SUNDAY THEATRES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1633, 27 December 1912, Page 5

SUNDAY THEATRES.

: j __ ACTORS' SUGGESTIONS. Mr. H. B. Irving, in the Novembei issue of tho "Treasury/' suggests a solution- of the Sunday opening problem as it affects theatres. Ho is doubtful of. the policy of presenting more stubborn refusal to a growing public demand, though he would ' pei-sonally prefer to keep theatres closed. His suggestion is that we should frankly admit that if there are to be. Sunday ' iperforniances, some plays are more suited than others for production on that day. He would establish a representative committee, which should have the right to select such plays, tho members including theatre managers, representatives of the churches, representatives of the working classes, and so forth. "In other words, it would bo a specialised censorship for Sundays." To attend divine service in the morning and witness a play of Shakespeare's in the evening does not seem to Mr. Irving an incongruous proceeding. Lot the demand for a.brighter Sunday bo met in an onlightened Way, offering tho best tho theatre' has. Tho "Southern Cross" quotes a letter from Harry 'Lauder, the Scottish musichall singer, on the subject of Sunday observance:—"l feel," he says, "that, if we fail to uphold our religion and our Sunday, men will scorn us, women will weep for us, children will bo taught to hato the name of the theatre, and the curses of the generations to come will be for over at tho stage door. Men who disregard God's Word and God's work can never hope to bo respected. A man cannot buy respect; ho must livo the life to win it. When for the first time I went to America I had four Sunday performances, and a more miserable engagement I have not fulfilled. I .felt I was doing something against my religion, something which I had been taught was wrong. It was unnatural for me to work on tho Sabbath, and I felt the shamo of it. I am a Scot, and I will die rather than disregard God's Word and work. It would be better for me to go back to the mines, where, at any rate, Sunday is looked upon as God's gift to man to refresh himself for his next week's labour."