UNCOMFORTABLE SEATS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 7933, 15 December 1909, Page 2

UNCOMFORTABLE SEATS.

"Musical" writes as follows concerning his experiences at the Oddfellows' Hall last night:. "Seated modestly in the background, as I gassed with observant ■ eyes over the blue and pink and white creations '.attempting to do 1 honour to our-Orchestral Society; over the charmingly coiffufed heads with the faces (that I did riot see) close fixed on the performers on the stage, there came athwart my mind a quaint picture from dear old Punch! of a stage of the days of Shakespeare—a picture drawn part in jest and part in earnest; the bare boards and. colder looking walls marked with such slips as: 'this is a wood,' and 'this is a rose garden' and 'this a country lane' (let us suppose), and'so on! It was (I think) intended as a set-off to the unapproachable Irving in his well-known lavish stage decoration and appointment; but those seats—in the body of our hall, I mean. Seats, do I Tiear you say. I ask your pardon. No; I mean those prehistoric forms. Not even the 'concord of sweet sounds' so ably directed by the able leader —artist to the finger- tips that he is—could lead us to forget them. Even granted that" the stage of that far off -Elizabethan day was bare of all the furniture and modern scenic effect we are so accustomed to; yet the'picturesque dress of that vivid and intellectual age lent/a charm that harmonised with that of the eager onlookers; but—O those, forms of ours! Still am I reminded of that part; tf my back where the cross•';'pic- in that awful form ought to be. As mine eyes wandered, to and, fro 'whilst' listening to the passionate, pleading of Home,, or trying to blend the golden glitter' of the harp with Miss Barker's exquisite fingering of 'Home Sweet Home,' there was forced upon my simple mind the want of harmony, between the music, the listeners, and—our 'Opera House.' O, those seats! When will one of our' local millionaires hand his name down to posterity by building us a place of entertainment worthy of'this little town? Doth echo answer—when? Is it but a 'Vision Entrancing,' or the call to* a 'Garden of Lies?' The spot awaits him beside the place so-called a .Then will the 'All Blacks' and better will give us of their best; then will our Orchestral Society be an institution; then will the art that is in every mother's son—and daughter—of us arise and call him blessed."