STAGELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

STAGELAND

(By

COTHURNUS

FIXTURES HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE Now Playing: “Cradle Snatchers." November 22-24: “The Vanities." November 26 to December S: Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Co. December 10-17: Hawaiian Troubadors. December 21 to January 4: “Rose Marie.” CONCERT CHAMBER December 8,9, 10 and 12: Ai -kland Little Theatre Society: "Pygn lion.” COMING "Tell Me More.” “Tip Toes “Castles In the Air.”

Grace Palotta, who delighted New Zealand theatregoers not so many years ago, was visiting Vienna when the last European mail left. Miles Malleson discusses no social problems in his new play at the Royalty Theatre, London, “Love at Second Sight,” nobody undresses on the stage, and, except for a casual phrase now and again in the dialogue, there is not the least suggestion of riskiness. That being so, Mr. Malleson will hardly expect the crowds that he has drawn to the Queen’s with “The Fanatics.” Elsie Prince, Jimmy Godden and the other members of the “Lady Be Good” company are playing in “Archie.” Miss Prince will play principal boy in the Fuller pantomime at Christmas. Muriel Starr is playing to good business in Adelaide. She may do an eight week’s season with new plays in the Theatre Royal, Hobart, early in the new year.

“Rain,” the Somerset Maugham play, at the Criterion, is drawing big crowds in Sydney. It is the most popular of the Gertrude Lawrence repertoire.

It is many years since Roy Rene and N. Phillips first became associated on the vaudeville stage in Australia, and in the frequent appearances which they have made together with the “Stiffy and Mo” companies, they have become established favourites. They are back in Melbourne at present, after a season of 33 weeks in Sydney The supporting artists provide good, varied entertainment.

Dennis Eadie and Phyllis Titmuss suddenly decided that they would not go on with their parts in Dion Titheradge’s new play, “The Crooked Billet,” while it was in rehearsal for production at the Royalty Theatre, London. It is understood, says the “Daily Mail,” that certain differences of opinion arose in the matter of suggested alterations to the play.

Irene Vanbrugh, now in Melbourne, recalls the fact that she was associated with the brilliant season of comedy at the St. James’s Theatre, London, in which the talent of Oscar Wilde was conspicuously revealed. She played in “The Importance of Being Earnest,” and other comedies from Wilde’s pen, and recalls the writer himself, seeming in his success always a little overdressed. He was a witty conversationalist, but also the most indolent of men. Someone spoke to him about his wasting the precious hours when he should be working, and he did make an effort to observe the hours of a journalist. In an attempt to emulate the prodigious industry of Carlyle and Balzac he bought one of the former’s writing tables, and acquired in Paris a cowled dressing-gown in which Balzac used to compose his novels.

In “The Tetter,” now playing in Melbourne, Dion Boucicault plays the part of the Chinese law clerk Ong Chiseng, whose callousness and love of money help to deepen the tragedy of Somerset Maugham’s play. Ong is a discreet blackmailer. I-Ie is also, he says, a graduate of the University of Hong-Kong, where he won the chancellor’s prize for English composition: and he has a collection of cigarette cards which is “almost unique and very comprehensive.” “The Letter” has been in London about eight months.

The Irish Players are at present making their first appearance in America. This is the first time they have ever played out of the British Isles. Sean O'Casey’s plays will all be done in America.

Jean Forbes-Robertson. Angela Baddeley, Mary Jerrold, Mary Brough Margaret Bannerman, Raymond Masse: and Oscar Asche were among thos< who took part in this year’s Greer Room Rag in London.

The travelling theatrical company arrived at a small town in the Midlands celebrated for its snobbery. During the evening performance the actor who played the part of the Duke aroused much amusement by saying to his beautiful daughter “Let us now go into the ’ouse.” The stalls tittered and someone observed in an audible voice, “He said * ’ouse’.” The Duke advanced to the footlights and fixed the interrupter with a baleful eye. “Yes, I did •say ‘ ’ouse.’ Do you fink a Jook would live in lodgings?”

Somerset Maugham is regarded by many theatrical people as the outstanding writer of comedies in Great Britain to-day. Norman McKinnel, a dis ting-unshed member of the VanbrughBoucciault company, regards Mr. Maugham’s comedy “Caroline,” in whicli the company opened at the King’s Theatre, as the best comedy since Oscar Wilde wrote “The Importance of Being Earnest." The second play of the season will also be from the pen of

Maugham. It is called “The Letter,” and is rather more serious fare than most of his work. It is founded upon a cause celebre in the Malay Straits, in which a woman was tried for the murder of her lover, and was acquitted. It is not generally known that this brilliant writer is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. During the war he served as a doctor in France. “The Girl Friend,” a musical comedy now running at the London Palace, with the inimitable George Gee prominent in the cast, has been secured for Australia and New Zealand by Williamson. It will most likely open at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Sydney, about Christmas time.

“Measure for Measure 99 in Berlin Eternal Satire on Puritanism FINE GERMAN PRODUCTION A FTER Allan Wilkie’s pro- | duction of “Measure for I Measure” here recently, the following 1 account of a production of the play in Berlin is interesting. | 1

Apparently the German production was not “cut.” The article was written by Hooper Trask, for the New York “Times.” Dust, heavy and mouldy dust, has been gathering for years over Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure.” Its concentrated essence of sensuality was too strong for Victorian nostrils, and our age has unthinkingly followed the custom of neglect. Although I am in the habit of considering myself a lover of Shakespeare, I had kept step with the herd and never even taken the trouble to read the play. So when the State Playhouse in Berlin produced it, I went to the performance with my mind a slate washed clean of prejudices. For me it was the premiere of a play by Shakespeare—a sensation in this, our jaded, age? And a real sensation it proved to be! Like a young handful of lightning bolts, it sizzled and cracked across the footlights. Right into the middle of our mental solar plexus it crashed, and, to shift the metaphor, booted us ungently out of our intellectual easy chairs. As an attack on Puritanism, beside it “Rain” seems like a debate at the village women’s club. Pompey, the bawd, attacks the moralistically paternalistic regime of Angelo in terms of so vivid a hue that you find yourself holding tightly to the arms of your orchestra seat.

Its plot is a typically Shakespearean concoction: just a trifle muddy. Angelo, the moralistic hypocrite, is several grades too tragic for the texture of the comedy. "While the gay twist at the end is too forced and artificial. you feel that the author is simply determined to send his audience home happy at all costs. But the individual components are in themselves finely turned. I have mentioned “Rain” before; just compare Angelo with the Reverend Davidson. The modern fighting Puritan gabbles of the Y.M.C.A. and is undoubtedly “up to date,” but so is a store window dummy. His Shakespearean forbear talks in blank verse and is quite distinctly a product of another century—but so is the David of Michelangelo. “Measure for Measure” will remain the eternal satire on Puritanism. The chief weakness of the play for modern emotions is the part of Isabella. It is no longer a sympathetic character as the play assumes that it will be. The Berlin performance was a very exceptional one. .luergen Fehling, the director, has struck a most happy compromise between classic and modern. There is always a stylised feeling, yet no stiffness, no cramp. Always a flowing freedom,

Gwen Burrows, who was here last with the Renee Kelly Company, has sailed for London, where she will try her fortune in the theatrical world.

Thurza Rogers, the Wellington girl, who in Australia made her part in “Tip Toes” historic, left for England by the Orsova. She will most probably join up with Pavlova again

Reginald Long, a member of the recent Renee Kelly Company, who stayed behind to assist the Auckland Amateur Operatic Society with its production of “La Mascotte,” sailed for England last week.

Cass Downing, the well-known J. C. Williamson conductor, is seriously ill in Sydney, and it is doubtful whether he will ever conduct an orchestra again. Mr. Downing has visited New Zealand with many of the J. C. W. musical comedy companies.

It is more than probable that when the J. C. Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company completes its tour of New Zealand it will be disbanded and not reconstituted for many years. This is to be regretted, for a revival of these clever musical satires, the work of two of England’s greatest songsters, librettists and dramatic authors, could surely be made at more frequent intervals. It is not an easy task, however, to gather together an effective combination to do full justice to these enchanting musical extravaganzas.

Negotiations may be completed this week for the disposal of the big block of shares held by Hugh J. Ward in J. C. Williamson, Ltd., bringing to an end his association for 29 years with the firm, first as an actor and afterwards as director, says a Sydney paper. Mr. Arthur Allen, acting for himself as well as others, has been mentioned as the prospective purchaser, and the price is stated to be considerably over £, 60,000. If the sale is completed, Mr. Ward may forsake the theatrical business for at least a year, as his time will be fully occupied in the erection of four blocks of flats, containing over 100 apartments, on his Darlinghurst and Double Bay properties. Later, it is declared, at the request of an influential group, Mr. Ward may go into a new company which proposes to launch out with the building and management of theatres in the principal capital^.

Mary Maskelyne is the first woman member of the famous “magic family” to become an illusionist for more than a decade. After touring the English provinces with Captain Clive Maskelyne, M.C., she has joined her brothers Jasper and Noel at Maskelyne’s Theatre, London, and is the central figure in Noel’s sketch, “The Khang Hsi Vase.” Miss Maskelyne is a charming girl, and very keen on her job; she is likely to become as well known as her predecessor—an aunt who was very popular in her day to the lovers of magic shows.

Cecile Dixon, a young English actress who has been playing in “The Mariners,” by Clemence Dane, is attracting the New York critics. Miss Dixon was in Mrs. Patrick Campbell’s short-lived play, “The Adventurous Age.” For a year or two she was acting with George Arliss. She was hardly out of her teens when she went from London to New York. While Miss Dixon was acting Ibsen’s “The Master Builder” at Birmingham in 1924, she attracted the attention of John Galsworthy, who selected her to play the part of Phyllis, opposite George Arliss, in “Old English,” at the Ritz Theatre, New York. Miss Dixon has relatives in Auckland.

American Plays Is the British Public Tired of Them? TIRED OF STUNTS AND CRUDE LOCAL SLANG Is the British public growing tired of American plays? This question has started another controversy in London. In the following article, Charles Morgan, a theatrical critic, discusses the question logically. There are two reasons for this discussion—first, that the London stage is in fact flooded with American drama; secondly, a few American pieces which came here loudly heralded have lately been rather conspicuous failures. It is useless to write on a subject of this kind unless one writes frankly. What I believe to be the truth is this: There is not a vestige of political prejudice against American plays. Englishmen are genuinely and profoundl' eager for a closer friendship with America and a more intimate understanding of her. If you send us plays that are true to American life and represer iative of the best contemporary American thought they are sure of welcome and attention. But I think there are certain aspects of the American theatre of which the English public is growing tired. It is tired of extreme melodramatic violence connected with bootlegging; it is tired of the type of sordid, loud-voiced sentimentalism fairly represented by “The Butter and Egg Man”; and it is, I believe, tired above all of the cruder kind of American slang. What we want to know and what we should like the stage to tell us is what the best of America is thinking on social, political or philosophical subjects.

What would greatly please us is a serious study of contemporary manners in America, whether in the North or in the South. Why should we be given an exclusive diet of chorus girls and criminals? Why should we be perpetually shouted at in a language which is not the language of civilised America and is as strange to cultivated Americans that we meet over here as it is to us?

Let us have, not “stunts” which were amusing once, but are tedious in repetition. but truth in comedy or tragedy. It is nonsense to say that there is a prejudice against American plays because they are American Sidney Howard is American; “The Silver Cord,” because it is sincere and does not shout in an uncouth tongue, and because it is the work of a man with a mind, will, I think, be one of the successes of the season. Send us the work of your artists, not your showmen. Ho not treat London as if it were a provincial town inhabited by the “hicks.” Allow us to see the mind of America, not merely its pistols and its legs. Take us seriously as men and artists. There will then no longer be neven an excuse for talking of an English prejudice against American plays.