AMATEUR DRAMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 162, 10 July 1940, Page 10

AMATEUR DRAMA.

FESTIVAL WEEK.

CENTENNIAL COMPETITION.

FLAYS OF FIRST NIGHT. Four one-aot plays of widely varied charaoter and produced by clubs sprung from varied social stocks, but having a common cultural urge, opened the Auckland Centennial Drama Festival at the Town Hail Concert Chamber last night to an attendance of encouraging proportions. Three plays are to be presented to-nighv and three more on Friday and two selected from these ten will be chosen by the adjudicator, Miss Margaret Barr, to compete against the two chosen productions by VVaikiLo clubs for file honour of going to the national drama festival in Wellington at the end of the month. The popular conception of entertainment value was somewhat overshadowed ■by the cultural effort in leaf night's programme, in which two or the plays were sombre in subject. An anonymous cast from the W.E.A: Club put on "Riders of the Sea," by J. M. Synge, a dramatic study of the tragedy inseparable from families whose men followed the sea. Set in West Iveland, the st'ory borrows much of its dramatic colour from the Celtic practice of "keening" for the dead, and a musical dirge as overture pr&pares a suitable atmosphere. The speaking cast was small in this play, wihicli was characerised by good production, and balance in the leads. The Auckland Judean Club presented a Frankenstein conception of evil literary character come to life in "Created," written by Lai. Norris and providing eerie thrill for a climax. Despite inequality in the acting and technical production faults, the play seemed to find wider popular appeal than that" of the i W.E.A. I In muah lighter vein, providing easier emotional and character portrayal for the [ actors and actresses, as well as readier j enjoyment by the audience, were Muriel I and Sydney Box's "Number Ten." by the I Ellerslie Women's Institute, and Josephine | Niggli's "Sunday Costs Five Pesos," by the Auckland Training College Draina I Club. The former presents a hospital psychology pill sugar-coated by comedy, and the latter, in Mexican guise, a gentiy : satiric view of a love-lorn maid's caprices. I In her extempore criticisms. Miss Barr, without indicating comparative preferences, impartially indicated faults in the various performances, briefly and gently, but in a manner that might be profitable to the performers and to tlie many amateur critics in the audience. To-niisht plays will be presented by the Avondale Women's Institute, the Auckland Centre Women's Institute, and fiie Auckland Repertory Club.