LOUD-SPEAKER PLAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1070, 6 September 1930, Page 24

LOUD-SPEAKER PLAY

Remarkable Production Staged in Stockholm THE ROBOT AGE One of the most remarkable and technically best equipped modern plays ever staged was performed recently in the grounds of the Stockholm Exhibition of Arts, Crafts and Ideal Homes, when the “Fest-spel,’ > by Sigfrid Siwertz, a well-known Swedish author, had its first performance in the presence of at least 10,000 spectators, including the Crown Prince and other members of the Royal Family. At 10 o’clock at night, when the Northern white night had toned down into an opal hue, the Festival Play began on an open-air stage. There was an unfinished business building in j the background, lit up by searchlights j aiid intermittent fireworks. Several 1 enormous shop windows loudly adverI tised new patent contrivances, readymade political opinions, new social theories, etc., all roaring out their respective merits through loud-speakers with uproarious effect. A ballet of rubber-clad figures circled round “the genius of the wheel," and later another ballet of Robots moved stiffly on the fioor to the shrill modern music of amplified gramophone records. The actors moved and seemed to speak, but, instead, other actors behind the stage spoke the parts through loud-speakers, an experiment which opens up new vistas for open-air acting to big audiences.

The dramatist is happily satirical about the apprehension of those who tear that the technical era of today will eradicate all inner human happiness and who regard this Stockholm Exhibition of new ideas as a symbol of a mechanised future.

In spite of our machine age, as represented by those advertising firms and hustling “boosters" on the stage, the song of the heart will ever silence the noise of the wheel. To this effect Manjana. tomorrow’s genius, was called upon by the “heavenly couferencier." a gigantic voice in the midair, and appeared on the top of the business building, speaking soothing and inspiring words to the machineage devotees, who have themselves become afraid of the mechanical life. At the same time the satire contains passages of lyrical beauty and striking stage technique. The play is, indeed, a most fortunate expression of the spirit of the age, oscillating between justified pride over technical conquests and lurking fears of a lost happiness.