60 See First Night Of Drama Festival Plays

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 58, 27 July 1965, Page 9

60 See First Night Of Drama Festival Plays

About 60 people attended the first night in the Taupo area British Drama League one - act play festival on Tuesday. The three plays, "Blunder", by Conrad Carter, "A Civil Marriage", by Robert Tanitch, and "Tread Softly", by Jean Christie, were all good choices for small groups to master. Taupo Dramatic Society entered 'Tread Softly" in the festival. Costuming for the play was excellent, and this was also the opinion of the adjudicat-or, Miss Mavis Mortland. Action and dialogue were rather halting in parts, but entrances and -exits were usually well-timed. Possibly the main objection to the play was that it was too ponderous in its efforts to put over the old story of racial segregation in the southern states of America in the last century. A story with a moral must have plenty of punch to be effective in a one-act play The 'opening scene of a serving girl entering a darkened room from a sunlit landscape was impressive and a credit to the back - stage technicians. There was certainly a moral to Tokoroa Drama Club's play, "A Civil Marriage". It could . be "get married and your troubles start". The setting was a marriage registry office and the characters were all easily recognisable. The groom was nervous, the bride placid, the mother tearful. A little bit of spice was added by the witness (female) who hinted about her intriguing past during the performance. Some of her advice and instructions to the couple were unorthodox, but raised a laugh from the audience. The seven members of the cast were close-knit well throughout the entire play. Some adverse criticism came from the adjudicator, who thought the cast could have planned their stage movements to better advantage. Reporoa Drama Club chose a murder thriller for its entry. In "Blunder", the cast was required to build the play to a carefullyI timed climax with a gradual ' increase in the tempo of the dialogue. They carried this off quite well, although enunciation by some of the actors was not clear and some of the lines were missed by the audience.

The story was about an "old maid" and an aspiring "old maid" trapped together In an old house. They hated each other and the younger woman decided to kill off her rival. This she did but, as the title of the play suggests, she made a blunder and was duly caught. Sprays made by three girls from the Taupo-nui-a-Tia College, Patricia Painter, Jennifer McLeod and Catherine Young, were presented during the evening. On the following night, the two final plays of the festival were presented. They were "A Phoenix Too Frequent", by Christopher Fry, and "Dangerous Twilight", by Anthony Booth.