Arts And Music Repertory reviving Pinero farce

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32450, 10 November 1970, Page 14

Arts And Music Repertory reviving Pinero farce

Final rehearsals are » being held at the Repertory Theatre this week by Dame Ngaio Marsh and the cast of 16 with which she is producing the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society’s latest entertainment—Pinera’s Victorian ’ farce, “The Magistrate.” The play—an old favourite not performed in Christchurch for many years—is to open on Saturday night for a season extending to November 21. ' Written in 1885, “The e Magistrate” was the first of Sir Arthur Pinero’s Court Theatre farces which became ail the rage in London in the late 1800 s. Dame Ngaio Marsh says of it:— “Victorian farce is an affair of preposterous situations treated with owlish solemnity. It rejoices in the: improbable and it glories in outrageous coincidence. The basis of its appeal is human discomforture and its reward is the belly-laugh. In ‘The - Magistrate’ we meet a group of conventional people milling about in a vortex of impossible crises and incredible confrontations. Great expertise is demanded of the players: pace, timing and’ Sharply defined characterisation along established farcical lines. j> “Elderly bachelors are pompous, lawyers are pedantic, servants are comic, .policemen are ponderous, 'ladies are emotional. Within this never-never framework i there is room for an antic realism and endless variety, lit is an exacting convention, ibut it can be very rewarding.” The photograph shows John Reid, as Captain Vale, and Diane Johnston, as Charlotte, in the proposal scene. Others in leading roles include Vincent I Orange (as Mr Pasket), I Rosalind Peake (Mrs Pasket), David Hindin (Colo- ' nel Lukyn), and Jan McConnell (Beatie).