Wymark Plays In Mini Festival

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32274, 17 April 1970, Page 14

Wymark Plays In Mini Festival

Two plays written by Olwen Wymark, the wife of the actor Patrick Wymark, will be presented in the Ngaio March Theatre at Ham tomorrow evening by the Otago University Drama Society, as part of the University of Canterbury’s first “Mini Arts Festival.”

The plays, “Lunchtime Concert” and “The Inhabitants,” will be presented at 10 p.m., after the conclusion of the Canterbury University Drama Club’s production of “Lysistrata.” Altogether 14 university cultural clubs are taking part in the festival, which starts this evening with the first pre- [ sentation of “Lysistrata.” The festival, which will continue for a week, will be open to both students and the public. But the Wymark plays will ! be presented tomorrow night , only. The works have had great success in Glasgow, [ where they were presented at the Glasgow Citizens’ . Theatre; and the Otago group has presented them successfully in Dunedin during a 10night season recently. The plays are produced by Rodney Kennedy, who is a lecturer in drama at the department of university extension in Dunedin. Mr Kennedy has produced many successful plays for Otago University’s Drama Society, notably the festival production of “Little Malcolm,” which was also presented in Christchurch.

The actors taking part in “Lunchtime Concert” will be Peter Barnett, Pamela Pow and Paul Richardson. In “The Inhabitants” the actors will be Priscilla Smith, Richard Mercier, and Mr Richardson, with Robert May as “The Voice”. Priscilla Smith will be remembered for her performance in “Little Malcolm” about two years ago. Pamela Pow, a housewife, schoolteacher and actress, is involved in both acting and production at the Globe Theatre in Dunedin. The Otago University Drama Society has always been very successful and has in recent years performed in both Christchurch and Auck-

land as well as Dunedin. It has always been involved with modern theatre. The university’s • festival will include exhibitions of fine arts, photographs and international items; there will be a selection of New Zealand films. A concert will be held in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre on Tuesday evening, and will be repeated at the university’s town site on Wednesday. Other performances will include folk music concerts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, a programme of madrigals at Ilam at noon on Wednesday, and a rock concert at Ilam at 7.45 p.m. on Friday, April 24. On Saturday a Student Christian Movement seminar on pollution will be held at the Old Stone House. On Monday Mr T. Shadbolt will give an address on “The System” in the Town Site hall at 8 p.m. An address on President Richard Nixon’s foreign. policy will be given by Professor J. R. Flynn of the Otago University political science department on another day.