According to Taste . . .

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 508, 10 November 1928, Page 26

According to Taste . . .

Potted Plays For the Proletariat

■ ICKING up a letter and opening it is a simple action. One would imagine that there is very little flair about the action, but leave me alone a moment (writes Dennis Dunn in an English humorous paper), and I will demonstrate how certain dramatists would describe it. ANY REVUE AUTHOR

(inter Sam and Sambo with letter Sam: You have a letter?

Sambo: I have a letter. Sam: Yes, you have a letter. I ask you what is in your letter. Sambo: You ask me what is in my letter ? Sam; Yes, I ask you what is in your letter. Sambo: Thoughts of love which remind me of Old Kentucky. (Band strikes up “Old Kentucky.’') ( Curtain.) * * * MR. NOEL COWARD He enters with Hek. The clock points to 1 ft.m. and a woman is chewing bhang in a corner. There is

a bottle of champagne on the table and a letter is propped against the clock. He (brushing faults from his faultless evening dress): A letter! Life is all letters and men have gummed souls, m’dear. She ( eldritchly): You would say that! He: And more. She: Ah, no. He: Ah, yes. Siie: All right, go ahead, kid. (They turn to see the woman in the corner eating the letter.) He: My God! She: And Mine! ( Curtain.) * * * MR. EDGAR WALLACE Pale moonlight outlines the hand with the letter. It is silhouetted against the window and the detective crouched behind the ottoman draws a revolver and fires. There is a wild scream and the lights go on and off quickly for several minutes. A dead man lies with the letter on the carpet. The Det. (throwing off his false face): At last the missing link in the chain. (Goes to pick up the letter when a concealed spring under the stamp shoots sweet perfume in his face.) The Det. (dazedly): Chicago Lou! (He faints as the corpse gets to its feet and vanishes up the chimney.) (Curtain.) ♦ * AFTER THE RUSSIAN Tog, son of Blog, chews granite on the hearth. Yuppa, his wife, beats dough with a stick. Sumestoff, the schoolmaster , -enters with a letter. Somestoff: A letter, little brother uncle of Buzzoft'. Yug: My skin is prickly and lard is costly, oh brother of Ug. Yuppa (strangling herself laconically): Do not open it, little husband father of Mudvitch. Yug (putting his head in the fire): Life is muck! Somestoff looks at. the letter on the floor and dies, his soul mewing pitifully as it leaves the body. (Curtain.)