HOPE OF THE THEATRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 176, 15 October 1927, Page 24 (Supplement)

HOPE OF THE THEATRE

Repertory or other non-commer-cial production as the hope of the drama is the subject of an article in “The Times Literary Supplement.”

A student of tha drama is today embarrassed by contradictions, says the writer. He sees outside the commercial theatres of London abundant evidence of experimental activity, but inside them, except on rare occasions, a condition near to death. When the translators or adaptors or “producers” import a pTay or a method then there is a flicker of attention; when a member of our own old guard enters upon another campaign there may be a momentary stir; and an enlivening wind has blown from Ireland now and then.

But a.playgoer who looks down the current list of plays will find that nearly all ask to be visited in the same uncritical mood in which we turn the leaves of a magazine found in a railway train; they are not, and do not pretend to be, contributions to dramatic literature.

If there were no evidence but this, a student might well despair, but when he looks beyond the box office he finds everywhere the outward signs of a dramatic renaissance.