The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1930. THE LIVING STAGE

Southland Times, Issue 21099, 3 June 1930, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1930. THE LIVING STAGE

In Wellington Miss Elizabeth Blake has been discouring on the value of the drama as an educational force, emphasizing the influence it can exert in improving diction, in broadening the outlook of people by presenting plays which throw a searchlight on some important, vital topics, and in presenting the great dramatic poetry of the language through its proper medium, the spoken word. Miss Blake has been active in giving to Wellington audiences the plays of Shakespeare, of Shaw, Galsworthy, Tchekov and Masefield, and in this valuable work has been aided by amateur performers, who have thus kept the theatre alive in these days when the screen threatens to eliminate everything but the talkie. The general condemnation of the talkie is often too sweeping, because, while the heavy preponderance of American pictures, of the spectacular kind and of mediocre dramatic standard, is a matter for serious concern, it must be admitted that there has already been evidence of the power of the screen to furnish us with dramatic fare of the highest quality. Latterly there has been a decided move in the direction of the talkies by some of the most prominent dramatists of the day, and there is something startlingly significant in the fact that Eugene O’Neill is writing a new play for presentation on the screen. This foreshadows developments which will bring the drama into touch with audiences at present far beyond its reach, and it is probable that picture houses will come under an influence from which so far they have been wholly free. Up to the present picture houses have catered for all tastes, and this has meant a pronounced emphasis on the picture plays suited to the popular taste, with the result that the higher class drama has been given but few opportunities to make an impression on those who go to the talkies. It is probable, however, that in the future picture theatres will cater for particular classes of patrons, and each will concentrate on productions of a special kind. Blind condemnation of the talkies can do no good, and will do much harm because it will delay the developments which will raise the standards, and ensure a steady supply of picture plays worthy of the best traditions of the theatre. There lingers, hopefully it must be confessed, the suspicion that the public will not be content with the screen as its only dramatic provider, that they will feel the need for something more substantial than shadows, something more intimate than mechanically reproduced voices, however skilfully the reproduction may be done, and the hope for the future lies in the efforts of the amateurs. We referred to the subject on a previous occasion, urging that the opportunities for the development of amateur theatricals were ripening, and that smaller communities would learn to provide their own amusements as they did in the old days. Music will benefit similarly, and become more than ever a part of the life of the'* people. That is the view of the observers of events in other parts of the world. In the larger centres in New Zealand repertory theatres, run by amateurs, have been successful and have gone boldly to work because they have large populations from which to draw support, but' in the smaller places, through modest beginnings, it should be possible to build up a movement equally virile, providing, of course, the standards of performance are kept high. These repertory theatres have been strikingly influential. Eugene O’Neill, the most arresting dramatist in the English-speaking theatre to-day, came out of the Provincetown Players, an amateur organization which used a boatshed for its first theatre, and in England the Norwich Players have been active since 1911 in the presentation of the classics and the best modern plays. Every month the Norwich Players present a new drama, rehearsals occupying three weeks, and to-day they are one of the most potent forces in the new dramatic movement, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch have strong amateur companies, and they are keeping the thinking public in touch with the best drama of the day. They have not been killed by, the talkies. In fact, we prefer to believe they have been helped by I 'the articu-

late moving pictures, and it seems to us that if any effort is to be made to correct the influence of the American picture it must be built round movements of this kind. ’