A PLAY FOR SOUTHLAND
Sir-I have just read The Morntfomeries of Glenholme, and I would courteously ask Mr Newman to tell us what the merits of this play are. I would also like to know what the theme of it is. The dialogue is clumsy, artificial period style, certainly not the style of 1880 in any colony. Women characters "pray" and "la" throughout, which they might have done in Jane Austen’s day, but not in 1880. Further, the construction of the play is laughable. Characters appear by magic, always just when they are wanted. One scene ends with a solilogquy that runs-‘"And yet somehow I've
got to stop you. But how? How?" So far as I can see there is no dramatic action of any kind. I notice, however, that Mr Newman does admit the play has defects, for he says in reply to Mr Harcourt, "There were plays that were certainly more pretentious, more pompous, more incomprehensible, than the winning one." The italics are mine. If this statement means anything, it means that the play in question has these defects to some degree. It certainly has.
M.
W.
(Wellington).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570705.2.20.7
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 934, 5 July 1957, Page 11
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190A PLAY FOR SOUTHLAND New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 934, 5 July 1957, Page 11
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