THREE LOCAL PLAYS

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 82, 12 August 1953, Page 1

THREE LOCAL PLAYS

DRAMA SOCIETY'S ENTERPRISE The Committee of the Taupo Dramatic Society are to be congratulated on their choice of a triple biii for presentation at Rickit's Hall on Thursday and Friday, August 13 and 14. The three one-act plays chosen, "Dark Brown," by Phiiip Johnson, "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals," by J. M. Barrie, and "Little Glass Houses," by Howard Agg and Phiiip Johnson, cover a variety of emotions from farce to drama and will give plenty of scope to the respective producers, Charles Leslie, J. D. Swan and Elizabeth Cuiford Bell. In a Dramatic Society's first year as many active members as possible must be given an opportunity to show their capabilities, thus giving the committee some idea of talent available for future productions. The three plays being produced will have a total cast of thirteen women and four men, a greater number than can be used in an ordinary three-act play. "Dark Brown" "Dark Brown" is a psychological melodrama by the well-known playwright Phiiip Johnson. It shows how a young wife's faith in her husband can be shattered by a combination of circumstances and thoughtless talk. The husband has been away from home and on his return she accuses him of deception. He is finally f orced to confess to professional activities that leave her with a terrible decision to make. The fall of the curtain shows what that decision is. Barrie At His Best "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals" is J. M. Barrie at his best. He tells the very human story of an elderly genteel Scotch spinster in Londoir during the 1914-18 war, eking out an existence as a charlady and calling herself Mrs Dowey to give her staneling with her three associates, rather common London charwomen. To achieve his charaeteristic pathos Barrie introduces into the lives of these four elderly women a spldier, Private K. Dowey, of the Black Watch, on leave from the front, who first appears as an outraged indignant Scotsman. It is the winning over of this soldier by the old lady which makes the play, which is in three scenes, in the last of which no word is spoken. It was first produced in London in 1917 when that famous British actress Beryl Mercer played the part of Mrs Dowey. It was filmed in America under the title of "Five Days Leave" with Gary Cooper as Private Dowey. ^Little Glass Houses" The scene of the comedy "Little Glass Houses"7 is iaid at " the Assembly Rooms in Bath during the reign of George III, when Bath is still the glamorous world of fashion attracting the wealthy, aristocratic and socially ambitious. Here fond match-making mammas bring marriageable daughters to meet eligible bachelors of wealth or title. This season their hopes haye been frustrated by an entrancing interloper who calls herself Madame Rossignob sings divinely and has captivated all male hearts. She ^ does not reveal who or whence she is, and the women are jealously up in arms against her9 determined to uncover some scandal to compel her to leave Bath, and their menfolk, forthwith. Will they succeed? Well, we know what people who live in "Little Glass Houses" should not do. So we shall see.