Coward's Preface to "Play Parade"

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 19, 16 November 1934, Page 16

Coward's Preface to "Play Parade"

"With My Success as a Playwright Came Many Pleasurable Trappings""Six Plays" is a Volume of Considerable Merit- Six One-act Plays With All-women Casts-J. W. Marriott’s Collection.

SEVERAL volumes: of new plays which have recently come on to the New Zealand market, contain the work of such well-known playwrights as Noel Coward, Somerset Maugham, J B. Priestley. Clemence Dane, Bugene O'Neill, W. B, Yeats, Tchekov, Lord Dunsany,: Maeterlinck, Galsworthy) Laurence Housman, A. A. Milne, and Guitry,, These books have been re viewed for the "Radio Record" by the well-known Wellington playwright and critic, Victor 8.. Lloyd.. His eriticisms are published below. : "PLAY PARADE," by Noel Coward. This is an omnibus volume of seven of Noel Coward’s most representative plays, and published by Heinemann. Included: are "Cavalcade," "Bitter Sweet," "The Vortex," "Hay Fever," "Design for Living," ‘Private Lives," and "Post-Mortem." This is a volume that should proye very popular, not only for the fact that it containg the cream of the output of our. most. brilliant playwright, but because of the ex: ceptionally interesting foreword by*the author, in which he dispels a few popular delusions and gives us a’ wittilyphrased criticism of each’ of the plays. For. instance. he writes. of "The Vor. tex": "It was written in 1928... an im-. mediate. success: and established me both as.a playwright and as an actor, which was very fortunate, because until then I had not proved myself to: be so hot'in-either capacity, With this.suc cess came-many pleasurable trappings. A.car. New suits. Silk shirts. An ex-

travagant amount of pyjamas and dressing gowns, and a still more extravagant amount of publicity. I was photographed, and interviewed and photographed again, In the street. ln the park. In my dressing-room. At my piano. With my dear old mother. Without my dear old mother-and, on one occasion, sitting up in an overelaborate bed looking like a heavilydoped Chinese illusionist" From every point of view this is a volume which should find an honoured place on the shelves of all drama lovers. SIX PLAYS. How many volumes of plays there are labelled "Six Plays’ I know not, but this I do know. There are few which contain such a splendid collection of ‘ modern plays as this volume published by Heinemann. This new volume contains "Design for Living," by Noel ‘Coward; "Wild Decembers," by Clemence Dane; "Dinner at Hight," by Ferber and Kaufman; "Sheppey," by W. ' Somerset Maugham; "Dangerous Coruer," by J, B, Priestley; and "Rats of | ‘Norway," by Keith Winter. "Rats of Norway," by the way, has nothing whatever to do with that country. The viay is set in a preparatory school in Northumberland. "Design for Living" was specially written by Coward for his two friends, Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt, and himself. The author Says of it: "It has been liked and disliked, and hated and .admired, but never, I think, sufficiently loved by any but its threé leading actors." . "Wild Decembers" is considered by many to be the finest play Clemence Dane -has yet written; it deals sympathetically and engrossingly with the Brontes. "Dinher at Hight" is the most successful ‘play written by the two most famous of living collaborators, It has been an enormous succéss in both America and England. "Sheppey," by Mangham, is a play that will néver grow stale, be‘cause of its noble theme, and the "superb craftsmanship of the writing. ‘"Dangerous Corner," by Priestley, will probably become even more popular among amateurs than it was on. the professional stage. FIFTY ONE-ACT PLAYS, — | This is a volume, published; by Gollanez, that the amateur world has been waiting for. Here is a; magnificent collection of one-act plays: of every conceivable kind by the master writers of yesterday and to-day. Some you will know and remember as fine plays, but the great majority you will not know, and it will come as\a' surprise to- you to find that there are so many outstanding examples of this.most difficult art-form. W. B. Yeats, Lady Gregory, Lord Dunsany, for instance, represent the Irish School, Hugene O’Neil represents America’s best, Galsworthy, Housman and Milne are only a few of many fine writers whose best work is here included. Then there are Plays which have never before been

published, and translations from. writers of. other countries such as Chekov, Guitry, Maeterlinck, Schnitzler, Strindberg, Sudermann, Andreyev and Asch, No amateur society, no amateur actor, nor anyone with an interest in the amateur stage should be without this truly magnificent volume. LADIES ONLY. Here is.a collection of six one-act plays with all-women casts, written by Muriel and Sydney Box, and published by Harrop. Sydney Box, in my opinion, is one of the finest writers of modern experimental plays. This: volume is bound to be popular because for the first time we have a volume of plays for all-women casts that. possess real literary merit. There is not one play in this volume that any group of players would not have the right to be proud of having produced. Adding considerably to the value of thig volume is a "Letter to a Young Actress" by that very accomplished actress Flora Robson, in which she conveys some valuable hints on acting, EIGHT NEW ONE-ACT PLAYS OF _ These eight plays, published by Lovat Dickson, have never previously been published and have been chosen by John Bourne, who is a festival udjudicator for the British Drama League in HEngland. Last year Mr. Bourne issued a similar volume and it met with an enormous and much-merited success. This new volume contains plays by James Bridie, Neil Grant, Aino Kallas, Dorothy Coates, ,Sydney Box (who has won ‘the new play \prize at Welwyn three years in succession), F. Sladen-Smith (who has won the Lord Howard de Walden Trophy on two occasions), Olive Popplewell (for a cast of eight women), and 4 very fine ‘play by the editor of this valuable addition to the library of one-act plays. ONE-ACT PLAYS OF TO-DAY. It is ten years since Harrap’s issued the first of this series of one-act plays selected by J. W. Marriott, and the level of quality of the plays chosen has been kept remarkably high. In this latest addition to the series-the sixth, by the way-the quality is maintained, and Mr. Marriott is to be congratulated on his unerring taste. Included in the volume are plays by Harold Brighouse, Harold Chapin, Lady Gregory, F. Sladen-Smith, Ashley Dukes, and five other accomplished writers. The editor writes in his preface: "The plays have been chosen for their dramatic merit, and though none of them has been specially ‘written down’ for youthful actors they are all suitable for intensive study or for school production." But this should not lead anyone to the belief that they are plays for children; they are plays for adults which children may profitably study for their literary merit as well as their dramatic merit.