Before The Curtain Goes Up

NZ Truth, Issue 1149, 8 December 1927, Page 2

Before The Curtain Goes Up

| •THE theatre is a wide sea of restless heads — grey heads, black | I 1 heads and bald heads, like pink balloons with handles, and heads § i stuck with bobbing combs and gleaming gems. § I There is a" smell of fresh clothes and of powder an.d old sofas. | !■' The subdued sound of voices falls and rises — falls and rises — now like | | the whirring and whispering of a machine far away, now quickening = | Jnte » broken rhythm. Overhead the electric fans buzz like giant | = wasps. . . I § A beautiful lady m yellow satin and a pink cape steps daintily § I down the steps of the aisle, followed by a tall, slightly stout man | I looking rather, like a huge penguin m his dinner suit. Eyes, envious | §.- and, otherwise, follow them/to t,heir seats. . .; .... ' 1 = Programmes rustle softly, laughter gaily runs along the | §- seats . . . -the tinkling laughter of a girl, a titter, a loud guffaw. | !'■ The thin tinkle of a bell rings m some vague place. The con- | § .ductor waves his arms liko a young black rooster about to fly, and = I the men with the cornets puff out their cheeks and glare hard at | | their, music, the violinists saw away for dear life, the trombone players | = swallow half their instruments and then drag' it 'out again 1 . .' . .- § 1 And then. . . with a tremendous and very final bang the I | orchestra stops . • . the lights go out; a few moments' dreadful § §;- .silert.ee; whisperings and shufflings, , . , . then suddenly the musio § I 'starts again, soft and low, the black arms* of the conductor wave, the ■ | 1 footlights flash up, the curtain rolls up with a vague creak . . . | | the show has startedl | '^MiiiimiimiiiiHiiiiniiimiiimiiiimiimiiiiiiiiiiiniiiM^