The Theatre and Good Manners.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 61, 10 May 1912, Page 9

The Theatre and Good Manners.

A theatre is a place where men and women are supposed to take their ease. It is a sort of evening party on a large scale,, and one might reasonably expect to see courtesy and consideration for others in a more than ordinary degree at tho temple of histrionic art. But entirely the reverse is often the case. Doubtless few of tlie people who parade their boorishness at the playhouse would bo so rude and unmannerly in their own or their friends' houses, and why tliey should choose to (exhibit their bad taste in the theatre is beyond our comprehension. Now, we have bcon opposed to the early-door fee since its inception- —and it is a comparatively recent innovation. Tho early-door fee, to our way of thinking, is nothing less than a rank imposition, and a barefaced tax on the poorer classes of theatregoers. The oarly-doorers, besides putting themselves to great inconvenience whenever th-ey patronise a plaoo of entertainment —for which inconvenience they are compelled to "pay up and look pleasant"—confer an obligation on the management by their early attendance" in their seats,' thus facilitating the punctnal commencement of the performance and permitting actors and audience to get in touch with each other from the moment the curtain is raised; but theatrical managements never recognise that tliey are beholden to the early-door patrons in this respect, and tax them out of all proportion for tho doubtful privileges of waiting in tho street for hours at a stretch, of being forced up several flights of stairs in a crush like, a football scrum, sitting on a hard and uncomfortable scat till tlie start of the show, being pestered and deafened by the lollio-sellers, and tuisliandlod by the "packer." the only remedy these patrons have is to "grin and bear it." As with most taxes, the early-door fee- presses most heavily on those least able to boar it. Rather should the. tax be levied on tlie late-corner, who is a bally nuisance, and puts the managements, ushers, actors arid audience to no end of discomfort, imperilling the souls of one and all by the cuss words e>oeasinned by his or her late arrival. Generally, the late-comer is a resorvr-d .seat-holder, and many times and oil, in the desire presumably to be conspicuous and make it manifest to ail that ho or she is a Somebody, is at trem-'n.'.'.iiis pains to come in great forec utter the curtain has ascended and tho show has begun. Wo remember an ocea.-:ioii like this that hanpent d in a, certain theatre which shall be nameless. I.e-s----lio Harris, a clever monologue artist, around these parts some f-eiv yi-s.rs ago, had commenced his entortainir.-.nt, when in came a down or move, reserve! stall-holders. ?dr. Harris slopped d"ad in his initial item, but when tho commotion caused by the crowd had subsided, he handed out this snub to the disturbers: lf Now that the procession Las finished, 1 will resume.' ' A similar state of affairs marked the premier performance of "The Bine Bird" in Sydney, when society and its fringe stamped Maeterlinck's delightful dream drama under its large, (bit feet, and every usher Irad to work like, 10 men to hustle tho late, unmannerly crowd info its right seat (which ought to havo been the kerbstone.). Commenting thereon, the "Bulletin" says: "Tho unmannerly and evening-dressed laio arrival has been a nuisance for many years. Put of late he (and also she) has become a burden too greet to be borne. The evil culmimucd, *,o far as Sydney is concerned, at tho (irst night of''The Blue Bird.' There; the bii" arrival blotted out tie- lir-e, hali'bour of the play. Jt was the apoth.-'i-sis of Society 'togarded r.s a The bite arrivals were numerc.iM ami expensively cloilied. They couldn't immediately find th'-ir seats in the gh'-im, and the ci ; s!i aele-l ushers li.-n; a dilfoulty in reading the ni::; 1 'in--- of their i'ie-keis. \ {,],-,',,. ;• ,-,. (1 r }/ wiili the kindly consider;.(ion of t.'nwild ass of P.'i.-.ia, and we mor-v 1.,. half tli" p.'.!i;.-!"ys cf a bo'.fle-.,. s'esd between the stalk: end the.;•-■:;.•..: m, and nrgu-'d loudly, and a sinn'l.?.r -.-<nv bbeked t'l" vi-w of the disee -ci: see When fh .y w.'ivn't /rguing hm-Py !e-v nere c'lnversiiev kmdiy ab.-nrt flrsr private affairs. Afl-r absut. half an hour of alarms and insiirsion-. t! is i;>(-e fragment of society- -still strictly Reg'ird-f-d as a Hog— discovered its r-'speotive seat in the darkress, and walked ever the rest of the audii-m-e, and subsided. Put it still tr.lked about its private, afbecause it had lost most of iho first act, and had little interest in the bit that remained, and it couldn't see that anybody else had a right to have any interest. And not one of the noisy gang was heard to apologise." To remedy tlie nuisance mentioned, our contemporary advocates that when the theatre curtain goes up, the theatre door should be closed, thus compelling late arrivals to wait till the interval before gaining admission. This method should be a certain cure for the evil, and has distinct advantages over a late-door fee, which would only enrich the thespian treasury and not assist the comfort and pleasure of the patrons already seated. Such exhibitions as narrated are unfortunately all too frequent, in Now Zealand as ehewhere,

~~—■■'--■ - !e_ ' _ma and though wo cannot recall any local occurrence quite so bad as the S3"dney case, thoro have been instances of extreme uoggishncss in Dominion theatre* that bavo caused the groundlings to enrso and the judicious to griore. Let's hope that wo will ha?e no more »f theou