LONDON THEATRES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 173, 24 July 1934, Page 6

LONDON THEATRES.

SUCCESSES AND FAILURES. ; \ (By NELLE M. SCANLAN.) LONDON , , June 8. London theatres have regained their old prosperity, and new plays often wait for weeke I before there is a vacant theatre in which they j can be presented. Yet the axe lias fallen I heavily on several recent productions. Producing plays, like buying racehorses, is still one of the greatest of gambles. Those vital qualities which make for succees, and a long run, cannot be predicted by even the shrewdest . and most experienced of managers. You never can toll. The new play by Lennox Robinson, that successful Irish dramatist, lasted two nights, despite -.a magnificent cast, which included I Lilian Braithwaite and Owen Nares. "All'e Over, Then" was its name, and all was over long before they expected. The critics were scathing, and the public did not go, so the management took it off after two nights, which many considered was not fair to such a play. It was an ugly theme, a mother jealous of her daughter's affection for her father, a man many years his wife's junior, and after trying to murder the girl, the mother committed suicide. People are getting tired of these "complexes," it would seem, and prefer normal, decent people, even in plays. Another failure, with but a few daye , run, was "No Way Back," with Mary Clare in the load. In this the daughter returns from a convent school to find her mother, complete with gigolo, living with a rather unsavoury pack, and the girl entors into their sophisticated life so thoroughly that she outdoes them in wiklness, and ends in suicide. Again a rather unsavoury theme, and the public simply stayed away, so the play came off. Marie Ney's Success. Against those failures, however, must be weighed Marie Ney's new part irr ''Touch Wood." Thus is Dodie Smith's new play. Her initial- success in "Autumn Crocus," followed by "Service," has shown that she is not a mere flaeh-in-the-pan writer. The critics acclaim this as a better piece of work than her previous plays, and it has settled in at the Haymarket for a long run. In this Marie Noy plays the charming wife of a successful architect, wiio returns to a hotel on the west coast of Scotland, where they had spent their honeymoon. After four- j teen yoars of marriage and happiness, both I are aware that the first ecstasy has gone, and I they are facing a childless middle age. A j young girl, played by Dorothy Hyson, falls in love with the husband, and declares her love to him on a picturesque island on a summer night. The man reluctantly responds to this resurgence of youth, but finally rejects the girl and remains faithful to his wife. The part does not give Mario Ney such fine opportunities as she has had in roeent productions in which ehe has starred, but her work is always admirable, and she brings a fine intelligence and much sensitive insight into the part of the wife. There are several other interesting character studies in the play, Flora Robson as the spinster, n bluff old Scotswoman, played by Elliot Mason, and two of the mast precocious children. Mr. Sydney Carroll, who is an Australian, and one of the most important critics nnd producers in London, is repeating his venture of open-air Shakespeare in Regent's Park,'and Anna Noagle was a most successful Rosalind in her first Shakespearean part. It was a big change from film work, in which she. is so well known. At present only matinees are being given, but when the weather gets wanner there will be performances at night also, nnd ballet will be included. So much depends on the weather that Mr. Carroll's venture is in some ways heroic. Three plays written by the late D. H. Lawrence have heen found, and Leon M. Lion has acquired "The Daughter-in-Law," in which Sybil Thorndyke and Lewie Casson will have the chief parts. In Mr. Lion's opinion, this play is a work of genius, and much better than the other two.

Gordon Daviot'a now play about Mary Queen of Scots will bo presented in June, with Owen Pfrangcon-Davies as the Queen. Thie dramatist's success with "Richard of Bordeaux" wne followed by a comparative failure in "The Laughing Woman." Gordon Daviot is, in truth, a .Scottish woman, who remains in social obscurity, and refuses even to take a call on first nights. Two other plays on Mary Stuart are <also under consideration, one by Maxwell Anderson, and another by Naomi Royde-Smith. Tho Tudors have had their innings, and now, it would eeom, the Stuart* have become the fashion. Other new plays promised in the next few weeks include "Exhibit A," by J. 0. Twiss, and "Double Fault," a lawn tennis comedy set at Wimbledon. This i& written by Vcrnon Woodhou.se and Harold Simpson. Vcrnon Woodliouse ought to know his subject, as he line acted centre-court umpire at Wimbledon on several occasions. A New Zealand Writer. . "The Late- Christopher Bean" has now reached 410 performances and has been seen by 350.000 people. This is tho fifth play in which Cedric ITardwioke has acted for over a year in one part. Tlie others were "The Farmer's Wife," "Yellow Sands," "Show Boat" and "Tho Apple Cart." Dr. Morton Hodge, the New Zealand dramatist, whose first success, "The Wind and tho Rain," is still running to full houses, line returned from New York, where his play is also a big success* Ho is now adapting "Men in White," a play about doctor.?, for the London stage. lie. i.5 also at work on a new play of his own. I hear that Williamson's are likely to take "Tho Wind and the Rain" out to Australia and New Zealand shortly. AN EGG THAT STRAYED. The playful spirit of a fanner named Twigg, of Lincolnshire, has landed him in a prosecution of some public interest (says the "Manchester Guardian"). Mr. Twigg lately had a "joy-ride" in an aeroplane, and he conceived the boyish notion of taking up with him a bad egg and dropping it upon the local bowling green in order to astonish the greenkeeper. He even went the length of so wrapping it in paper that it should descend with something of the graceful hesitation of a parachute. But Mr. Twigg calculated neither with the laws of dynamics nor with the Consolidated Orders-in-Council made under the Air Navigation Acts. His egg, released at about 1000 feet, not only missed the bowling green: it landed on the local police station, and more particularly on the inspector's house. Mr. Twigg in consequence was fined £2 by the Alford Beiicii under the Ordur-in-Council which enacts that "a person shall not drop or cause to be dropped from any aircraft flying within Gre&t Britain and Ireland any article except sand or water ballast, or articles dropped . . •., by special permission of the Secretary of State." The Bench reminded Mr. Twigg thnt the maximum penalty for an infringement of tho Order ie as much as £200, and remarked on tho fact that his was the* first offence of the kind, and that si larger penalty would bo inflicted in future. Mr. Twigg has in one sense done a service in calling attention by hi,* prank to a muchneeded regulation. It operates alike to curb the exuberance of advertisers, who but for it would doubtless rain leaflets "'upon us from above, ami the carelessness of tribes' who, if they carried their terrestrial habits (if litterstrewing into their aerial excursions, would light-heartedly make life more hidenu.s and j more dangerous for their fellows by discarding j from on high anything from waste paper to i Binptj' bottles.