Loose Plays

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 490, 20 October 1928, Page 22

Loose Plays

New York Theatres in Hands of Sophomores The present New York theatrical season is notable tor its number o£ outspoken plays and its failures. One play was stopped by the police. Here is a New York critic’s view: Adolescence is in the saddle. In ■ spite of the clamour about adult drama which discusses grown-up themes frankly for mature minds, in spite of the blissful reign of reason and the chaste enlightenment of science, adolescent minds still muck about among the footpads of this automobile era with the innocent excitement of sophomores learning about the world. So long as audiences thrill with pleasure over loose conversation, the adolescents will enjoy free expression on the stage. Such infractions of taste as the theatre now discloses do not rise to the dignity of freedom of speech or liberty of the stage. In the past two or three seasons the points at issue have been far more creditable to both sides of the perennial controversy. “The Captive” and “Maya” involved issues essential to a free society of civilised human beings and the discussion they provoked was worthy of the mettle of responsible citizens. Such grossness of dialogue as the current season displays comes more properly within the sphere of bad manners, and doubtless it will pass out of favour when it no longer titillates the nerves of the groundlings. One has only to remember how many phases the stage passes through in its quest of sensations. In the meantime, it leaves the theatre in the hands of sophomores on both sides of the footlights.