Coarse Words on the Stage

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 218, 3 December 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

Coarse Words on the Stage

Cannot Shock Women BARRIE A PROFITABLE STUDY The Mayor of Grimsby, in his comments about the London theatre, did not pretend to be an expert, says a London journal in answer to a recent outburst. He did not say he had been to all the theatres. He said he had been only to two, and that. he came away wondering if what he saw was typical of the dramatic art of to-day. His criticism was that in the first play he had seen the whole of the humour was obtained by coarse expressions, and in the second “an admiral used fn expletive about a golf club for which he would have been kicked out of an ordinary room.” Another critic of the theatre, while dealing also with the violent language used in three or four plays, seems to find it more remarkable, not that ’’shocking” language is used on the stage, but that the audiences, mostly made up of women, refuse to be shocked. In a welter of competing types such as exists in the London theatre at the present time it is difficult to say what is typical. The theatre has never been so cosmopolitan. It has never been so easy for mere commercialism to try its hand. Making allowances, however, for the importations of the alien capitalist and the operations of the mercenary gambler, it would probably be admitted that a freedom of reference to sex relationships and sheer coarseness of language are characteristics of the London stage at the present time. Violent language is not strong language; it usually indicates a consciousness of weakness. Coarse language is never necessary to truth to a playwright who has skill in his craft. It would be a good thing for the London theatre if there were less of it. “Ou, she’s naething by the ord’nar’; but ye see she was mairit to a Tillicirum man no lang syne, an’ they’re said to have a michty grand establishment, Ay, they’ve a wardrobe spleet

The company which will play “Rose Marie” is preparing to leave Australia. This is one of the biggest musical pieces to be brought to New Zealand. Its success has been phenomenal in Australia.

Dainty Dorothy Waters, whose mother died some months ago in America, is now an inmate of one of the homes which the Children's Protection Society of New Y T ork takes an interest in. Dorothy was staying alone at an hotel. When taken away by the officers, she told them she had played all over Australia and America and was booked for France when arrested. “I’ll pack ’em in the Palace yet,” she yelled, defiantly, as she was being removed. “The Crooked Billet,” which Raymond Massey has produced at the Royalty Theatre, London, is the best “thriller” of the year—“ The Silent House” notwithstanding, says a London critic. It is foolish, of course, to attempt to describe a play in which action is everything; let me only say that “The Crooked Billet” is decently logical, is very honestly written by Dion Titheradge (he does not attempt to fool you) and is brilliantly played. It is much better than anything that America has sent us. Harry Green, whose production of “The Music Master” was withdrawn in London after a couple of weeks of moderate business, is reported in a New York aper to have claimed that he made £30,000 during his last tour of the Commonwealth, and that he had been compelled to pay income tax or a much larger sum. Whether he actually made this statement, or whether it was merely a clever piece of publicity, there are no means of discovering, but whatever he collected in the Commonwealth he apparently had not enough to keep “The Music Master” in action. On the last night of the show, when someone at the curtain cal? begged him to keep it running, he made a speech in which he declared that he was too poor. Perhaps the £30,000 that he made here was all absorbed by the income tax authorities “Robinson Crusoe” is to be presented on a very elaborate scale at the Princess Theatre Melbourne, this year. It will be produced by White and Edgley, in conjunction with Sir Benjamin and Mr. John Fuller. The version selected is the one in which Will Fyft'e made such a success in England. Comedy and dancing will be features of till is show. The Midnight Frolics, who re cently returned from a remarkably successful tour of New Zealand, will form the nucleus of the company. Clem Dawe will be Will Atkins, and Les White will be Mrs. Crusoe. Eric Edgley and Lewis Cottam will appea: as the two comedy sailors. Dorotli \ Dewar has been engaged for the titl role. Phyllis Amerv will be priniepn dancer. An unusually large ballet wifi appear in this pantomime, which wi” open on December 24.