Some New Productions Double Bills And Separation

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32360, 28 July 1970, Page 12

Some New Productions

Double Bills And Separation

Although many people in New Zealand are very much concerned about containers these days, it is merely by coincidence that, of the two one-act plays the Riccarton Players are to present from next Saturday, one is entitled “The Apple Case” and the other comes from the double bill, “Little Boxes.” Nevertheless, confinement of one sort or another is the predominant theme in both plays.

—will be the other half of the Elmwood double bill. Also on the programme at Riccarton is a new play by the Christchurch playwright, Brian Cooper. “The Apple Case,” a highly improbable comedy, was the Riccarton Players' entry in last week’s festival. It deals with a sort of confinement very different from that of the characters of “Trevor.” There is nothing voluntary about the confinement of Rodger Trounce in a bed* in the National Cybermed Centre. Reg Barlow’s performance as the irascible Rodger Trounce received special mention at the festival. The production is by Shirlye Rushton. The season will open on Saturday in the players’ intimate theatre in Nelson Street, Riccarton, and will continue nightly, except Sunday, until August 8.

From “Little Boxes,” by the English playwright, John Bowen, the Riccarton Players have chosen “Trevor,” which is the companion piece to “Coffee Lace,” the Elmwood Players' entry in this year’s one-act play festival last week. Although designed by the author for performance as a double bill, the plays stand in their own right and suffer nothing from separate presentation. The little box of “Trevor” is an upstairs London flat shared by two young girls, Jane and Sarah, played ’by Marie Henderson and Kathryn Scott. Their confinement of their flat is brought about by the reaction of their parents—Doreen Cook, Joan Willis, Barry Smith and Andrew Russell—to Trevor, the girls’ newly-acquired mutual boy-friend. Trevor is played by Peter Unverricht, a newcomer to the Riccarton stage. Albert Brears, as Mr Hudson, the landlord, completes the strong supporting cast The production is by Keith Cooke. In any case, theatre-goers this week will all but be able to see the two Bowen plays as a double bill—the Elmwood production of “Coffee Lace” is being revived this week for a season in the Elmwood Playhouse in Fulton Avenue from tomorrow night until Saturday.

Harold Pinter’s “Night School” the production which won one of the main awards in last week’s festival

SCENES FROM THREE OF THE NEW PLAYS being produced in Christchurch this week. TOP: “They're models—scale models. Will you stop calling them toy boats.” Robert Le Fevre, as Eric Fawcett, who escapes from his family problems into an obsession with assembling plastic boats, rehearses a scene in Yvette Bromley’s production of “Come Laughing Home" at the Risingholme Theatre Centre, opening on Saturday. MIDDLE: Albert Brears, as Mr Hudson, and Andrew Russell, as Mr Lawrence, in a scene from Keith Cooke’s production of “Trevor,” half of a John Bowen double bill, for the Riccarton Players. BOTTOM: The other half of the Bowen double bill, “Coffee Lace,” which is being produced by the Elmwood Players. From left are John Milligan, Mae Arnold, Beryl McLeod, Jean Ryder and Arthur Chapman. The Riccarton production will open on Saturday, the Elmwood play tomorrow.

ART OF THE SIXTIES.—A. Colin McCahon painting, “Here I Give Thanks to Mondrian,” from the exhibition of New Zealand art of the last 10 years at present on show in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery. The exhibition features 78 works by 34 painters, seven printmakers, five sculptors, and 17 potters. It was selected from Public collections round the country by the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council to mark the Royal visit earlier this year, and opened in Auckland while the Queen was there. Christchurch artiste represented include John Coley, Rudolf Gopas, David Graham. Doris Lusk, Quentin I MacFarlane, Don Peebles, W. A. Sutton, Philip Trusttum, and Barry Cleavin.