Sir Arthur Pinero— His Plays and Players

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1046, 9 August 1930, Page 27

Sir Arthur Pinero — His Plays and Players

EXCELLENT STAGE TECHNIQUE

Among the most important of British playwrights of the late VictorianGeorgian period, which includes the “eighties” to the present day, is Sir Arthur Pinero.

While his plays, as a rule, have not the intense humanity of Barrie’s, they do not go so deep into the heart. Nevertheless, they are admirable examples of contemporary English dramatic literature, full of wit and observation, and a sense of the theatre. Many of them we have seen and ad-

mired, for there is not one which is not acceptable" to the cultivated intelligence, and some of them Inust, from their literary and human qualities, live. Yet he has made mistakes in taste. Some of us remember the uproar caused by an incident in “The Wife Without a

Smile.” His pen Sir A. Pinero was sometimes trivial, as in “Preserving Mr. Panmure,” but in such dramas as “The Second Mrs. Tanqueray,” “Sweet Lavender,” and “The Benefit of the Doubt,” dramas of very varied character, he established himself as a playwright of the first rank. He is a satirist who looks at the petty tragedies of life with a certain coldness which repels the romantic playgoer who loves Barrie. Iu “His House in Order,” done here some years ago with Irene Vanbrugh as Nina, Pinero reached a pitch of perfection in stage technique which has never been excelled by any British dramatist. The smoothness and skill with which (he incidents follow each other, and the edges are joined, makes this play an example of craftsmanship to young and aspiring playwrights.

These plays, and the. many very fine actors and actresses, the flower of the British stage, who have played in them, are discussed by Mr. Hamilton Fyfe in his book, “Sir Arthur Pinero—His Plays and Players.” Some few of these players, Miss Vanbrugh, Dion Boucicault, Lewis Waller, we have seen in Australia and New Zealand, but to scan the names of the multitude we have never seen makes us realise how far we are from London, and how little we have been catered for in the very best the British stage has produced during the past half-century.

Jimmy Goddeu, who toured New Zealmd in several musical pieces with

Elsie Prince, is apearing in vaudeville in London. It is his first appearance since he left Australia.

“The Maid of the Mountains,” the British musical comedy, which ran for over a thousand performances at Daly’s, during the war, is to be revived with Annie Croft (here in “The Girl Friend") in the part that was played originally by Jose Collins. Billie Hill, who was in “The Blue Mazurka,” Blake Adams, Leonard Russell) Lester Matthews, Nancy Fraser and William Dennis are also in the cast. Mr. Adams toured New Zealand in “Lady of The Rose.” Johnny Forde. recently playing in Gladys Moncrieff’s company, is said to be the oldest actor on the Australian stage. He was playing roles with Emelie Melville’s Opera Company at the old Victoria Theatre in 1875. and was with the firm for many years. He was Australia’s first and best “Mikado” in 18S5. He played the Emperor with a soft simper, almost a mincing form of speech. For Rignold and Alison’s Opera Company he created the roles of Folbach (“Falka”) and Weazel (“Nell Gwynne”). He was an excellent Bailie in “Les Cloches de rjorneville.” In drama his roles were equally interesting, and he was considered a better John Stofel (“Struck Oil”) than J.C.W. himself.