STGELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 62, 4 June 1927, Page 24 (Supplement)

STGELAND

Venice is laughing these days over the disappointment of 100 suitors. The manager of the Teatrot Rossini, wishing to ensure a good run for “The Merry Widow,” sought variation in advertisement by publishing the following announcement in the daily papers:

“A very rich young widow, attractive, smart, desires to marry a distinguished young maii; his financial position is immaterial so long as his habits are irreproachable, and if possible, he should be a diplomat, high up in the service. Write to Anna Glavari, San Luca, n., 3988.” Applications arrived from many towns, and penned in every style, from barrister to barber, from officer to beggar, but only one aspirant for the “widow’s” hand belonged to the diplomatic service. The best letter of all, a veritable protocol, arrived covered with official seals and stamps, duly signed by the Venetian tax collector. The Signora Glavari was invited to present herself at the office to explain something which interested her, namely, the taxes due to be paid to the revenue by “a very rich young widow*.” * * * An interesting and amusing experiment is being conducted by the laboratory of Theatre Arts, the Little Theatre of Rochester, New York. Every Tuesday the group holds an impromptu night open to everyone in the. community who wants to come. A mein her of the staff mounts the stage, which up to this time is devoid of all props and set only with a black cyclerama background. He outlines a plot he has in mind, calling for the props as he wants them. After telling the barest outline of the plot, to the audience, the speaker selects from the audience any one whom he wishes to play the roles in the play, stipulating a time limit for the performance, and giving the curtain line only to the selected persons. The curtain is opened and the fun begins, with everyone sneaking the line that he thinks woul aid the plot along. Some really hilarious evenings have resulted. The plan is original and entertaining to the last degree, and is experimental and instructive, embodying the aims for which the laboratory exists, education and self- advancement obtained through real recreation.

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE Now Playing: “Fair and Warmer,” Nellie Bramley. July 2-July 16.—“ Lady Be Good.” July 28-August 18.—“ The Last of Mrs. Clieyney,” Daddy Longlegs” and “Polly With a Past,” Renee Kelly. COMING Alan Wilkie in Shakespeare. J. C. Williamson’s Vaudeville Co. “Tell Me More.” “Rose Marie.” “La Mascotte,” Auckland Amateur Operatic Society. Lance Lester, here In “The Boy,” is appearing in “The Little Revue” at Cochrane’s Little Theatre in London. Fred Lloyd, here with Seymour Hicks, is playing in “The Constant Nymph” at the Strand, London. Pauline Frederick is touring Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester with “Madame X.” She opens again in London in the autumn. A. S. Homewood and Sybil Amndale, who has appeared here, are showing in “Two and Two,” a play produced by Australia’s old stage favourite, Madge Mclntosh, at the Strand Theatre, London. Irene North, English musical comedy actress, has arrived in Sydney to take one of the principal parts in “Pompadour” at the Theatre Royal. Daphne Pollard, a diminutive comedienne, is topliner on the current bill of the Golden Gate Theatre, San Francisco. She played in “Joybells” at the London Palladium during the war. When Sir Barry Jackson staged Shakespeare’s seldom-performed play, “All’s Well That End’s Well,” in modern dress, at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, recently, Eileen Beldbn appeared as “Helena” with her hair semi-Eton cropped. “Bertram” was dressed in a lounge suit, and coffee was served, but there was no smoking. George Bernard Shaw watched the play.

Floie Allen, last 3 lere as Principal B Boy in “Aladdin,” n has sailed from n Sydney to try her B luck in London. Hi She is one of the H J. C.. Williamson H Co.’s most popular g? comediennes, an d H has appeared many times in New Zea-i-J land.

Jan Caryll, the New Zealand dancer who started his career with J. C. Williamson’s Revue Company, and who with his partner, Delyse, has been meeting with much success in England and on the Continent in cabaret and productions, were at the time of mail leaving, appearing at Victoria Palace with their new act of Dance Creations in a specially designed setting. Also at the same time they were appearing at the cabaret at the Empress Rooms. Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington, and the Trocadero, where they were repeating their former cabaret successes, having appeared at most of the principal cabarets and hotels in London. Alfred. Frith, one of the most popular comedians that New Zealand ever saw, writes from Hotel Deauville, New York: —“We have seen well over a hundred shows, which has been a wonderful education for me. Very few of the shows as played here would be suitable for Australia, but quite a number of them could, with judicious padding and readjusting, be made very acceptable. Most of the shows play only two hours, actual playing time, and nearly every production is criticised for its lack of comedy. 1 have refused several offers, because the material ha.s been so poor. I played the principal comedy part in ‘The Lace Petticoat,’ which, however, consisted of eight small pages of dialogue, and two lines in a trio. I was refused permission to write up my part, as the producer wanted the romance to predominate. We placed three weeks on Broadway and closed. This is not unusual, as out of over seventy productions this year, less than ten have survived. We have met quite a number of Australians, and I am pleased to say, all are doing well. Several productions will soon be going into rehearsal, and I hope to be in one of them. We like New York, the bustle and the lights, and best of all I like the fact that I have regained my good health.”

The authors of the new play “Marigold,” recently produced at the Kingsway Theatre, London, are given as L. Allen and F. R. Abbott, but these are said to bo pseudonyms covering the identity of * the late Charles Garvice, the novelist, and a business man long connected with the London stage. It is described as an Arcadian comedy, and besides Angela Baddeley, the company includes Jean Cadell, Beatrice Wilson, Mary Barton, Hubert Harben, A thole Stewart, Robert Holmes and Percival Clarke.

The Allan Wilkie Shakesperian Company, after a lengthy absence from New Zealand, will commence a tour of the Dominion, opening at Wellington on July 6. Since last seen here Mr. Wilkie has added several more plays to his repertoire, which now embraces no fewer than 24 productions. During the forthcoming tour the plays definitely fixed to be staged are “Henry VIII.,” “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Measure for Measure,” “A Winter’s Tale” and “The Tempest,” Mr. Wilkie recently arrived back from Home with a completely new wardrobe and half a dozen specially imported artists to reinforce his company. The productions are now on a much more elaborate scale than formerly, and his welltrained company, together with the new artists, are reported to have now attained an infinitely higher standard than when last in New Zealand.

(By COTHURNUS.) “Frasquita” has been running for six weeks in Sydney. Marie Ney, the Wellington girl, took part in the British Empire Shakespeare Society’s “star” matinee at the Haymarket Theatre, London, to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday. “The Constant Nymph,” adapted from the novel of that name by Margaret Kennedy, has been acquired for New Zealand and Australia by J. C. Williamson. “Meet the Wife,” played here recently, is being produced in the English provinces with Constance Collier in the lead. This actress has made a wonderful recovery since the discovery of insulin. London’s new little theatre, the Arts Theatre Club Theatre, Great Newport Street, W.C., opened recently with a revue, “The Picnic,” book and lyrics bv Herbert Farjeon, music by Beverley .Nichols, and played by, among others, Brian Gilmour, Lawrence Anderson, Elizabeth Pollock, Florence McHugh’ Auriol Ross, and Millie Sim. The theatre holds 350 people.

In London Seymour Hicks is presenting the sixtieth play in which he has had a hand in the authorship—- “ Mr. What’s His

Name.” It was a very good and amusing play on its first perform ance at Birmingham, and in it witi Mr. Hicks are su'd people as Mar; Merrall, C. W Somerset, who wil surely be the oldest actor on the London stage, C. M. Hal lard, Margaret Yarde, Madeline Seymour and Frances Doble, who has youth and beauty and who has the sense to go on tour as part of her early training.

Charles Zoli, last here with “Wildflower,” is now head of a Fuller Revue Company, calling- itself the Charles

Zoli Splashes. As re-organised the members of this will include Lulla Fanning, Wylie Watson, Victor Wise, Alda Campbell, Emmie Ensor, Marshall Lawrence, John Harper, Maggie Foster, Daisy Yates, York Gray and Ernest Powell.

“I have never known so many bets made over a play as have been made over ‘Abie’s Irish Rose,’ ” writes William Pollock in a London paper. Most of them are on the question, Will it run a year in London? William Mollison, who produced "No, No, Nanette.” “Mercenary Mary,” “Princess Charming” and “The Gold Diggers,” feels sure that it will; other judges disagree. Nearly everywhere it has beer, played it has begun badly and gradually succeeded; that is what happened in America, Australia and Canada. The same thing might easily happen in London. Anyhow, whatever the fate of “Abie’s Irish Rose” may be in England, Miss Anne Nichols is going off to the South of France to write a sequel to it. “They have been asking for one for four years in America,” she told me yesterday. “My idea is to carry on with the next generations of the Levis and the Murphys.”

Hunting people are not often put on the stage—though there was a rather nice sketch of the “hunting set” in Noel Coward’s brilliantly amusing “The 3.oung Idea,” which by some perverse fate had a run of only about six weeks, and has never been revived. But Leicestershire devotees of the chase are to figure in “Common People,” by Miles Mander, at the Everymen Theatre, London the author himself will appear as an Earl, together with Malcolm Keen (a Bart), Molly Kerr, Louis Goodrich, Una Venning and Adrianne Allen.

Are small casts veering into favour among playwrights and managers? There have been one or tw'o plays lately that have been very limited in their number of characters, and the general effect has not suffered in the least. Your modern dramatist likes to plunge into the story right away—the extreme instance, .of course, is the explosive start of “The Letter”; and with the abolition of the old conventional dialogue of dusting housemaid and fidgeting butler, who filled up in Greek chorus fashion the gaps in the action, the need for these and other subordinate personages has gone, though they still often strangely persist.

Although Australian audiences did not like Nellie Wallace, the English comedienne, here is what a London critic wrote about her when she returned: Just to be let loose on the stage gives her so much joy that she performs an entrechat in each corner She is free, however, from the indelicacy of the ballerina. Instead of frills, she exposes what seems to be an expanse of lurid wallpaper. Tlow she has been missed over here during her tour in Australia and South Africa is evident in- the swelling roar of greeting—until her humour breaks down in emotional thanks. No one has so wide a range of humour. There is a touch of the comedy of Moliere in her cry of, “Strange! He promised to be here at 9.30. It’s now twelve.” There is all the rascality of the halls in other jokes—meaningless without the action to suit the word. But perhaps we may repeat her account of the disadvantages of living on a houseboat: ‘Every time the cat wants to go out I have to row him ashore.” Many former variety theatres in London no longer attempt variety programmes and those which still do so have a very* big task in finding turns which can 'be offered as “tops of the bill.” Sir Oswald Stoll still keeps variety going, but most of the Moss Empires are now given oyer to productions. A highly paid English comedian said recently: “There are not more than half a dozen legitimate top of the bill turns left.” That was an exaggeration—but not a tremendous exaggeration.

For the first night of “Whitebirds,” at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, the management charged £ 3 3s for stalls It is fairly widely known that in Jew York as much as three, and sometimes five, pounds are often paid for firstnight seats; but it is more surprising to learn that for the first night of a particular production there some months ago the price went up to 100 dollars — about £2O. It seems unlikely that London managers will quickly catch the £2O habit, nor would results be likely to be highly satisfactory if they did: but there is certainly a generally spreading tendency to increase the price of the more expensive firstnight seats in one degree or another. As long as this increase is not extended to the pit and gallery (who, owing to the number of hours they wait, have a vested and unchallengeable interest in first-night drama) there seems no harm in it.

Recently Marie Xey, the talented Wellington girl, appeared in "Der Weibstcufel” in London. While highly commendable for its competence, the play was especially interesting on account of the acting of Miss Xey, wrote a critic. Since her season as leading lady at the Old Vic, this young actress has played many parts but none in which I have seen her —save perhaps that of Ruth in Eugrnie O’Neill’s “Beyond the Horizon” —lias seemed to be quite so much of her own as this of the young wife. She played it with a beautiful self-possessibn and a quiet mastery of its not always very subtle changes of key. Brember Wills, as the peasant, and Douglas Burbidge as the Exciseman, succeeded in bringing these two characters to life and admirably sustained their interest. * * * “Miss Marlowe at the Play,” a sketch by A. A. Milne, in which Irene Vanbrugh and Dion Boucicault appeared in London recently, was not favourably received by the critics. One of them wrote: There is scope for Irene Vanbrugh to display those gifts which prove her to be not only our cleverest but also our youngest actress.

A play founded on incidents in the life of Mozart was a French production of a year or two ago. Another composer is represented in “Berloiz. bv Charles Mere, staged in Paris. There are 17 scenes of the “chronicle” variety, dating from 1827 to 1869, and musical numbers are introduced. Onescene treats of the meeting of Berloiz convinced that neither , he nor his were hopeless of recognition. In others a leading character is Harriet Smithson, the Shakespearian actress from England, who was the composer’s first wife. Following the facts of biography the play has a tragic ending, with friends and relatives dead, and Berloiz convinced that neither he nor his music will ever have just recognition.

Political subjects have been treated in four recent plays, two English and two French. A London writer shows that these pieces illustrate three ways of bringing problems of the kind into drama. The first is direct. In ‘The Mountain,” C. K. Munro indicates through the career of Captain Yevan that real freedom is impossible in the modern state, and that a modern community cannot exist without some central authority. “Le Dictateur,” by Jules Romains, is similar in theme. A revolutionary, on overthrowing the Government, finds that “order must be maintained,” so lie abjures socialism and assumes the dictatorship. The second method is - illustrated by “The Queen Was in the Parlour,” in which Noel Coward brings political views into an ordinary dramatic story. Faith in benevolent autocracy is affirmed, for instance, in the last act,- when Nadya

calls to the revolutionary crowd, "You idiots, you utter idiots,” and Keri joins her and languidly says, “Why don’t you all go home?” The symbolic method is used in “Le Dompteur,” by Alfred Savoir. Brute force and pacifism are represented by a lion-tamer and an English peer. The “lord” follows the tamer from town to town, hoping that some day the lions will eat their brutal master; but in the end th.e lions eat the lord, when he tries to train them by pacific methods.

“The Co-Optimists,” one of the best known and most popular companies in England, are to disband at the end of their present provincial tour; they will continue their engagements till July, thus completing an existence of more than six years, and then the company, as at present constituted, * will break up. Clifford Whitney, one of the three original founders of “The Co-Opti-mists”—Laddie Cliff and Archibald de Bear were the others actively - concerned in its formation—and one of the two present directors, said that the company was to have visited Canada, but that an internal difference recently j arose over terms and that it has there- 1 fore been. decided to end the present company. “Apart from this difference we feel that ‘The Co-Optimists’ have had a very good innings, and that the form of entertainment given now needs to be altered. It is probable that ‘The New Co-Optimists’ will rise from the ashes of the old.” The history of “The Co-Optimists” is one of the post-war romances of the English stage. Started in June. 1921, with a capital of only ] £ 900, they made an immediate hit and prospered greatly. They have played to a gross turnover of well over £500,000. Stage plays have been adapted for broadcasting, but in England and America there is a growing inclination to write condensed comedies and dramas for that special purpose. One provider of work of the kind is Reginald Berkeley, the author of “French Leave” and several other stage pieces. Now he has reversed the earlier process by adapting one of his broadcast plays for the theatre. This is “The White Chateur,” which was produced at the Everyman Theatre, Hampstead, at the end of March. Following on the eight weeks played by her in Melbourne and Sydney, Nellie Stewart will take a brief rest. Wheji she reappears it will probably be to make a tour of New Zealand.

A Supreme Court writ has been taken out by J. C. Williamson. Ltd., against D. B. O’Connor, theatrical manager, of Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat, for an injunction to restrain him from advertising the plays, “Are You a .Mason?” and "What Happened to Jones,” as J. C. Williamson's "greatest comedy” and “funniest comedy” respectively. The firm also claims damages. It is reported that the Humphrey Bishop Company will visit Auckland in July, before returning to Australia. The company has been touring New Zealand successfully since December. It still includes George Ross, Walter Kingsley, Elaine Maye, Thelma Trott, Evadne Royle, John Montfort, Alan Kitson, Mark Leslie and Frank Egan. Arthur Helmsley, a well-known English comedian, lias joined the company recently. Lady Patricia Russell, formerly Lady' Patricia Blackwood, who married Mr. Henry Russell, the operatic manager, is suffering from lockjaw and other complications, following the extraction of a wisdom tooth. 'Her condition is giving the specialist attending her sopje imxiety. Lady Patricia Russell was in Melbourne for some years, and before she returned to England went on the stage under engagement to J. C. Williamson. Her husband was connected with the last Melba opera season.

This is the million-pound piece, and if a play’s worth is to be measured by the amount of money it makes for its author, then “Abie’s. Irish Rose” is the greatest play in the world, and Sophocles, Aeschylus, Eurypides, Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen and Bernard Shaw may take a back seat, while Miss Anne Nichols ascend'S the throne, writes the celebrated London critic, St. John Ervine, of “Abie’s Irish Rose.” But probably Miss Nichols has a proper sense of her play’s value and regards herself merely as the lucky author of a simple, artless piece which successfully appeals to simple, artless, unaffected persons by its mixture of sentiment and broad humour and prejudice -and kindliness. Undoubtediv the audience on the first-night laughed a great deal, although some of the humour was lost on the Gentiles, whose | knowledge of Yiddish was not even elementary. The sentiment, which was sticks', did not move us at all, and I found the young: lovers tiresome. Their cloying raptures caused the play to sag every time they were exhibited. Russell Swann and Katherine Revncr made Abie and his Irish Rose uninteresting. A very r indiscriminating gallery loudly called for “Russeli” and Miss Nichols in her speech made pointed references only to him, but she and the gallery might more properly have bestowed their praise on Joseph Greenwald, who gave the best performance in the play, and Harry Marks Stewart. Mr. Greenwald very charmingly portrayed the affectionate, emotional, humorous Jew in whom the family instinct is strongly developed. His acting was a great asset to Miss Niehol. Mr. Stewart was deliciously funny. The without these two might have been a melancholy one A cycle of classic plays is to be given in the ancient Greek theatre of Syracuse under the auspices of the National Institute of Ancient Drama, and under the direction of Professor Ettore Romagnoli. On the first day the “Medea” and “Cyclops” of Euripides are to be given; on the following day “The Clouds” of Aristophanes and a satire by Sophocles (“The Hunting Satyrs”), which Professor Romagnoli has reconstructed from fragments recently discovered in Egyptian papyri. | Especial care is being taken with the ! scenic effects, notably in connection I with the grotesque vision of life-char - i acterising “The Clouds,” and the aim j is to accentuate the difference between : the two kinds of dramatic poetry in ; the # plays chosen from Euripides. The surroundings are unique. Built, or rather hollowed, in the rock; the theatre of King Hieron I. stands on the high slope commanding a wide view over the Great Port and Ortygia to the sea, which gives a sense of grandeur and serenity. Above it is a long flight of rock-hewn steps just over “the ear

of Dionysius,” which formed the upper part of the city. Cicero describes the vast size of the theatre, which could accommodate 24,000 spectators. Its plan extends to rather beyond a semicircle, and originally must have had 61 tiers of seats. The names of Olympian : Zeus and of King Hieron, the friend | and patron of Aeschylus and Pindar, can still be traced on the ounei into which the seats were divided, but 24 | centuries have left the great theatre J bare of ornaments.