THE THEATRE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1402, 30 March 1912, Page 11

THE THEATRE.

. h> (Br SvLvrus.) The World's a theatre; the Earth a stage.—Hey wood. A Word in Season. In a review of tho stage in Now Zealand which appeared in The Dominion at the end of the. year, an endeavour was mado to explain exactly how we stand in regard to the standard of the important art which forms tho nightly amusement of many thousands in this country. The result was not an encouraging one nt all, for it showed that in the main wo depended to a great extent on a class of play of little worth, and indicated (hat so long as such plays woro served up as "Tho Latest from London"—which part of London is not usually mentioned—playgoers were being educated down instead of being carefully tr.unod to tho realisation that tho stago should bo an academy for the encouragement of an art—literary and histrionic—capable of high distinction.' In a'recent leading'articlo in tho "Sydney Morning Herald," tho subject is pursued with much vigour and effect: "We have no comedy theatre," says the writer, "and most of the best work of tho British stage for the past twenty years lias been in comedy. We have no theatre of drama properly so called. No amount of American melodrama, or of costume play emptiness, can make up for the fact that we rarely see an example of Ibsen, who revolutionised tho modern drama, and that we have never had produced for us ono specimen of Pinero's recent work. Bernard Shaw even is a scaled book to us, and we know nothing of the beautiful things of Syngo and leafs in Irish drama'. But for amateur enthusiasts, and tho Melbourne repertory scheme, we had hardly so much as heard of Galsworthy, whose 'Strife' is one of the greatest modern plays, and who himself is one of tho commanding influences of the day, or of Masefield, who wrote tho moving tragedy of 'Nan/ .Of Besier we have seen nothing, and it would be worth our whilo to see at least 'Bon,' while the fortuitous happening of Miss Ethel Irving alone vouchsafed us an example of Maugham, in 'Lady Frederick.' "In that thought, too, is involved the glory of our Australian stage, its consummation and crown, the apex,.of ;itsart— musical comedy to wit... We ..do got. regular supplies of musical, comedy and pantomime. Of the latter we say nothing, for. jt. is a class of entertainment rapidly falling into . disrepute, even at Ilrury Lane. But musical comedy is, as far as it goes, pleasant, and sometimes delightful, entertainment. It is also very popular. For that reason alono tho time has surely come for a reorganisation of our musical .-omedy standards. They are utterly provincial. The truth is that a musical comedy stock company ought to bo in frequent icorganisation. At present tho same exponents essay piece after piece', no two of which have been played by a single company in London. Our musical comedy stage also needs badly to be relieved of tho incubus of low comedians who,regard buffoonery, plus grotesque noises, as the. true comic spirit, and of supporting talent that can neither act nor sing. Quick changes in musical comedy companies, and a similar touring company of modern comedy actors, would do much to improve our stage." "Tho Garden of Allah." A dramatisation of Robert Eichens's fascinating novel was presented in New lork on October 21. "The Garden of Allah" (savs the "Theatre") stands alone among recent plays in its spiritual clova--tioii. .The booic irom which it was --taken produced a profound impression;' /The present production by the Messrs. Licblor' is beautiful to behold. The spirit of the desert, and all tho external manifestation of the 'infinite solitudo of waste places, as well as the beauty of the garden spot which-sorves as a lovely retreat from tho barren surroundings, are reproduced in a manner that perhaps cannot bo excelled on the stage. "Mr.. Lewis Waller, as Boris (who comes to Australia next year), aroused tho utmostvo'nthiisiasm of., tho audience that .Kclconfod the newcomer, in i. his:- first There.was .in his acting' mn; entire.'absence of all romanticism.' Hero was a monk, unused (o love, overcome by it, and throwing away all the previous restraints on his manhood. In naturalness and in fervour of passion it was an exquisite expression, iron' from every '.tendency of tlnatricalism. When ho flung himself to the ground, after his avowal, he had won life for tho play, and had established his personal fortunes on our stage. In point of fact, Mr. Lewis Waller is largely the play.. "Not 'all the scenes in which 1 he figures are in themselves particularly dramatic, but always the monk held your sympathies and excited your interest in his every thought expressed in his faco and manner, according to the infinite changes of spiritual feeling. Thus, the scene in n dancing house, picturesque as it was, had no great interest in itself.. There were dancing, women, real Arabs, who performed their sinuous -movements before him, but, it was tho shrinking Boris, with; aversion in every ieaturo,. that hold our! attention." \

George Brnatlhurst, the Now York dramatist', who recently scored in a play entitled "Bought and Paid For," lias made another hit in a serious play called "The Price." Tho kinship in the title names is peculiar, and it appears stranger still when it is known that the star actress in the latter play is Helen Ware.