‘PAOLO AND FRANCESCA'

Evening Star, Issue 22451, 23 September 1936, Page 1

‘PAOLO AND FRANCESCA'

DUNEDIN PLAYBOX SUCCESS The performance of Stephen PhilJips’s play, ‘ Paolo and Francesca,’ by the Dunedin Playbox last night was u. successful excursion into the realism of tragedy _of almost Grecian quality in its inevitability. It was directed throughout its course to finality with the shrewdest skill by the members of Mr Russell Wood’s dramatic class. Tragedy expressed so solidly and sustained so neatly demands great dramatic strength. If that strength fails, so dpes the play. Its delineation in this case was first and foremost a triumph for the three principals—Miss Doreen Rhodes, Mr Charles Tobin, and Mr Leslie Pithie. The task of the first two, especially, was a particularly exhausting one. To them goes the main credit of the organic strength of the production, for they had to shoulder the heaviest burdens of tragedy. And between them they made the weight a light one; admirably assisted by the other members of the cast. The large audience obviously enjoyed and appreciated the play. There is nothing new about the theme of ‘ Paolo and Francesca,’ and yet it is stamped with originality by virtue of the handling of the theme. “ Youth attracts youth,” the young bride Francesca tells her lover,'Paolo, brother of the deformed, tempestuous Giovanni Malastra, her husband, fired with all the brutal passion of the Italian tyrant of the Renaissance period. He rings the curtain by stabbing both after they have each suffered mental torture, she ravaged between duty and the goad of passion, he between fraternal and romantic love. The murderer suffers most cruelly of all. Mr Charles Tobin’s Giovanni was overawing in its powerful dramatio sweep. He moved with the ever- . changing moods 6f the play, and portrayed the conflicting emotions with rare skill. His final declamatory outburst of mingled grief and passion was very well. done. _ Miss Doreen Rhodes was a charming Francesca. Her role demanded an almost spiritual simplicity, and she delineated it with effortless grace. She has a particularly fine stage voice and presence. Hers was a wistful success. Mr Leslie Pithie’s portrayal of Paolo was inclined to bo rather uninspired in the first act, but he improved as the piece progressed. Three forceful character studies were presented by Miss Violet Livingston, whose Lucrezia, cousin of Giovanni, was outstanding; Mrs H. IS. Johnson, as a blind, decrepit servant; and Mr Leo Manning as a drug seller. Other roles were capably handled by Misses Leila Greenall. Ivatreena Speight, Ethel Thomas, Linda Bain, Paumea Elston, and Messrs G. C. Abbotti' f James •“ Walker, and lan M'Narey. The costuming of the piece was splendid, and the staging, especially the arbour scene in the castle gardens, very cleverly arranged. ~ ' . ‘ Paolo and Francesca will be presented to-night and to-morrow night.