn drollery of the Gilbertian stamp.

Page modified 19 December 2009