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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 936, 19 July 1957, Page 11

Sir,-M.W. (Wellington) asks me to state the theme and the merits of The Montgomeries of Glenholme. The theme is simple and straightforward, not new but perfectly sound; that of people involved in the problems of adapting themselves to a new environment. I am sorry that time and space have to. be wasted in telling someone who has read the play something so obvious. He finds the construction of the play laughable because the characters appear just when they are wanted. What does he mean? Can he name a play in which characters don’t appear when they are wanted? Construction can be criticised if characters appear when they cannot reasonably be expected to be available to do so. If this is what is meant, I agree that it is a common fault, but it is not one that is to be found in The Montgomeries. The plot is thin, but it is absurd to say that there is no dramatic action: there is quite sufficient to carry the play and establish its merits which lie in its atmosphere, style, charm and quality. If some people do not appreciate these, it does not follow that they do not exist or are not valid. The point of having a theatre person rather than an academic one as a judge

of plays is not that he is better at spotting a good play from a bad one, for nobody, dramatic critics included, ever agrees about this: it is that he is better able; as a rule, to tell from a script whether it will play well or not. If this is not to be considered important it would seem that, after all, the proper judges are professors and we must all return to the old-fashioned idea that plays are to be considered not as theatre material but on their merits as dramatic literature. Since my previous letter I have learnt threugh your columns that Mr E. Martin Browne, as well as myself, placed The Montgomeries of Glenholme first in a country-wide playwriting competition. Mr Dunlop has said that it proved itself in performance at Invercargill. I saw this production and I agree with him. Clearly the play cannot be brushed aside in the scornful tones used by those who have written against it. If Mr Harcourt and M.W. can be in Christchurch between October 18-26 they will be able to see the play, after which T shall be delighted to continue the discussion with them-the criterion being not what a play looks like on paper but what it looks like on the stage. .

FRANK

NEWMAN

(Christchurch).