DUSTY CURTAINS
NINETEENTH CENTURY PLAYS, edited by George Powell; Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, English price 7/6. "| {OWEVER unremarkable they are as literature. . .." says the introduction. This is understating it -so far as concerns most of the plays in this edition. In Caste (T. W. Robertson) a gentleman marries an actress whose father has no grammar, won’t work and drinks. Our hero’s mother, the Marchioness, finds this character impossible, and frankly he is rather a hurdle. It is difficult to understand why anyone should go to the expense of reprinting this play. In Lady Audley’s Secret (C. H. Hazlewood) the secret is that Lady Audley is really the wife of another man. He turns up and threatens to expose her. But resourceful Lady Audley hits him >on the head with a pump handle and bundles him into a well, whence he~returns in Act III miraculously preserved. It takes all of Acts II and III to see justice done on the
malefactress. Ticket of Leave Man (Tom Taylor) is about a convict (wrongly convicted), who rehabilitates his name. Most of if is just old time "melodramma" of no merit. Money (Bulwer Lytton) is just as silly. On the other hand, Two Roses (James Albery), is charming-a period piecelight, delicate, whimsical. A revival of this piece is indicated. The Colleen Bawn (Dion Boucicault, father of the one you know) is probably the worst of the. lot. None of the Irish in it ever existed except on the stage. Ludicrous dialogue, absurd situations, mostly in bad taste. A Pair of Spectacles (Sydney | Grundy) is worth reprinting, but Black | Ey’d Susan (Douglas Jerrold) and The Bells (Leopold Lewis) _would hardly please an audience today. Henry Irving | took the principal part in the first pro- |
duction of The Bells.
F. J.
Foot
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540423.2.27.6
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 770, 23 April 1954, Page 14
Word count
Tapeke kupu
297DUSTY CURTAINS New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 770, 23 April 1954, Page 14
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.