PLAYS FOR AMATEURS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21808, 13 June 1936, Page 17

PLAYS FOR AMATEURS

The Best One-Act Plays of 1935. Selected by J. W. Marriott. George G. Harrap and Co. 330 pp. (5s net.) Worldly Goods, and five other oneact plays. By Ella Adkins. George G. Harrap and Co. 113 pp. (3s 6d net.)

Mr Marriott’s annual collections of one-act plays have become an institution that would be greatly missed by the many amateur dramatic societies and play-reading circles of the Empire. Representing the choice of one man, the collections are addressed primarily to the play-reader, so that there is likely to be an emphasis on literary rather than dramatic qualities. Yet, Mr Marriot remarks with justifiable pride, that a dozen of the plays included in the previous four collections have made their mark on the contemporary stage, with at least a hundred, in some cases hundreds, of performances. It is notable that in the present collection of 13 plays only two can be regarded as documents of the contemporary scene. “Official Announcement,” by Eleanor Elder, puts on record the fear and persecution of unsympathetic elements of the German community under Nazi rule, and “The Ruling Passion,” by J. V. Duhig, describes fairly accurately the horseracing passion of average people in an Australian township. First place for interest and dramatic appropriateness, however, belongs to “Comrades in Arms” by Percival Wilde which is an amusing Puritanian fantasy of a colonel and a lady. That the general practitioner of play-writing can usually be counted on to produce more satisfactory work than the inexperienced newcomer is shown by the quiet effectiveness of “Back to Adam” by Harold Brighouse. Others most likely to appeal are Wendy St. John Maule’s “Ladies in Waiting” Joe Corrie’s “The Maid of Domremy” and “The Clock Strikes Tea”

by D. E. Hickey and A. G. PrysJones. The six plays in “Worldly Goods” are trifles. They are well enough written but the plots and the people of most of them are unconvincing. “The Crowing Cockerels” and “In These Hard Times” are amusing light comedies.