THE OXFORD PAGEANT.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1869, 1 October 1913, Page 11

THE OXFORD PAGEANT.

Almost every town of any antiquity in England Las had its pageant, and London provided a setting for pageants of the Church, the Army, and the Empire. Among the earliest was tho' Oxford pageant, directed by Frank Lascelles, yrho subsequently organised similar undertakings in Quebec, Capetown, and Calcutta. The conventional idea .was to select from the paßt events capable of picturesque representation directly or indirectly connected with'the history of particular town. To a few the local historical connection made an appeal; but t'ho majority of tie audience ■ and spectators came from a distance, and to them the attraction lay in tho vivid portrayal of historical events which caught the imagination as when first read of in a child's history book. There is, therefore, no reason why a pageant of historical events' should not be of at least as great interest to a Wellington audience. At Oxford there were about 2000 performers who had been 'rehearsing on tho actual pageant ground for about eight weeks, ana who wore as keen and loyal at the end as they were at the beginning. Some few had speaking -parts, out the vast majority were content to bo " supers," and in a pageant it is the natural acting of the crowds and the masses of bright colour tastefully arranged which make success. The audience was grouped on a large stand holding about 4000 people, the. back rows being priced at ss. and the best seats at a guinea. There were six performances, and five dress-rehearsals each to an audience. The most delightful audienco consisted of 7000 children' from all the county schools, who, packed into half that number of chairs, shouted, with delight at every detail of the happenings of three only too short hours.