STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

STAGE JOTTINGS.

AROUND THE FOOTLIGHTS

THE WORLD OP THE THEATRE.

The Nellie Bramley Company, under tlie auspices of Messrs. J. C. Williamson, Ltd., will open a season at His Majesty's Theatre next Saturday. The lirst production will be the play "ScandalMongers." The company is one of the most popular Australian repertory organisations and is a favourite entertainment in both Sydney and Melbourne. It is now concluding a highly successful tour of the southern centres of the Dominion.

The British Drama League's third annual festival of community drama will be held in Auckland during the week September 1-1 to 20. Entries are coming in now and will be received until August 1. This year's adjudicator will be ilr. Kenneth Brampton, well known in local amateur theatrical circles. l<our classes have been arranged for the festival, and the winning teams will compete in the elimination contest to be held at Stratford oil October 1 and in the national finals at Hastings two nights later.

At the instigation of a composer, who prefers to hide under the nom de plume of "Musicus," a competition was held from November to March of this year for libretti to an operetta, music to be composed later by the organiser. The competition has been won by a young Aucklander, Mr. Tarleton R. W. Trafford, writing as Richard Williams. Judged by Mr. J. W. Shaw, the competition carried a prize of £15. In a summary of the results, Mr. Shaw said that the affair had "amply proved that there was plenty of talent in New Zealand, requiring only stimulation and . encouragement."

A traditional rule of English stage censorship was to have been broken witn the presentation of a translation of Andre Obey's French play "Noah" at the New Theatre, London, at the end of June. The rule is that the word "God" cannot be spoken on the stagein a play in English, except on rare occasions when the Lord Chamberlain is satisfied as to the dignity and sincerity of the. play. Is no circumstances, however, is the word supposed to be used in a light vein. In Obey's play Noah carries on an almost flippant conversation with Cod when he is building the Ark, asking His advice as to design and building materials.

Scotland, Manchester and now London have "rapturously received" Merton Hodge's new play, "Grief Goes Over," recently opened at the Globe Theatre, London, next door to Mr. Hodge's secondyear triumph, "The Wind and the Rain." One of the most delightful features about the "Grief Goes Over" premiere was the presence of the author's mother, who is visiting England from New Zealand. Of this play "The Times" critic writes: "A beautiful play, featuring an exquisite performance by Dame Sybil Thorndike, 'Grief Goes Over,' flouts almost every commonplace dramatic canon. 'The laugh dies with the lips, love with the lover; and grief goes over.' The very title from Rupert Brooke suggests an anti climax which Mr. Hodge remorselessly conveys. But he does it with so much tenderness and insight, lightened with wit and fine touches of character, that the achievement has a grace as well as a courage all its own. A well-to-do, gentle-nutured widow, Blanche Oldham (Dame Sybil Thorndike), lias two unmarried sons. The elder, Tony (Mr. Ronald Ward), has shot himself and his mistress before the first act is over. The younger, Kim (Mr. Geoffrey Nares), has an affair with a girl art student, Mary Lou (Miss Mary Jones). They get married; but Mary Lou dies in giving birth to a babv. At the finish we see Blanche playing bridge with her eldest and married son. David (Mr. ('live Morton), a pragmatical stockbroker, his wife, and Blanche's sister (Miss Winifred Oughton). Kim has recovered from the loss of his young wife, and lias gone off to a party with a possible successor. The game over, Blanche is left alone —thinking of Tony and of Mary Lou. whom she had loved almost as a daughter, and listening to the wireless music, to which, she reflects, Kim may be dancing. This is all, but into this strange diminuendo, Dame Sybil puts so perfect an expression of quietly infinite motherly endurance that one could not wish it otherwise."