LITTLE PLAYWRIGHTS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14668, 17 May 1913, Page 2

LITTLE PLAYWRIGHTS.

j ENGLISH SCHOOL WHERE IMAGINATION IS ENCOURAGED

BLANK-VERSE DRAMAS BY BOYS.

; (fEOM A CORRESPONDENT.) I LONDON, April 3. j Can you imagine ordinary boys of from twelve to sisrteen writing plays in blank verse, rehearsing them, making the costumes, and finally acting their dramas with so much success as to attract the attention of the whole country? Probably not, yet exactly this is done by the juvenile pupils of the Perse School at Cambridge, a place of learning which, thus far, is unique in this country, and which may now bo training the Pinero, Shaw, or even the Shakespeare of the future. At the Perse School, they teach, boys to be actors and playwrights and producers, but not with tho idea that they will follow any of these callings in after life, any more than that they will become mathematicians through learning algebra. The man who started this novel part—for it is only a part—of tho Perse School curriculum, holds the idea that "fiction and creation," and not merely imitation and book-work, is the best preparation for the business of life. Accordingly, some two years ago, play-writing and play-producing became- regular subjects at the school, which is situated close to Cambridge University. This week, the Perse players, as they call themselves, produced three plays, two in blank verse, and ono in prase, each item of the programme having been written, costumed and "put on" by those- who appeared in it, and the excellence of all three of these little pieces, considering the extreme youth of tho actor-dramatists, dumbfounded thoso who witnessed them. Astonishing as it seems, tho best of these I pieces, a blank verse drama, called j "Baldr's Death/ , proves to be largely the work of a youngster aged twelve, while the next best, also in the Shakespearean manner, was mainly the work of a boy a year older. Both authors, however, "acknowledged gratefully" tho collaboration of their fellow-Thes-pians.

Like the Bard of Avon, the budding dramatists of Perse School don't bother to think out original plots, but take sorno well-known story or legend us the basis of their drama. The master of tho players, H. Caldwell Cook, practically initiates nothing, his part being merely criticism and suggestion. The boys themselves develop and form character, scene and diction. ''Each j player," said Cook to the writer, "undertakes to write out his part, often as one of a group of collaborators, or one \rritor hands in his scene in the outline, which the person concerned may enI large. '•It is a fatal error," declared Cook, "to buy a ready-made play, have it i loarnt oy heart, and acted without i ceremony in hired costumes." Hence > tho fact that all the costttmes, scenery j and "props" are home-made. The plot jof "Baldr's Death," which proved to jbe the gem of the evening, is drawn I from Northern Mythology, and tells ; the story of the death of Baldr, the : God of Light. When the curtain rises I the gods are lamenting tho coming ' fate of their eompjinion, and the acting of the little boys of 12, 13 and 14 who gave this tragedy amazed everyone. "Their sublime sincerity, their realisation' of tho emotions, tho manner proper to their divine parts, their j utter earnestness," says the critic of the London "Telegraph," "left one with new opinions on the imagination of childhood." It was hardly believable tliat the blank verse could have been written by a youngster of 12. Here is it; specimen of it: — , ■ O WaJa, Wala, waken from thy grave, Where thon lias lain for many a long, long year j In death's firm grasp; and answer mo ] ono thing, For I have ridden s many miles tonight And passed .through many perils by the way In search of thee, and now that I have found Thy grey etono grave, come lift the mighty slab . That covers ic, and hearken what I say. This play was entirely the work of fourth form boys. The second, a comedy iu blank verse, called "The Freyr's Wooing," was done by tho fifth form, and a play in prose, based on the well-known song about the "'Wraggle-Taggle Gipsies" by the students of the sixth form, boys of about sixteen. Curiously enough, this was the least successful of the three. Ono might think that, as a result of their success, for this is their eecond production, the boys might take themselves and their efforts too seriously, but they don't. You can feel every moment that they have no illusions about the importance of themselves and their plays. Said tho youthful author of the tragedy to his critical master, "My job's woe," which is the clear voice of sanity. The other night, moreover, the writer bought a copv of the school magazine which made fun of the Perse poets and their poems with relentless sarcasm.