THE WAR AND THE THEATRES

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2241, 29 August 1914, Page 9

THE WAR AND THE THEATRES

, PLAYERS HARD HIT. There are indications in Australia and New Zealand that tie war crisis is going to press very heavily off theatrical people. The dramatic company which has been playing "The Axgyle Case" in Wellington disbanded ok the conclusion of-the Wellington season, after the tour was curtailed, and there are rumours that other companies who wore in the fullness of time to tour New Zealand will probably "put iip the shutters" until the war cloud disperses. The position is not so serious for those players who have contraots with responsible managements, but there are comparatively few of them—mostly the artists who have been brought from England and America, but in the case of those engaged in Australia, there is seldom a legal contract as to the time of the engagement and the salary made> —it is usually a word-of-mouth contract, which praotically holds good from week to week only. Those are the people who are going to feel the crisis, as they are not thfi class who can readily take up other work. With the slackening off in tha number of theatrical attractions, the picture theatres should be able to hang on, particularly as in a week or two there should he some interesting piotures, if not of the war, of incidents connected with it in various parts of the world.