THE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2902, 14 October 1916, Page 13

THE THEATRE

[By Sylvius.] To Sara Allgood: How, in one woman, can the shifting years Be merged, and all life's scattered visions meet? Yet here Youth's sanguine pulses laugh and beat, And here wails middle-age, whom nothing cheers. Trembling and set upon by haggard fears Comes tragedy, and Age with shuffling feet; And impudent young womanhood, and' sweot Warm human singing, like a rush of tears. ... Oh woman, you are magic manifold— You stab tho Silence with a voice of gold That throbs with clamorous seas and rolling moors, You speak—and Age forgets that it is old; Tho dying moment lives—the hour endures, A deathless echo of immortal lures! Lucky Hits. Mr. E. J. Carroll, the popular theatrical entrepreneur, who is paying his first visit to Wellington, was speaking to me about luck in management. He referred.to tho visit of the Besses o' the Barn Band, which niado a ft i tunc for Messrs. J. and N. T'ait, a positive and altogether inexplainable i'uroro being created everywhere. There was 110 doubt about the band being a gcod band, but stili it was only a brass band at. the best. Not so long ago he was resting in a park in Liverpool (England),'within range of tho music of a very good band, and happening to inquire which band it was found it was the. "Besses." There it was playing in a public park to a few hundred people, no charge being made for' admittance. Ono would have thought that the Belgian Band would have made good, if only for sentimental, reasons, but there the luck, sot-in-in tho reverse order. Now tho Taits liavo a real goldspinner in "Peg o' My Heart." I wonder lias any superstitious person noticed that in both the Besses o? . the Barn and "Peg o' My Heart" -there, orcttrs the 1 abbreviated '.V and inloth'-'in-stances the; attractions.- containing the contraction have provodr big winners;

A Ffno Appreciation, r • Writing of ,0. J.- Dennis's slang poems, "Tho Sentimental Bloke," Mr. E. V. Lucas recently wrote: —"I know for a certainty that I should avoid any hall where these poenit; wero being recited, not .because I- should not like to hear them, but because I should not dare. And recited as they ought to be, an enterfcainor.with a sympathetic voico and a sense of drama could make his own and Mr. Dennis's fortune by, a judicious handling of this book." In Australia this is being attempted by Lawrence Campbell, witli what success has not yet been made quit© clear. .'lt Pays to Advertiso." The comedy, "lb Pays to Advertise," in which the newest Williamson Comedy Company is to make its first apj-earance in Now Zealand on October 23, is by Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter Hacki ett. It io written with one object— to manufacture laughter—and its succeeds. Like "Get-Rich-Quick Wailingford," it deals with semi-bunco types, and is racy of tho (American) soil. Rodney Martin, son of a rich soapmaker, falls out with his father because he won't work. Taunted .to the

quick and robbed of the girl he'd' marry, he resolves to make soap himself and drive'his father out of business. Peel says publicity is the only method that spells success, and so tliey resolve oil a campaign that shall mean, tho exploitation of a bi-and that, the father must ultimately buy out. How : tliey raise" the yinoney, how'they' get 'out' or their business difficulties, how they'finally' sell out .'for; a wonderful', pricepis told in a succession of scenes that are human and at the same time hilariously funny. The construction is. splendidly ingenious, the lines are snappy and witty, and the' characterisation sure and well defined.

"Damaged Goods." Before Brieux's play, "Damaged Goods," was produced in America, George Bernard Shaw strongly advocated its public presentation, as an effective means of combating one of the greatest perils threatening the human race. Mrs. Bernard Shaw secured from Brieux tho English translation rights, and wrote a powerful introduction to the book.. The play has, been translated into all European languages, and in America and England the stage production has thrilled hundreds of, thousands of people' of both sexes. One society in America —the Connecticut Society of Social Hygiene—issued 10,000 copies of the play ih book form, and the American Federation for Sex Hygiene subsequently followed suit, portion of the distribution being spread over-the Connecticut colleges, including Yale University. In Australia the publio and official steps now being taken to combat the evil in our midst have directed attention to the remarkable play by Brieux as a means of carrying on the propaganda work in enlightening the public mind on the subject. From many quarters the J. C. Williamson management have been approached with regard to the production of the play,'and: have now arranged to do so. "The Cinema Star." , this was the cast of the first Australian production of "The Cinema "Star" at Melbourne Her Majesty's on Saturday, October 7: —Phil. Smith ■ as Josiah Clutterbuck, an eminent moralist; Reginald Roberts as Victor* de Brett, a film actor; Leslie Holland as -Billy, stage manager of tho Film Com-, pany; Dorek Hudson as Lord Clarence Wentworth; Percy Clifton as Freddy, an old actor ; Claude Bantock as Constable; Alfred Andrews as Cabby; Charles Albert as Head Waiter; Florence Young as Louise, the "Film Princess"; Minnie Love as Cissie, a film actress; Nellie Payne as Maud, a film actress; Millie Englcr as Mrs. Clutterbuck; Ethel Cadman as Phyllis Clutterbuck. There are three acts, the first taking place at the Ritzroy Hotel London; the Becond, Belvedere, Hampstead; the . third, ' outside "The Cinema." Taxing Amusements. That theatrical entertainment in Australia will be hard hit by the new war taxation seems inevitable (says tho "Australasian") —that the better kind of entertainment will receive the heavier blow is a point especially to bo deplored. After-war economies, to which DO per cont. of the community have as yet given barely a thought, yvould have mado tho way hard for tho regular theatres without being singled out for special attenton. The tax will bo passed on —no one doubts that—nor will those who havo inner knowledge doubt the necosslty of passing it on. Both theatrical and picture-house managers protest against tho tax, • but wo can see no parallel in tho positions. Tho purchaser of a four-shilling ticket for a good''theatrical production will pay .moro- taxation upon his ticket than would 'admit him lo the picture liouso with tho taxation added. Tho picture manager points out. that his popular prices aro only sixpence and threepence: So much tho better for himsolf,, and his patrons, becauso wo hardly neodassuranoo that picture shows at cheap prices have not as a business concern reached their present magnitudo upon benevolent principles. Tho patron 'will rosent payment of the odd coppers for a while as a matter of personaTVefonvenience, bechuse oven money has been tho custom. Tho entertainment -has; in offcct, been arranged to fit tho coin;

tli subdivisions of a theatro represent broadly the separate units in our silver coinage. That applies equally, to theatres and picture houses. Sara Allgood and "C.8.5." Sara Allgood, who njade a brilliant impression as Peg in "Peg o' My Heart" at the King's Theatre, Melbourne, mentioned tho other day that it was the Irish Players who wore responsible for the first public performance in Groat Britain of Bernard Shaw's one act play "Tho Showing up of Blanco Posnet." This original little drama, which reveals tho soul of an American horse-stealer with consummate cleverness, was to have been produced by Sir Herbert Tree in London, but its performance was forbidden by the English Censor. Tho play was then turned over to the Irish Players, who encountered considerable opposition from tho authorities at Dublin Castle before they were permitted to stage it. AVhen certain passages in tho play were explained, entirely vindicating Shaw's reputation as a serious dramatist, the objections were withdrawn, and "Blanco Posnet" was put on at tho Abbey Theatre, Dublin, wi!h wonderful success. The first night and subsequent performances were crowded, and as much as a couple of sovereigns wero offered for a single seat. "Blanco Posnet" had since been played all over Europe, and even in Japan with a Japanese cast, but it Tias never yet beeu jiivon in London, because G.B.S. refused, to ruin tho play by deleting tho vital portions of the dialogue which the censor regarded as nnplcasant.