Ruth Draper’s Great Art

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1058, 23 August 1930, Page 24

Ruth Draper’s Great Art

AMAZING TALENT WONDERFUL DRAWING POWER I don’t know if there is an official Eighth Wonder of the World, but if I had to nominate a candidate for the post I should unhesitatingly vote for Ruth Draper, writes a correspondent in “The Theatre World.” For a long time I had heard tales of her amazing talent, but as so often happens this served merely to prejudice me against her, even as people used to boast to incrudulous friends that they had never seen “Chu Chin Chow.” This time, however, I determined to judge for myself, and so one sultry June afternoon found me, with a score of devotees, standing two deep at the back of the Vaudeville Theatre. Only that morning 1 had read in my paper of a theatrical slump. Spectacular productions, it appeared, were playing Lo a handful of patrons: films on which millions of dollars had been lavished were droning on to half empty cinemas. And yet here was a woman packing a West End theatre from floor to ceiling and by sheet force of personality drawing nearly £3,000 to the box-office every week! One-Woman Show Hitherto I had regarded a onewoman show with a feeling of dread, akin to revulsion. I conjured up visions of recitals (through gauze or down a megaphone) of unscannable verse which sought to justify itself by some high-falutin’ title and into which neither rhyme nor reason ever crept. I was soon to be enlightened. Ruth Draper’s character sketches artall drawn from life and coloured by an acute perception of the trivialities that go to make up a complex individual Her show is surely the most economical ever staged. Just a background of yellow curtains, with a chair here and there. Nothing more. But those yellow curtains become in turn a charity bazaar, a Scotch pit-head, an American office, the interior of a limousine and a church in Florence, as Ruth Draper causes each character to live before our eyes. Her voice, in some miraculous manner, changes perceptibly in every sketch. Her Countess opening a bazaar denotes an astonishing familiarity with English village conditions. The muddle-headed, but wellintentioued interest in the parishioners, the dreadful mistakes about the exhibits of stall-holders, the incessant strain of small talk —are all perfect, yet we are left with a clear impression of the grande dame, with an inflexible sense of duty and tradition. The best sketch, by far. was “Three Women and Mr. Clifford.” Here the art of Ruth Draper reached its zenith of observation and wit. In turn she introduced us to the secretary, wife and mistress of an American business man, contrasting the deadly efficiency the first, the innate selfishness of the second, and the restful sympathy of the third. Uncanny Studies Not only was each character perfectly conceived and conveyed, but in some uncanny way Ruth Draper managed to show us the man himself, just as distinctly as if he had been present throughout the sketch. Her study of the wife, driving home at night from the theatre, was a masterpiece of satirical insigftt that should make many an American wife writhe. If we may judge by American novels and by our own observations at Continental pleasure resorts the type is by no means uncommon, and the world is now familiar with these monuments of cupidity whose chief communication with Poppa “way back home” is a cable for further funds.

The programme concluded with a church in Florence, where a number of tourists pass swiftly through, the German bewailing the eternal macaroni at her pension and the American worshipping the Great God Baedeker with all the devoutuess of her kind. Dike all cultured Americans, Miss Draper is especially savage at the expense of tourists who rush everywhere and observe nothing. By this time it was stiflingly hot at the back of the theatre, and had it been an ordinary play we should have been out in the Strand hours ago. But time and discomfort were both forgotten, for .we were held by the spell of a great genius.

Complaining that they failed to star her lit major productions in accordance with the terms of her contract, Beatrice Lillie, the English actress, has filed a suit for £20,000 damages against Warner Brothers, the filmproducing company. The suit claims that, despite the fact that she was being paid £3,000 weekly in salary, Miss Lillie was relegated to “minor shots” only, and did not appear in a major production throughout her connection with the company.