Imaginative Choice By Elmwood Players

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30179, 10 July 1963, Page 17

Imaginative Choice By Elmwood Players

The Elmwood Players are 1 to be congratulated on their imaginative choice tor their evening of short plays last night. Too often plays are often chosen from dated anthologies, or because someone has seen them done before. Elmwood's adventurous selection might suggest to other crty groups that contemporary playwrights are most likely to provide the stimulating material that the amateur theatre must have

The modern "No Play. Hanjq,” develops the idea that people are so busy fulfilling their ambitions that they are dead to life: only those who wait patiently, accepting no substitute for their ideals, can expect to remain alive. The producer, Alex Henderson. achieved the stylised performance the play needs, and he used lighting and movement to make bis points. But he may have missed the possibility that the parasitic spinster is the central interest in the play. And Yoshio, the young man who seemed dead to the mad girl, should have bubbled with life in the eyes of the audience. Joan Larsen held the audience with skilful changes of mood and tone. She might, however, have usdd lower registers occasionally, and varied her pace more. Chris Joyce gave a controlled performance, though becoming a little hard to hear when she became intense.

The set was a triumph of design tor the small stage, and set the standard for a production which was always absorbing. N.Z. Play

“Candy Pink” was the second play. This New Zealand play is important because it is universal in its themes: good versus evil, and youth versus age. The playwright. J. A S. Coppard. attempts to tell the audience what is going on in the heroine’s mind by having her black and white consciences on stage with her Unfortunately this presents an almost insuperable problem to the producer partly because the consciences are sometimes speaking for the girl, and sometimes for the author; and partly because toe conatruqtion ot the play doesn't allow consistent roles tor them as actors in the play. Granted this difficulty, last night's producer (Margaret Furby) should not have played the consciences as draped Druids, or as bibli-

cal characters in mourning—this was too unsympatoeti: with Gloria’s personality. The pace was often too slow, and the cast might look again at the meaning of some of their lines.

But these things are small blemishes on what' was a smooth, well-organised production. The cast all spoke and moved well, the effective setting was used cleverly, and the point of the play was faithfully interpreted Outstanding in a very talented cast was Ina Chaplin, as Gran. She had all the posture, inflexion, gesture, and appearance of the Puritan pioneer stock against which her granddaughter staged such a pathetic, but forgiveable rebellion. The last play was John Mortimer’s “Collect Your Hand Baggage.” Although based on an extended double entendre (he thought she thought he was going to take her for a week-end to Paris), the situation brings out ail the loneliness of an ageing man trying to live as a university student for ever.

It is a sick joke, which might have begun with more hilarity in the production, more we-are-enjoying-our-selves-ait-all-costs. As the play progresses, each of the characters must realise that the joke is wearing thin, that there are some facts to face in life, such as growing old and needing the security of love. The pace of the production should have been more like a gramophone slowing down, or like T. S. Eliot's This is the way the world ends; This u the way the world enas; This is the way the wcrld ends; Not with a t>arg, but c whimper Rodney Leonard as Crispin, the would-be Peter Pan, won much of the humour and pathos from his part. His “girl friend” (Helen Kavanagh), while perhaps a little too attractive, acted delightfully, extracting every mood her lines suggested The rest of the cast worked hard, and, with more experience perhaps, have obviously much pleasure in the theatre ahead of them. It is to be hoped toad toe obvious success ot these plays to terms of audience appeal will encourage toe Elnrwood Players to go even further in providing both their talented group of players and technicians, and their alert ■audiences, with plays which are sophisticated, substantial and provocative.—PßE.