THE PLAY'S THE THING

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 87, 18 September 1953, Page 4

THE PLAY'S THE THING

FROM the earliest recorded times play-acting has provided one of the most popular fofms of entertaisment. A form of entertainment of infinite variety, lending itself to the /ieeds of all sorts and conditions of people, and capable of being enjoyed almost equally well either with the aid of properties and equipment of the most elaborate kind or with none at all. It has perhaps been largely forgotten, in this age of the cinema, that Shakespeare's plays were produced with practically no scenery or stage effects and that they were the delight of the common people as «much as of the lords and ladies. In modern times we have been apt to overlook the appeal of the flesh-and-blood play through the tendency to think of it as a sort of poor relation of the "movie" or "talkie." This tendency is based on fallacy. Descended from the stage play the "movie" no doubt is. But it is a thing apart, and the flesh-and-blood survives, and will survive, not as a poor relation of the cinema drama, but as something different in kind that need fear 110 comparison and can stand on its own feet. That this universal appeal of the play to the people has not lost its power has been demonstrated in Taupo during the past year by the success that has attended the activities of the Taupo Dramatic

Society, summarised in another column of this issue. Most of the members of the Society who have acted in the plays produced in this first year of the Society, or who have read parts in fortnightly play readings, have had no previous ex~ perience. And it would no doubt be true to say that many of those who have attended the productions have had more experience of the cinema than of acted plays. But the play's the thing, and the appreciative audiences at both the plays and the play-readings prove the worth of the Society's efforts. In the play, as in iife, performance improves with praetice and crlticism. The seasoned player can do better than the beginner. But the beginner can, if prepared to do his best and keen to learn, put on a show that needs no apology, even if it be not perfect. The Society should have no great difficulty in securing the extra membership' it .aims at. There is no doubt whatever that many who have not yet attended the productions, or the play-readings, would not wish to miss them once they had done so. We commend the Society's activities to our readers, and suggest that those who have not attended any of the performances should make a point of seeing the next one. They will ffiid it good entertainment.