‘COME AS YOU ARE’ Laughter-filled call from Repertory

Press, 18 June 1976, Page 5

‘COME AS YOU ARE’ Laughter-filled call from Repertory

Mid-winter is no time,, to subject Christchurch audiences to a dose of twentieth-century gloom! according to Cynthia! Ward. So she chose to! produce John Mortimer’s “Come As You Are” for! Rep. and send them away laughing. But she hopes the audience will also respond to the playwright’s skill in depicting human failings and foibles. This latest production from the Canterbury Repertory Society is a quartet of plays. Mrs Ward explains its central theme as the pathos and absurdity of middle-aged pipe dreams, particularly about sex. Cynthia Ward is finding the play exciting to produce. “Mortimer has an uncanny perception about people, beautifully portrayed in two of the plays,” she said before the dress rehearsal yesterday, "and his grand sense of the farcical makes the other two hilarious.” When discussing her choice of play , her stage manager. Penny Giddens was against a way-out play for Repertory audiences. Thrillers were out too, because they are such a staple television diet. “Come As You Are” gets its message across with a laugh. “Comedy is being used increasingly by playwrights as a vehicle for

.comment. People don’t want Ito be got at these days,” Isaid Mrs Ward. I Cynthia Ward was trained | at the Guildhall School of i Music and Drama. She acted i in “rep” in Britain for four I years, and recalls being [directed by Joan KempIWelch, now a familiar name as a director of television plays. In those days a fellow actor was Alan Bromly, , director of the recent Francis Durbridge television series. “FUN PART” Her New Zealand experience includes 12 years of radio plays in Christchurch, with Bernard Kearns and appearances with the Court Theatre. And recently, “a great fun part” as’ the Wicked Witch in the Christchurch Operatic Society’s “Wizard of Oz.” Bringing up six children in Loburn has kept her relatively close to home. In those years she has acted in and produced numerous productions for the Rangiora Dramatic Society. “When we first came to New Zealand I acted with Canterbury Rep, so it’s lovely to be associated with them again,” she said. She is appreciating its professional atmosphere, and the professional skills of many of her four casts. Producing four plays in one is keeping everyone alert. A fierce but friendly rivalry has developed between the casts, so there is no lack of stimulation. Working with the Dramatic Society in Rangiora has convinced Cynthia Ward of the need for theatre in country areas. Tangible proof has been the response to the children’s art workshop she

and three women have set up.

Seventy youngsters are enrolled for the Saturdaymorning sessions at Ashgrove School. Mrs Ward is a qualified drama teacher, and her colleagues are qualified music and art teachers. With so many eager children turning up, help has been enlisted. At the end of the year talents will be combined in a full-scale show.

1 “Country parents feel very much that their children miss out on many of the opportunities in the arts available to city children,” said Mrs Ward. Two of her grown-up daughters are interested in the theatre, although her sons resisted any idea of becoming stage-struck. “New Zealand men have been loathe to get involved in the theatre, but that's changing. It’s much easier to get men for productions at Rangiora now.” Although she is enjoying her producing stint ’on “Come As You Are.” which opens tomorrow evening, acting is Cynthia Ward's first love. “Trouble is the parts are limited now — I'm getting a bit ancient,” she smiled.