Domestic Intelligence

THE THEATRE—A drama called Ellen Wareham was produced at the Theatre on Monday evening. It is quite of an Old Bailey character. Ellen marries Creswell, never having loved him. He, not aware of this most important matrimonial fact, is under the necessity of going abroad, and being apprehended as a spy, is imprisoned for years in an Austrian dungeon, from which he at length escapes by a stratagem, the consequence of which is to lead his wife and her friends to believe him dead. Nearly two years after Creswell was supposed to have been quietly inurned, Ellen marries one (Hamilton) to whom her whole heart and soul are devoted. Not many months after, the first husband returns -hears she is again married—has an interview with her, in the course of which she explains the circumstances which led lo her second marriage, but admits that she never loved him. Doating fondness on his part gives way to desperate passion and thirst of revenge, and he causes her to be indicted for bigamy, of which she is found guilty. [The jury must have been a strange set, seeing that the first husband had studiously circulated a report of his own death, and there was no proof that his wife participated in the secret!] The sympathy of the Judge, however, is excited, and Ellen is merely "fined and discharged." Creswell having thus rendered himself the mark of universal odium, at length repents; but weary of life, swallows poison —sends for his wife and children, blesses them in his dying moments; and having obtained the forgiveness of Ellen, bestows her, with his own hand, upon Hamilton-the second husband, and real object of her affections, and expires. Now these incidents are strained and unnatural-yet they give rise to several affecting scenes. The weight of the piece rested on Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Lazar. Mr. L. manifested a very accurate conception of the part allotted to him, though we could point out many objections to his reading and pronunciation ; but as not one of the company-male or female-is unamenable to similar censure, why should we particularise him? Mrs Taylor appeared to please the audience, and therefore, the odds are against our opinion that she cannot pourtray deep feeling. The scenes of which she endeavours to make the most excite a sense of the ridiculous-the convulsive catching of the breath, and extravagant contortions of the head and frame (as if pulled about by a wire), are complete antidotes to sympathy. Mrs. Taylor's line is, in our opinion, quiet comedy of the higher class, or the parts of pert, intriguing, singing chambermaids. Spencer, though he is entitled to the praise of general correctness, was either out of place or out of spirits on this occasion. The incidents in which he is supposed to be a participator, would, we should think, have roused the passions of an anchorite-yet Spencer was cold as monumental marble. The rest of the characters require no particular notice, with the exception of that sustained by Miss Winstanley, who, upon this and several other occasions lately, has shewn a capability to become the very best actress on the Sydney stage, in that line of character which she generally assumes. At the conclusion of the first piece Miss Lazar danced, as usual, very prettily. Then there was some tightrope foolery ; and lastly, the farce called The Young Reeler, of which Miss Lazar, though a very clever child, is too young to play the hero not even a shadow of illusion is preserved owing to this circumstance.