“THE FOURTH WALL”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 November 1940, Page 2

“THE FOURTH WALL”

LITTLE THEATRE SOCIETY PRODUCTION. “The Fourth Wall,” which is to be produced in Masterton by the Little Theatre Society on Saturday and Monday next, was enthusiastically received on its first production in London, and had a long and successful' run there, and also in America. It is described as a detective story in three acts, and the plot, though a new departure for the author, is treated with a subtlety of which none but Milne could be capable. It is, moreover, unique in detective stories. The interest lies, not in the crime on which the story is based, but in the detection of it, and the discovery of the criminals. The audience is not kept in the dark as to what has happened; it sees everything through the “fourth wall” of the title. The crime is committed in a room of which, of course, only three walls can be shown on the stage. The fourth wall is that which, were the room complete, would stand between the stage and the audience, and it is through the space where the missing “fourth wall” should be that the audience sees the crime committed. Through this same fourth wall, the audience then watches the process of detection, in which the gradual gathering of clues and slender threads of evidence at last leads to the discovery of the criminals. It is difficult, in a verbal description, to present an adequate idea of the skill and subtlety with which the author has worked out his plot; these can be fully appreciated only by witnessing an actual performance.

As with all this year’s productions of the Little Theatre Society, the net proceeds of both performances will go to patriotic purposes. The box plan is open at the shops of Messrs Steele & Bull, next to the Empire Hotel.