LITTLE THEATRE SOCIETY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 288, 5 December 1925, Page 16

LITTLE THEATRE SOCIETY.

Whut should be another successful season was opened by the Little Theatre Society last evening: in the Amateurs' Hall, at the foot of Grafton Road. There was quite a good audience, and, as usual, the performance went off merrily.' Generous , measure was given in the programme, there being , three one-act plays, and, perhaps, considering- the large share' of the evening , to which Shaw helps himself, tie measure was rather too generous. "E. and 0.E.," by Crawshay-Williams, opened the programme, and it was typical of the little adventures Into theatreland that make Little Theatre Societies possible. Politely brutal, in quite the modern way, the hero in this Grand Gulgnol farce evens up on his death-bed a whole heap of old scores against his acidulous mother-in-law arid his neglectful wire. , Propped, up in bed, with only an inch or two of him peeping out between. the sticking-plaster, he breaks the news that he is cutting: them out or his will in a perfectly well-bred way, and bequeaths them his* little black notebook, wherein he had set down their errors iand omissions, which he debited to an imaginary sum with which he credited them, when he began to work out his "system." In the end 'he breathes nis last, is bundled into a wardrobe (fortunately done with lowered lights), and the cream or the joke is that like Father William, he "turns a back somersault In at the door" (in the reverse order) just at the critical moment when a raise corpse has made a will in Tavour or himself (much to the disgust or the mother-in-law, who was tricked all round)., and the curtain I goes down on this upsetting and final act or the grimly humorous hero, 'it admirably acted by Norman Macpherson as the husband who paid off his old scores in this sardonic manner; Gwen Youngs as the second wire; Peggie Hovey, as the mother-in-law; F. L. Armitage as the substitute corpse; and Aim Knig-ht as the lawyer. Then came "The Man or Destiny," by that entertaining old cross-patch, Shaw it is supposed to show Napoleon arter the battle or Lodi, when his future greatness was only being- foreshadowed. Like all tracings back to origins, it is not entirely satisfactory, as everybody knows the answer to the problem, so to speak. It is typically Shavian. He insists on holding up the lighting man as a sort or "chocolate soldier"—there is precisely the same tone or the voice in "Arms and the Man" makes the masterful young Frenchman talkabout the English as" an Irishman would wish them to talk, and generally gives you the impression that man is a poor «ort or fish anyhow. There is a deltgfttrui Shaw woman in the piece. She argues with the wit or a mari and the privilege or a" woman—rather like Shaw himseir and borders on brilliance as a creation Napoleon is an exacting character, and Herbert J. Bentley proved himseir quite equal to. the task; L. K. Hagen was admirable as the keeper of the Italian inn- J c Mackle did wonderrully well with a tvnlcally Shaw oillcer, who can exchange repar.tee with his general; and best or all was Ysolinde McVeagh, as the lady in the case, hers being a particularly telling bit or work ror an amateur. The programme fittingly came to a conclusion with "A Maker of Dreams" a fantastic trifle, which is, perhaps, as 'near the charm of the old-Tashioned rairy tale as this tired old civilisation can get The parts were played with a very nice appreciation of the spirit of fantasy in which the lamented Oliphant Down wrote it, Tom Harris being: the manufacturer, Marg-ot Finlayson the pierriotte, and Fryer Raisher the plerrot. Great credit is due to Herbert J. Bentley, the producer, W. J. Crowther, , the .stage manager, Mrs. R. A. Singer, ror "the music, and W. Crosher and Sons Tor the lighting..