HIGH ACHIEVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 126, 24 November 1932, Page 5

HIGH ACHIEVEMENT

REVIVAL OF "MILESTONES'

The Wellington Eepertory Theatre (Inc.) is nothing if not courageously ambitious. It has selected "Milestones," the product o£ collaboration between Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock, for a three-night season, ay the Opera House. At the initial performance last night there did not appear to be a vacant seat in the house. Judged by the temperature of the enthusiasm with which the venture was undertaken, accomplished, and received, the j first performance must be regarded as a highly popular success." It is twenty years since "Milestones" was first played in New Zealand, and many who were present at its presentation last night could not have seen the play before, but some of the older and more ardent playgoers, in the house no doubt would have recalled the play with pleasure and' interest and thought how archaic its dialogue, even in the last act or period, must have seemed, for the time of that act was 1912. This was not to be wondered at, because those twenty years have been more crowded with incident, more fruitful in changes in modes and manners (especially motor manners), ideas and ideals, tastes and likes, morals and conventions, than the fifty years before that. And besides, there has been a world war, and the heart-break-ing task, still unfinished, pi trying to effect a settlement of its consequences. So "Milestones," even as to its last act,- seems a quite old-fashioned play,, like "Caste" or "East Lynne" or "Dan'l Druce." Yet it came as a refreshing change last night from contemplation of that baleful something that is afflicting all nations, to which economists have given the description of disequilibrium, and which at any rate has exposed, the weaknesses in what were hitherto regarded as impregnable structures.

The point in the play was disclosed as the curtain fell in the last act, when old Sir John llhead, Bart., sat opposite to his loving, tolerant, and obedient wife of fifty years, and exclaimed, "We live and learn," and she, as in love and duty bound, agreed in two words, "Yes, John." But the tragic truth which the play failed to emphasise was that although we live we do not learn—at any rate, not until it is too late, and not always then.

For the benefit of those unfamiliar -with ! "Milestones," it may be described as depicting in three scenes the pathos of thwarted love and the conflict of the aims and claims of youth -with matured experi- ! ence and the deep-rooted convictions .of the | middle-aged and elderly; and the curtain falls on the inference that youth is always triumphant, and the generation that regards itself as older and wiser capitulates with the best grace iff can show. The times are 1860, 1885, and 1912. To successfully revive in 1932 the atmosphere of ! those periods was no mean task, but the Repertory Company succeeded in doing so to the utmost of its resources last night/ and the task was necessarily more difficult to accomplish in 1932 than, in 1912, for to ad|mit that "the world went very well then" ', is to take a place in" the ranks of old fogeys. Great credit, then, is due to the producer if he makes a success of reproducing in manner of speech, in deportment, in costumes, and in stage settings the distinctive atmosphere and the feeling appropriate to each period dealt with in the play. It does not matter quite so much what the printed dialogue of,the play may be as how it is delivered. The actors cast for "Milestones" in the Bepertory revival of the play were one and all well schooled, and occasionally showed -flashes of gsnius. Miss, Helen Gardner- and Miss Dorothy Molenaar, for instance, were required to represent the same two women at each period of the play 'and to simulate the passing from girlhood to womanhood, and to old age and all that that implied, arid they did it with, the art and skill of professional players of high attainments and rich endowments. Mr. W. S. Wauchop and Mr. L. H. Herd undertook similar responsibilities which they discharged with distinction. Mr. Wauchop did more- he produced the play arid deserved all the applauge, and more, that he received when called, before the curtain. Other parts were most capably sustained by Mrs. E. S. Baldwin, Miss Mary Cooley, Miss Elsie I Lloyd, Mr. Gibson Stott, Mr. H. A. Painter, Miss Vivienne Tait, and Mr. Carl i Watson. As is' usual with the Eepertory Society, the domestics were admirably played, as if they knew their place, by Messrs. P. Keesing and G. H. A. Swan. Reference to the dresses must be left to those who know best about them; but it may be saidthat strange as they seemed in the play, in real life it was the wearers rather than what they wore that mattered, and. those taking, part in the play last night appeared to take that. view. With the means at command, the best possible was 'done to reproduce the furnishing and decorations of the periods dealt with. "Milestones" will be repeated this and to-morrow evenings. The Governor-Gen-leral and party will be, present to-night.