BLOOD-AND-THUNDER DRAMA

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 103, 4 May 1931, Page 6

BLOOD-AND-THUNDER DRAMA

With the death in England recently of Mr. H. Chance Newton, widely known ae "Carados" of the "London Referee," was severed another link with the Victorian age. It is fashionable to-day to ecoff at the blood-and-thunder drama which was so popular last century. "Carados" thought differently and he was better qualified to form an opinion than are most of the scoffers. He was born in the shadow of the theatre and spent the seventy-seven years of his life there. Of his early connection with the blood-and-thunder drama he has written: "Although I say it with bated breath and whispering humbleness, I really can claim to speak with some authority on dramatisation of dark deeds because undoubtedly, from my earliest youth, I have been really saturated in such play fare, both behind the scenes and in front thereof. In my iboyhood at the blood-and-thunder theatres with my play acting and music hall relations 'The Murder of the Italian Boy , shared with 'Sweeney Todd the Barber Fiend of Fleet Street' and 'Maria Martin; or the Murder in the Red Barn' the honour of freezing my young blood and making me temporarily hide myself, either in the wings or under the seat, according to the part of the theatre in which I was then situated." Such were the surroundings in which he grew up and yet to the end of his life "Carados" retained hie love of these plays. In 1927 he wrote: "Although it can be said as regards most of the blood and thunder and similar dramas that they are often bombastic in dialogue and mostly morbid in subject, I would ask this question: Are these dramas any worse, indeed, are they not better, than many plays and so-called 'comedies' of the eternally triangular and wretchedly 'sexual' type which now disfigure and degrade the British drama?" The case for melodrama cannot be dismissed by a scoff. Melodrama is not necessarily bad drama. Even when it is poorly written the fault may be redeemed by the acting. It should be remembered that the Elizabethans revelled in blood-and-thunder themes. Nor was this element wanting in the works of the two greatest dramatists of the period, Shakespeare and Marlowe. Another point to be noted is that a nation which cannot appreciate a fair proportion of tragedy in its theatrical fare is not in a healthy state. Theatre audiences to-day are too apathetic. This is never the case with the followers of melodrama. They are not slow to show their likes and dislikes aid the villain is roundly hissed every performance. The post-war audience is altogether too indolent. "A little desultory applause, a few well-bred yawns, and they drift out into the night,. leaving the casual onlooker with the impression that it is all part and parcel of the stern business of playgoing. How different was the attitude of playgoers in the nineteenth century." So wrote Mr. David Fairweather,!,the London critic, recently. The audiences which "Carados" knew so well were full-blooded; those of to-day are anaemic. The Victorians, and even the Edwardians, can still teach, ate a thing or two. —W.M.L. ,