A 1,000TH PERFORMANCE AT THE CRITERION THEATRE

According to that excellent volume, Wlio’e Who in lite Theatre, up to tile Wednesday of this week only two farces and one musical comedy had ever achieved runs of over 1,000 consecutive performances, these successful pieces being “Charley’s Aunt,” “Our Bovs,” and “A Chinese Honeymoon.” Of plays proper “Sweet Lavender” held the record until the st 11 running “Romance” heat it. Like all other “records,” these are probablv deceptive ones, no regard being had to the size of the theatres or whether they were at all well filled or not throughout the runs, but all the same everybody concerned with “A Little Bit of Fluff deserve to be heartily congratulated on having gained what many men desire. Last Wednes day the piece went at least as merrily as it did two years ago, and still the chief source of that merriment is the remarkably droll performance of Mr. Ernest Thesiger in the part of the long-suffering man from next door, who has to submit to being married, unmarried, a man, a woman, himself, the man next door, in good health, or at death’s door, all as his neighbour, John Ayers, successively dictates. Many of the other parts have changed hands since the first night, the result being, as far as memory can be trusted to leave the performance at its original level. Mr. Richard Cooper is an excellent representative of John Avers, the -tyrant of the man next door. Some high-class mares and a foal which were purchased by Mr. W. E. Livock at Newmarket last week were bought for Mr. James Buchanan, of Lavington Park. Petworth.