A play about Temperance

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33079, 21 November 1972, Page 10

A play about Temperance

“O! Temperance!” a semi-documentary play -by Mervyn Thompson about the Temperance movement in New Zealand—and particularly in Christchurch—will be presented at the Court Theatre early next month.

The play is the result of several months intensive research and rehearsal by Mr Thompson and members of > the Court Theatre Training School. The cast of 20 under Mr Thompson's direction includes Desmond Woods, ■ Stephen Tozer. Alannah O’Sullivan, Lee Fowler, Judy Cleine, Robert Bell, David | Bridges, Diane Johnston, Nicholas Blake and Valerie Pendrey. The musical direction is by Anthea Moller (vocal) and Stephen McCurdy (orchestral). “I can’t remember how the idea came to me,” Mr Thompson said. “But about four months ago we were committed to doing this programme on the Temperance movement in New Zealand. We met on Sunday mornings, researched a bit, impro-

vised a lot, found the results inconclusive, researched a bit more and so on. I found that few of the students really understood the fervour, the idealism, the religious motivation of the prohibitionists, and there was a tendency to I send the whole thing up. But ■we kept at it. in spasms of effort, since we had no home at first and then, later, we were all engaged in doing up the Orange Hall for the Court Theatre. “After a while I suddenly i realised that while we d dis- | covered some things of | value, and had quite a lot of ! fun in the process, we would i never get to the post unless ’ the show was properly 'scripted. So 1 sat down at the typewriter and. surrounded by books, papers, 'scraps of notes and so on, I just let fly. David Bridges [also came up with some i material, and three weeks | later there was a script. Not a perfect document, but something we could work on in the four weeks remaining —we’d already learned some of the songs and worked out a few mimes. “It must have been infuriating for the actors —my arriving with bits of script at our rather infrequent rehearsals (some of the cast were sitting examinations) and saying—“l’m sorry, 1 can’t cast the thing yet. I don’t know how many parts there are going to be.’ Besides, some members of the cast were not sure of their availability in December. “But we ploughed on. It’s been a lot of fun (not to mention hard work), and now that we’ve got a script I can say somethng about the kind of show we’ve got. “It takes place in April, 1919, with a group of Temperance people awaiting the results of the National Licensing Poll. As the results come in and the excitement mounts, the prohibitionists relive the events of the last few decades, celebrating their triumphs and their struggle. ‘Today is the day,* they say, ‘the day of our final victory.’ But history has another answer for them . . . “The show falls into three parts. The first tells of the Evils of Drink and features songs, dramatic interludes straight out of melodrama, a fiery sermon, and so on. The second part follows Kate Sheppard, one of Christchurch’s most famous women, in her campaign to win the vote for women, a vote that they will use to oppose the drink trade. The third part follows another Christchurch man, T. E. (Tommy) Taylor, through his fervid battles for prohibition, and ends with Christchurch’s most famous funeral. Finally the results of the poll come through, and there is a postscript and some songs, which everybody is invited to help sing. “We hope that ‘O! Temperance!’ will be a show to evoke old memories and bring home to us all one very important fact—that we have a history worth dramatising. Much use will be made of historical slides and of rousing temperance songs. We have resisted the temptation to make the whole thing a vast send-up, but the tone will be light-hearted, and there is lots of scope for comedy,” Mr Thompson said. The play will run in the Court Theatre from December 5 to 16.