SOLWAY COLLEGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1940, Page 8

SOLWAY COLLEGE

END OF YEAR EVENTS DRILL, DANCING AND GYMNASTIC DISPLAY MANY ATTRACTIVE FEATURES. There was a representative attendance of parents at the drill, dancing, and gymnastic demonstration given by the girls of Solway College. In the first part of the programme dancing items were performed on the stage, and the neatness and precision of the footwork, the rhythm, poise and grace showed that the objectives of the class-work had been attained. Ballets, tap dances, and folk dances in which the girls appeared in school uniform in every item, followed in quick succession. One striking item was a figure marching display in which green and white bands were worn introducing the names of the school sports.

Before the hall was cleared for the gymnastic work there was a charming mannequin parade demonstrating the dressmaking of the year, in which costumes of all kinds' and seasons figured, reflecting credit on the sewing mistress, Miss Joan Ince. Afterwards the visitors inspected the studio work, which has been under the supervision of Miss Waveney Davis, among which were exquisite specimens of art needlework, featuring tapestry and embroideries, leatherwork, drawings and paintings.

The drill and gymnastics showed highly commendable work in physical exercises, on the ropes and the horse. The evening concluded with an exhibition in the hall of folk dances of many lands performed with gaiety and abandon by joyous girls in shorts and braces and dirndles. The evening from start to finish bore ample evidence of the soundness of the teaching methods of Miss M. Stephens who has controlled the physical education of the school during the last year.

PREFECTS’ PLAY “THE LILIES OF THE FIELD.” On Saturday evening the prefects of Solway College presented “The Lilies of the Field” by J. H. Turner, to a large audience of relatives and friends. The play, with its repartee and absurd situations is a difficult one for schoolgirls, but the laughter showed that the audience did not have a dull .moment. The first scene is laid in the living room of the vicarage of Wideleete, where the main topic of conversation is the approaching birthday of the twin daughters of the vicar. Their grandmother is to take on of them to London but cannot decide which one until the vicar announces that antiquarian is coming to lunch. Mrs. Roobe'Walter decides to take whichever girl makes the greater impression on the visitor. Elizabeth, ‘the brainy one,’ by posing as. a Victorian miss is successful. The next scene is in London where Elizabeth has created a great sensation. She has fallen in love with the antiquarian and is afraid to confess her deception. At the end of the second act she is miserably contemplating spending the rest of her life in crinolines. The climax comes in the third act when Catherine falls in love with a Byronic young man and Elizabeth reveals to her fiance that she is really a young modern. Patricia Blamires was excellent in the character of the guileless vicar, harassed on all sides by his long suffering wife' (Rose Allen) his charming twin daughters (Evelyn Bodkin and Margaret St. George-Ryder), and his worldly-minded mother-in-law, excellently portrayed by Merran McCulloch. Marion Knight and Nancy Reid played the parts of the antiquarian and the Byronic youth very cleverly and Nola Dockery and Joaij Thomas as ultrafashionable Victorian ladies added to the comedy. Lynette Millar was the dainty maid and Flora McDonald the impeccable butler. |