SUCCESSFUL PLAY IN HAWARDEN HALL

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33219, 8 May 1973, Page 19

SUCCESSFUL PLAY IN HAWARDEN HALL

“A View from the Bridge,” by Arthur Miller. Directed by Pam Logan for Little Unity Theatre, Hawarden Hall. May 3-5. Last week, Mr Elric Hooper told us that New Zealand cities have not yet reached the right degree of impersonality to support the highest level of theatre. At the same time, Pam Logan was directing a play in a town with a population of 364, and managing to drawn an audience of over 250 adults for a threenight season — something of a sociological phenomenon in itself, and the more amazing when one considers that the district as a whole is thinlypopulated and that the play these people were coming to see was not “Charley’s Aunt” or even “Billy Liar” but one of the most reputable serious plays in the modern repertoire. Of course, this- is not exactly the kind of theatre that Mr Hooper was talking about, but it does demonstrate that drama can have a useful social and artistic function even within the smallest community. Pam Logan can be relied on for an efficient, resourceful production. Casting must be hideously difficult for her, and it must take a good deal of integrity to pick the plays jshe does and produce them ■with full respect to the playI wright’s intentions. I “A View from the Bridge” I is a play about wharfies which has often been compared with Kazan’s “On the j Waterfront.” It is a very good i choice because it translates more easily into New Zealand (terms than any other Miller ■play I can think of, and also ipossibly has the highest den- ( sity of laughs; its domestic issues are on a universal level ((not the All-UnAmerican Milder, for once), though the ! homosexual/incest themes (were played down a little in (this production. The cast was given a (powerful lead by David Rich (as Eddie, a talented actor (who got well inside the char- ■ acter and appeared to lose no (confidence even with prompts ' and a couple of incidents that went rather awry. Supporting him was Keith Yorston as Rodolpho; he also gave a crei ditable performance—in fact,

it was really these two, with Pam Logan, who made the production. In secondary roles, Heather Rich and Lyndsay Dwyer were both competent; both were somewhat out of character, and both improved markedly in the second act. Wylie Evans was good as the virile, taciturn Marco; Alan Mason, Stuart Jamieson, Pat Fitzgibbon, John Forster, and Tony Smith made up the named cast. In places, I was conscious of bad timing, and a few details were at fault — none of the stage fights (except perhaps the last) really worked, and the big arrest scene was rather shambolic, though (pace Women’s Lib.) this is something that women directors often have this trouble. However, in general it was a vigorous, interesting production which reached a good amateur standard and compared reasonably with the city entries in the festival that I have seen. —H.DJJcN.