Catching Folly As It Flies

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 954, 22 November 1957, Page 18

Catching Folly As It Flies

FREE AND EASY . N intimate revue for Spring, 1957, presented by the New Zealand Theatre Trust. Directed by Richard Campion. The Players: Bridget Armstrong, John Archibald, Raewyn Lamb, Terence Bayler, Brigid Lenihan, Terry Finnegan, Hiria Moffat, John Hunter, Ngaire Porter, Barry Linehan, Rilla Stephens, John McRae, Bryon O’Leary, George Webby. Script and music by New Zealanders Bruce Mason, Denis Glover, Leslie Souness, Peter Harcourt, David Tinkham, Terence Bayler, Richard Dennant, Bryon O’Leary, Redmond Phillips, Brian Bell, Edward Hill, Dorothea Franchi, Irene Adcock, Barry Linehan, John Reid, Barrie Stewart, Douglas Lilburn, David McKee Wright, and English revue writers Arthur Macrae, Richard Addinsell, David Climie, Julian Slade, Michael Flanders, Donald Swan, Noel Coward. N their 19th , production, The New Zealand Players have broken new gtound and broken it well. Free and Easy, which South Island audiences are now to enjoy, is a revue designed for entertainment with the accent on life in New Zealand and, allowing for a ‘few weaknesses, it achieves its intention. On the whole, it is first-rate entertainment. Give and take a little, too, it is above all a New Zealand revue, a point I hold to be of some importance, for if there is a tradition of any kind in our theatre it is in the direction of revue, First we had "The Diggers," then "The Kiwis,’ and down the years the annual extravaganzas of our university colleges. In all of these I believe we have seen from time to time the best examples of our writing talent turned to writing for the stage. For this reason Free and Easy brings The Players nearer to the New Zealand theatre than they have ever been before. They seemed a little more at home, too. While some may shake their heads at what they consider a descent by The Players to revue, The Players themselves have no need to hang their heads. What revue can do needs doing. For too long we have had only Australian revues which at best have been merely good vaudeville. Revue is not the same thing. Revue catches folly as it flies. With the bite of its satire and the bark of its wit it can make us all a little more aware of ourselves. So much revue can do at its best. Free and Easy goes some way towards doing it. In entertainment value this revue scores high. It is colourful, light-hearted, fast-moving. There is music, dancing and laughter, and always there is good taste. There is solid teamwork from the eight men and six women who make up the company. No one just waves a leg and smiles. When there is acting to do they all act. Though Brigid Lenihan, Barry Linehan and John Hunter carry a larger burden than the rest, I doubt if three others could be found in the country to carry it as well. In its scope, too, the appeal of this revue is wide. Little in our way of life

is not tilted at-ourselves, traffic officérs, broadcasting, the tourist trade, fashions, the four cities, the T.A.B., advertising, politics, the coffee-house vogue, wealthy farmers. In short, New Zealand in town and country. One scene, "Shanty by the Way," based on traditional West Coast ballads, might well be expanded into a New Zealand "musical." One piece of pure theatre in sound and movement, "Ballad for a Cowboy," though it fails because the dancing is scarcely up to it, in idea and originality packs a tremendous audience impact. In script, song and music the revue is basically the work of New Zealanders, 18 of them, but it must be admitted that not all of it measures up to the standard set by the English contributors. In this lies the revue’s greatest weakness. Too often there is a lack of theatricality in the writing, good basic ideas being thrown away or weakened by dialogue that-is not stage dialogue. The satire is not always incisive enough for revue wherein it must cut deep and yet be genial, debunk and not be insulting. Helen Murray’s "Get Away Back There," a gem of the show, is an exception. In its accent on life in New Zealand, however, the script too often loses direction. It is also too long. While some of the English numbers are appropriate enough, the Noel Coward numbers were, I feel, a mistake, and the attempt to link them to New Zealand almost ridiculous. A dash of sheer ruthlessness all over the script would have improved the revue. The company was at times handicapped in other directions as well. The size of a theatre such as the Grand Opera House, Wellington, does not help a comedy point that depends on the lift of an eyebrow or the inflection in a voice. When this was joined by a Jack of projection in some of the ‘players and production that did not force attention upon them, the lack of ‘intimacy seriously weakened the revue. Some of the players were guilty of forcing a laugh and others of over-run-ning one. They were ill-served at times, too, by the lighting, which lacked concentration, but they could not have been better served in the settings and costumes designed by Joan and David de Bethel. These enhanced the revue without ever getting in the way of it. It is to be hoped that by now the company has found some means of identifying clearly "Shanty by the Way" with New Zealand. The note in the programme is insufficient. Free and Easy could not be a better forerunner of what might well become an annual theatre event in New

Zealand.

Russell

Reid