Racial Types on the Stage

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 194, 5 November 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

Racial Types on the Stage

Controversy Revived DRAMATISTS AND TRADITION The old trouble of stage misrepresentation of racial types has been under discussion in Britain lately. There seems to be a general agreement, says one critic, that all Scots are dour and all cockneys light-hearted, just as there is a widespread belief that all Frenchmen are excitable and all Italians hot-headed or passionate. Very little experience is needed to teach us to be wary of placing trust in such wild generalisations, but somehow they persist. The theatre seldom fails to propagate prejudices. You seldom see on the stage the hard-headed, matter-of-fact French business man, or the cool-headed, close-reasoning Italian of the manufacturing You seldom catch a glimpse of the romance which the cockney keeps locked up in his heart, or the genial generosity of a Scot who knows he is among friends. It is too soon to expect a dramatist to break down our preconceived notions concerning racial characteristics, and show us how ridiculous it is to allow our estimate of a man’s character to be biased by what we have heard concerning the tendencies usually attributed to men of his country. Bernard Shaw attempted something of this kind in “John Bull’s Other Island, ’ but the public has paid little attention to the principle concerned.

Theatrical circles are taking a lively interest in the demand of the London “Daily News” for a more energetic effort to carry out the scheme for a National Theatre. The theatre has not materialised in spite of more than twenty years of talk, the possession of funds totalling nearly £IOO,OOO, and the promise of a West End site from an anonymous donor. Inquiries made by a “Daily News” reporter showed that there is a widely-prevalent conviction that the scheme can only be made a success by a committee of enterprising people, representative of all sides ox the drama and the stage.

John Kirby, the Dunedin player who is now recognised as one of London’s finest comedians, is playing opposite Gertrude Lawrence in “Oh Kay.” Although hundreds of new pieces have been done in New York this season there have been two real hits, and two only—although there are several other entertainments that have good chances for runs. The hits are “Burlesque” and “Good News.” Descendants of famous people who were connected with Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Finsbury, assembled to recall the romance of the old stage, and to further the fund for its restoration as a home of Shakespeare in North London. The original Sadler, who built tlio theatre in 1683, was represented by Mr. Alfred H. Sadler, while Thomas Rosoman, who rebuilt it a hundred years later, was remembered in the person of his great-grandson, Mr. Henry F. Rosoman. Others included four members of the family of Samuel Phelps, producer of 123 plays; Viola Compton, granddaughter of Mrs. S. F. Bateman, the 19th century rebuilder of the theatre; Walter Grimaldi, a descendant of “Joey” Grimaldi, the famous clown; and E. W. Dibdin.