CRICKET AND THE THEATRE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20790, 25 February 1933, Page 13

CRICKET AND THE THEATRE.

TOURING COMPANY DAYS. (SPBCTALLT WRITTEN *OB THE PBESffl.) [By O. R. Allen.] As another cricket season wanes it is possible that some of us may think with regret upon one result of the "Talkie" invasion. The touring theatrical company has, for the nonce disappeared, and with it a picturesque appendage, the theatrical cricket We may be permitted to see Bradman's exposition of scientific cricket through the medium of that invention which seems to have banished the actor from the local stage for the time being; but as we do homage, wo. may think with regret of those players who managed to impart something of the theatre into the game. For a game it was, and not the agony which one associates with high cricket to-day. Perhaps the best known theatrical cricket team in New Zealand was that attached to _Mr William Hawtrey's comedy company, which toured up and down the Dominion about a quarter of a century ago. Mr Hawtrey became so devoted to the game that he re-assem-bled the English vicar who, when the engagement of an assistant curate was being discussed, declared, "What the parish really needs is a fast left hand bowler." As a result of this keenness theatrical aspirants were given more than customary grace if they only could handle the bat and ball with dexterity.

Actor Cricketers. Mr O. P. Heggie, who played the Martian in "A Message from Mars," must have been a tower of strength to the side, but he had qualities 'which took him far on the road to success in the profession of his adoption. There were other members of the cast, however, who, one instinctively felt, were cricketers under their make-up, and nomads rather than actors at heart. The Pollard Opera Company used to put a team into the field. Mr W. S. Percy was, perhaps, better known as an angler than a cricketer, but one fancies that one can remember the Percy legs in motion upon the green. Clarence Vaughan, who set Percy's WQrda to music for Miss Gertie Campion to sing, made runs for his side. There were occasions when the ladies of the company took the field, but this was usually the central event in some gymkhana promoted for charitable purposes. We are concerned here with serious cricket, however far removed from the solemnities of Lord's. The company which first presented "The Sign of the Cross" to New Zealand audiences comprised a strong batting side, and were seen to advantage at Carisbrook. I cannot recall whether Bland Holt ever headed a team selected from his large company, or whether h-is connexion with sport was entirely of a vicarious nature. Other players may be able to deliver testimony on this point. To turn from New Zealand to the Old Country, we may take three instances of the wedding of cricket with the theatre. There is the Canterbury Cricket Week, when the day is spent in playiijg a stage, and the evening in staging a play. For an actress to be engaged for the Canterbury Cricket Week ia equivalent to being engaged by the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Dorothoa Baird, who created the role of Trilby, made her first appearance of note with the Oxford University Dramatic Society, and her daughter, Elizabeth Irving, was engaged for Canterbury Cricket Week some six years ago. Sir Frank Benson, under whose tutelage nearly all our ominent Shakespearean actors played, was a keen sportsman, and could put a very passable team into the field. His side usually included one or two young men fresh from the University. During the summer festival at Strat-ford-on-Avon respite from rehearsals might bo found in cricket. The _ incommodious dressing-rooms of tbo little old Memorial Theatre must have been the scene of many a cricketing postmortem. There could only bo one greater pleasure for a young man than to make his 50 on a Warwickshire wicket during the afternoon, and to play Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the evening, and that would be to malco his century before dinner, and to play Orlando after.

A Mascot. One of tho treasures of the old Memorial Theatre was tho property deer which was employed to receive the confidences of the melancholy Jaques. This effigy was looked upon as x a kind of mascot. Whether it disappeared when the theatre was burned I cannot say. In the annual match between the authors and the actors at Lord's, cricket and the theatre arc once more seen in holy alliance. Mr Alec Waugh, as an author, has taken a prominent part in this game of recent years. As a writer upon cricket he may be mentioned along with Moredith, Dickens, Vechell, Hughes and a score of others. Sir Gerald du Maurier, until recently at any rate, lias led the cricketing actors on to the field, as he leads the profession on other occasions, such as the theatrical garden party, or a reception to some famous actor from another country. There are, no doubt, other instances of a cricket match being portrayed in a stage play, than that provided by the author of "Journey's End." In "Badger's Green" Mr Sheriff treats us to n cricket match in action, and so the alliance is complete. It is useless to conjecture upon the possible return of the touring company to Now Zealand. Its presence somehow seems to connote a more leisurely age. Some day the touring company may return rejoicing, bringing its tea T .i with it. It is as useless to guard against the present system, as to decry the solar system itself. With all our vaunted progress in the matter of entertainment and convenience, it is to be questioned whether we extract the pleasure cithor from a play or a cricket match, that our fathers did. Our interest in personalities is not dujled, but the _ personalities approach us through other media than the air of our native heath. The glamour of the stage has disappeared because we have all been taken behind the scenes. Mr Bernard Shaw has written in one of his numerous preambles that every profession represents a conspiracy against the laity. Perhaps now that the conspiracy is exposed we should no longer be intrigued by the sight of a theatrical cricket team. We should merely look upon them as "eleven 'guys'-talcing a day off from Hollywood."

In his "Life of Joseph Chamberlain" Mi 'Garvin quotes the following passage in a letter from Chamberlain to Morley, describing the religious atmosphere of English elections in the 'sixties; (i Ona reverend gentleman said the question really was _ 'whether the Lord God should rule in the land,' and enquiries are being made to-day {is to whether tho Almighty has sent ir. His resignation. One person declared at a public meeting that tho Holy Ghost was on their side —on which 'Three cheers for the Holy Ghost' wore called for and I believe given."