LITTLE THEATRE SOCIETY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 288, 5 December 1929, Page 14

LITTLE THEATRE SOCIETY.

THREE GOOD PLAYS. TRAGEDY AND COMEDY. Realising that it has to depend on the public for money, the Little Theatre Society wisely refrains from putting on too "highbrow" fare; it contents itself with what may be called semi-popular goods. At the Town Hall Concert Chamber last evening there was a typically interesting bill, which showed the society at, its best. First came "The Monkey's Paw," by W. W. Jacobs. A bright young "journalist" who had obviously never seen tie play or read it referred- to this playlet as "that' amusing work of Jacobs." This was a natural enough mistake, for the name of the author "of "Many Cargoes" is the last one would have put to this gruesome thing if it had been published' anonymously. People who like to feel their flesh creep would appreciate Jacobs in his second manner, but anyone brought up on a diet of his night watchman, who chewed tobacco and leaned over bollards, would probably demand his money back at the door. A doddery old Chelsa pensioner fells the Whites about a mummified monkey's paw which was endowed with the power of granting three wishes—but there was alway. a catch in it even if- the wishes were fulfilled. White has a mortgage of £200 on the cottage. He picks the paw out of the fire where it had been thrown by the old soldier, and, after registering incredulity, decides to experiment, and wishes for the money to pay off the mortgage. In the next scene he- and the wife are waiting for their only son to come home from the works, But instead a messenger brings word of the lad's sudden death in an accident, and as he goes out he leaves a sympathetic cheque from the employers—for £200. In the next act in semi-darkness, and darkness when the candle is knocked over, tie stricken father and mother moan over their loss, and the wife suddenly remembers the paw. She forces the father to wish for the son to be alive again,, though he reminds her that if it had not been for the clothing he could not have identified the body. She insists,- and .he wishes. Immediately there is the fumbling sound as of an amorphous body at the cottage back door. The .wife borders on hysterics as she struggles with the refractory' bolt to let in her son; the father amid the din, makes a search.in the dark for the paw, and in an agonised voice wishes the son dead again. . The play was interpreted in a really professional manner with Mr. Arnold F. Goodwin as White, Miss Peggy Hovey as the wife, Mr. Zante Wood as the' old soldier, Mr. Dick Hudson as Herbert, and Mr. Montagu Steele as the man who left the cheque. Whatever one may think of the play as part of an-evening's enjoyment, it was played in a manner that had as few traces of J amateurism as one could imagine. , . . . Next came Barrie's one-act play, "The Twelve-Pound Look," described by Granville Barker as the finest one-act play in the language, a judgment with which many people would differ without a word of .apology. The. two principal characters wer<j the superbly vulgar and egotistic "Sir Harry," bubbling over with disgusting pleasure at his brand new knighthood, and his piles of pennies; and Kate, the typist, formerly wife to ;he gentleman, who had. run away from iis fat and greasy citizenry—a matter of taste he cannot understand. Kate explains that as soon as she could raise £12to buy a typewriter and freedom she decided on flight. Harry has married again, and he is sure she worships him and his superb success. Kate warns him to beware, of. the "twelve-pound look in his wife's' eyes:" It comes with the fall of the curtain, but, true to type, Harry never sees it. Miss Marie Gaudin made a charmingly fresh and convincing Kate, quite happy with her portable, and pitilessly frank in stripping the soul of fat and purse-proud Harry. Mr. J. D. Swan was lifelike as Harry, and was quite masterly, in the way he remained blind to the end, safely protected by his armour plate of selfrcpn.ceit. The > road- to success is paved with ■men like Harry. Mrs. Ina M. .Allan was, a most submissive wife to the knight, and Mr. Hatnish Henderson butlered admirably, though hardly a word spake he.

To wind up the evening there was "God and Mrs. Henderson," by Harold Chapin, who was killed in the "war. The piece is a slice of Cockney London, as good in its. way as. Kipling's Gunnison Street idyll for giving one the real flavour of these mysterious people who are one's relations thpugh they seem so foreign. Mr. Alan McElwain,, who had raised gusts of laughter with the accent, but had never taken-part in a straight play of this kind, was Joe Henderson to perfection. He might have been born down Stepney way and lived there all his life. As his wife, Miss Ailsa Hacket made a debut that shows how fortunate the society is.in its younger members Joe's wife had rather a thin timej and Miss Hacket made one feel quite sorry for. the lady—and the faculty of-draw-ing sympathy is one of.the hardest of all on. the stage. . Miss Eva Wrigley made an attractive chatterbox of a child, and Mr. Eex Yates was good as Bill Pepper, who had a profound admiration for Joe.

.As usual, the staging was ' excellent but occasionally the waits between acts were unnecessarily long. The season ends on Saturday night.