Lack of Finish

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 230, 17 December 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

Lack of Finish

Sir Barry Jackson and American Stage ! EVERYTHING COMMERCIALISED ! Recently Sir Harry Jackson, of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, took Helen Philpotts’s play “Yellow Sands” to New York. It was a failure there, despite its success in England. On his return Sir Barry wrote an article for the London “Morning Post” } Here are some of his impressions: He simply is at a loss to understand S why some people consider New York the dramatic capital of the world. “The theatre," he said, "like everything else to which the Americans set their hand, shows a hopeless lack of iinish. New York people never seem to finish anything. Their building and roaumaking are always half done, they always leave half their meals on their plates, and in the theatre, even if there i ;is technical excellence at times, there are scaicely any ideals left, j "The preseni aramatic season is adj raiuedly bad, but, in my opinion it is ' worse than that, i saw nothing that i interested me at all except “In Abra- ! ham’s Bosom,’ a negro play, being performed at the out-of-town Province town Playhouse.” Sir Barry's .mpression is thai the .regular theatres are so thoroughly comImercialised that there is scarcely any one who wants to produce a play because it is a play worth doing. A play , is not reckoned as literature or drama !by the Americans; it is merely reckI oned in terms of cash value. Some one ! said to him that “Y'ellow Sands” could be “made to go” if he would alter this and that, which would have meant • destroying the whole spirit of the piece. 1 The dramatic value of the play meant j nothing to this expert. In Sir Barry’ Jackson’s view, mai y New Yorkers lack all sense of propor- , tion. They attack the subject of the j theatre feverishly’, but never carry their j investigations far enough. Their minds work there much as they do in their j own homes, where, for example drink jis a complete obsession. Some people j whom Sir Barry met took tumblerfuls : of cocktails in the middle of the morning. on the tennis court and in the early ; hours at night clubs. For them the prohibited liquor was the excitement—the craze of the moment —and was run to death with childish glee. What future (he asks) is there for such a people?

"The Kingdom of God,” by G. Martinez Sierra, and translated by Mr. and Mrs. Granville-Barker, was beautifully produced at the Strand Theatre. London, recently. It is, in effect, a series of-life-like scenes in the career of a sister of mercy. First she Is shown in an almshouse for old men. Next—in a long scene wherein the saintly sister renounces earthly love—she is shown in a maternity home. “All the sorrow's of the world are found here.” says one. Last, in her old age, she is in charge of an orphanage, where she welcomes a bull-fighter, calms rebellious spirits and leads her adopted children in a prayer rendered aloud with touching reverence and tremendous dramatic force. Gillian Scaife played the almost superhuman task of the sister of mercy with saintly grace. A cast of unusual length for f.he most part did admirable work.

An American producer, Perke Hamberg, is to do “Patience” in New York in modern clothes. “The Mikado” was recently modernised in Berlin. * * * Ashley Dukes, author of “The Man Loaded With Mischief,” has written a new play “Such Men are Dangerous,” which will be done in London shortly by Matheson Lang. Edgar Wallace, whose thriller plays have won him fame and fortune, has written a musical comedy “The Yellow Mask.” It is also a thriller. Templer Powell, who hails from Christchurch, and is now one of London’s leading theatrical managers, with his wife, Ida Molesworth, has just produced “The Big Drum” in London. Mr. Powell made a fortune with the London seasons of “White Cargo.”

Whether the dancers in the "Rose Marie” totem pole ballet are suggesting the gradual curl of a breaking wave or going through wonderful evolutions that leave them at last lying motionless on the stage like a great mass of gaudy flowers, all is done with astounding precision, bearing witness to long training under a fine directing mind.

Those who love stage thrills, and those who enjoy guessing games, enjoy “The Ringer” and “The Terror,” two of Edgar Wallace’s sensational dramas which will be presented by the ,T. C. Williamson, Maurice Moscovitch Company at Auckland on February 1. The story of a self-appointed avenger who uses murder as his instrument of justice is a gripping one. It maintains interest at a high pitch throughout, ends with two surprises and another sensation when the real identity of the “Ringer” is revealed to the audience.