Court Theatre optimistic

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 21

Court Theatre optimistic

Offers of help and encouragement are still pouring in for the newlyformed Court Theatre, the Christchurch professional company, says Mrs Yvette Bromley, director of the group.

The Court has had firm offers from two of New Zealand’s leading producers of plays, Dame Ngaio Marsh and Roy Hope, and will have a new co-director soon when Mervyn Thompson returns from EnglandDame Ngaio Marsh was enthusiastic about the venture and had promised to look out while overseas for a play to produce for the Court when she returned to New Zealand, Mrs Bromley said. Roy Hope had expressed a desire to produce a play as soon as he was able to, but this might not be until the beginning of next year, because of his previous commitments. Meanwhile, hard on the heels of its planned first production, “The Prime of Miss Brodie,” the Court is preparing another play about another misguided woman of the theatre, “The Heiress.” Like “Miss Brodie,” “The geiress” is about people, Mrs romley says. ' “Most theatre audiences enjoy watching people getting into impossible and appalling situations and then trving to disentangle themselves, sometimes successfully and amusingly,” she said. “But sometimes the situation is tragic, and audiences are gripped by the sight of a person hurtling towards disaster. “Perhaps the classic example of this is Sophocles’ play, ‘Oedipus Rex.’ “It is only in plays of this

nature that the characters can become three-dimen-sional. In plays which state social problems in abstract or stylised form—such as the recent, excellently presented ‘Narrow Road to the Deep North’—the characters are simply symbols, representations of a social stratum. “This is not to say that these playS don’t have impact; but one loses the sheer enjoyment of becoming completely involved in someone else’s life. "To help inculcate this feeling of involvement, ‘The Heiress’ will be presented in the most intimate of stage conventions, theatre in the round,” Mrs Bromley said. Auditions will be held soon at which Mrs Bromley, who [is producing, will choose a icast. She says she is “filled to the brim” with determinai tion to make the project succeed, and has been convinced by the number of calls and other I offers of help she has {received that Christchurch is [not only ready but anxious Ifor professional theatre.