Vicar’s Play

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 478, 6 October 1928, Page 22

Vicar’s Play

Produced on the Lawn After Sunday Service Recently the Rev. Clarence May, vicar of Homerton, England, produced a play called “The Scarecrow” on the vicarage lawn after evening service. The play was produced in spite of protests by the Sunday Alliance, a body which has for its object the preservation of the Sabbath. An audience of several hundred . witnessed the performance, listened to comic songs, and, under the conductorship of the vicar, joined in community choruses. The entertainment was designed to illustrate the vicar’s attitude toward Sunday as a day not only for worship, but for innocent fun. “Sunday is the most glorious day in the whole week,” he told the audience. “It offers special opportunities for us to get nearer to God and heaven, but unfortunately the majority of people don’t realise that God outwitted Basher Bill (the villain), is the God of secular as well as sacred things.” Written by the vicar and performed

by the local Boy Scouts, the play had as its setting a camp scene. A wood fire blazed brightly on the lawn between two tents. The plot showed how Timorous Tim, the smallest of the Scouts, succeeded where his comrades had failed; and won the hand of a beautiful maiden. Then, sitting round the camp fire, the Scouts gave a selection of choruses and rounds. A eulogy on woad —the blue substance with which the ancient Britons painted themselves-—as a dress material was sung with great gusto: “What’s the good of wearing braces. Vests and pants and boots with laces, Spats or hats you buy in places Down in Brompton Road. . . . Setter far is woad.” The entertainment concluded with prayer. “The Sunday Aliance wrote to me protesting against my suggestion to produce the play on Sunday,” the vicar explained. “But before I had time to reach a decision the Alliance had communicated my decision for me to the Press. It was a direct challenge, so I produced the play.” This month Mr. May assumes the vicariate of St. Peter’s, Piccadilly, London, where the Rev. L. W. Fearn last month staged a play called “The Creative Adventure,” in which Satan appeared in a Merry Widow hat.