STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 November 1941, Page 8

STATE THEATRE

“MAJOR BARBARA.” The State Theatre was packed on Saturday night when the audience acclaimed “Major Barbara” as a brilliant picture magnificently acted. It is rarely that such an outstanding human drama is seen on the screen. Brilliant wit and devastating satire combine in “Major Barbara,” which will be shown again tonight at the State Theatre. The film is rich in humanity and understanding, and the characters are brilliantly drawn. The picture is not an idle tale of people who never existed, but is a tale of real people—of the kind of people that make up the world. It is a story of hopes, faith and disillusionment. Only Shaw could have made a hero out of an armaments manufacturer, who traffics in blood and misery. The role of Major Barbara, the Salvation Army lassie, whose mission in life is to save souls in the squalor of the slums, is capably handled by Wendy Hiller, the Eliza Doolittle of ‘Pygmalion.” The major learns through bitter experience that all humans are but little people, many of whom are hypocrites and opportunists, and that the religion she preaches can be bought by the tainted money of a millionaire munitions magnate and a distiller of whisky, who are the causes of the poverty and misery she endeavours to overcome. Hers is a religion which under test sells out to the forces it professes to combat. _ A pictorial review of the participation of British troops in the war, New Zealanders in the Middle East and other patriotic features were warmly applauded by the audience.