ENTERTAINMENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 33, 18 November 1939, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

ST. JAMES THEATRE. A star-packed cast topped by Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea, the heroic story of the building of America’s first transcontinental railroad and some of the biggest epic scenes Cecil B. De Mille has ever filmed combine to make C.B.’s newest offering, “Union Pacific,” one of the most impressive works of many a season. Now showing at the St. James Theatre. The two principals of the story, played to perfection by Miss Stanwyck and McCrea, are Mollie Monahan and Jeff Butler; sbo the lusty, joyous daughter of a “IJ.P.” engineer and the mascot of the railroad-builders; he a handsome trouble-shooter sent out by Washington when trouble-makers threaten the construction of the road. Their whirlwind romance is in keeping with the mad pace of the times in. which it took place. At the “end of the track,” the brawling town that moves ever Westward, Jeff meets his biggest problem in Sid Campeau (Brian Dolevy), who has been hired to delay the building of the “U.P.” by a Chicago financier. His successive defeats at the hands of Jeff and v his .aides , "provide a thrilling struggle that lasts throughout the picture. Plans are at Money’s. LITTLE THEATRE SOCIETY. ... FOUR ONE-ACT PLAYS. Carrying on its active policy, the Ashburton Theatre. Society will stage four one-act plays in the St. Stephen’s Hall on Thursday, November 23. The initial production of the newly-formed society met with outstanding success, as did its first venture into competitive drama .at the South Canterbury Drama League Festival. The new .programme includes two comedies and two dramas, all of different themep. “Weatherwisei,” by Noel Coward, is a farcical comedy hinging round a spiritualistic seance, in which the hostess, at the mention of the “weather,” is possessed by the spirit of a dog. In strict- contrast to this, is “Ladies in Waiting,” a drama taking place within the walls of a waiting-room of a city hospital. The play gives great scope for acting to the wife and the lover of the man undergoing a serious operation. The third play should prove very popular. “Nicodemus” is a comedy of the events in a farm-house on the morning of the wedding of Nicodemus, the son, who suddenly feels not in the mood for marriage. This delightful play possesses clever dialogue, characterisation and an unexpected finale. The final presentation, “The Willing Spirit,” has for its setting a room in the slums of London, where the struggle fof life goes on, centred round getting a job. This programme gives every appearance of being even! more successful than the- Society’s first production. Seats may be reserved at Mr A. C. Wilson’s Music Store, Burnett Street, where the plans are now open.