The living arts

Press, 28 February 1978, Page 10

The living arts

Derrick Rooney

Court comedy Sumptuous brocaded costumes, and a Jacobean set to match, are being prepared by the Court Theatre, for “She Stoops To Conquer,” its Arts Festival production. Subtitled “The Mistakes of a Night,” the play has a comic plot which includes mistaken identities and disguises. The author, Oliver Goldsmith, was born in 1728, and this, the more successful of his two plays, was produced in 1773, just one year before his death. (Marlow’s mistaking the Hardcastle house for an inn) comes from an event in his own life, as do nearly all the various subplot “situations.” The play is considered to be an important turning point in English comedy, setting a style and pattern which is still used successfully by modern playwrights. It is tightly written, every line of dialogue linking directly with past or future statements. Tn due course, all loose ends are tied up.Only a few minor alterations have been necessary to enable this play to stand beside its modern counterparts. The director is David Smiles, of Wanganui, and the cast comprises Paul Sonne, Elizabeth Moody, Michael Hurst, Marcy BerCusson. Russell Smith, Robin Queree, and six. new company members: Judy Gibson, Tony Wahren, John Givins, Sydney Jackson, Michael Williams and Mary Spencer.

Theatre course A 10-week course in theatre presentation, covering all aspects of the theatre, including the work behind, the scenes, will begin in the Repertory Theatre on March 11. The tutor will be Colin Alexander, a graduate of the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama. The main part of the course will deal with the development and work of the actor, and special emphasis will be put on speech and stage movement. Pupils will learn individual scenes and, if there is time, will prepare a short play for public performance. There is no age limit on the pupils, but there is a numerical one: the size of the class will be limited to 20. Enrolments and interviews will be on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to noon, and March 8, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Bzg puppets The second-year students of the Wellingtonbased National Drama School are at the Court Theatre to participate in the Arts Festival. They will work in two productions. In the first they are the manipulators of the large Bunraku puppets. in an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” The origin of the classical Japanese puppet theatre was the KugutsuSci, hunters who. during their periods of rest, performed puppet shows, going from door to door.

Not until the end of the sixteenth century did the ancient form of the puppet show develop into the popular style still in existence in the Bunraku. Bunraku-Ken was the stage name of a puppeteer from the island of Awaci, where the rural theatre had formerly been cultivated. In 1845 he founded

a permanent theatre for its, puppets in the affluent city of Osaka. It was named after him and became known as Bunrakenza (bun-literature, raku-pleasure, za-house). Since then, Bunraku has come to mean a puppet show in a permanent theatre with a permanent stage.

The Bunraku puppet is half to three-quarters the size of a man. It is guided by two, or at the most three, movements that are in complete accord with the dialogue, which .is partly sung and partly narrated.

The sculptured puppet heads are the work of such artists as John Middleditch. The programme, devised and directed by Louise Petherbridge, of Dunedin, is suitable for both adults and older children, and will be performed at 6.00 p.m., Mondays to Saturdays. The second programme being prepared by the students is a multi-media montage on loneliness. This incorporates poetry, dance, and projection. This will be performed at lunch time from March 13 to 17. “The Telephone”

“The Telephone,” a oneact. opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti, will be performed by Angela Shaw ’ and Graeme Gorton at the Court Theatre as a lunchtime entertainment during the first week of the Arts Festival. It was first, performed in York in 1947, and has become one of the most often performed operas. The singers will be ac-

companied on the piano by Richard Warnolk, a graduate of Canterbury University. He has studied at the London Opera Centre, and will leave New Zealand soon for further study in Italy. Rugs and pots The Havelock weaver, John Hadwen, will exhibit a selection of his recent work in the Studio 393 gallery for a week from Sunday, as an Arts Fesitval attraction. His display will be accompanied by a selection of pottery from a small group of Canterbury potters, including Rex Valentine, who recently returned from a year’s study in Japan. John Hadwen has been weaving full time since 1975, and his main interests are rugs and wallhangings. This exhibition includes flatweave rugs in various techniques, threedimensional wal-hangings, and a tapestry. This will not be his first exhibition in Christchurch — he showed a selection of his work in Several ARts last June. Since then he has taken part in a number of exhibitions, including one at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts in Wellington.

Prices up This year has begun with a much stronger market for colonial-period New Zealand paintings than was evident hi the last months of 1977. There was a strong demand for the sale of paintings from the Anderson estate in Wellington recently, writes Oliver Riddell. C. D. Barraud’s two paintings on offer drew most attention. A watercolour of a stage-coach at the top of the Rimutakas, with a surveyor talking to a Maori in the foreground, and dated 1869, was sold for $6500.

Even more encouraging was the $5OOO paid for his water-colour of a surveyors’ camp at Lake Marina, in the Southern Alps, dated 1872. The work was badly water stained and had foxing around the edges.

There were four works by W. G. Baker, and lop price of $1650 was paid for a large oil of a South Island lake scene. Perhaps the best work of the four was a big oil of Milford Sound, but it brought the lowest price. Two E. A. Chapman water-colours of South Island • scenes made $4OO

each, and the L. W. Wilson water-colour of Kinloch made $5OO. An oil by H. W. Kirkwood of a South Island lake sunset sold for $750.

A minor painting by John Gully of a South Island lake scene sold for only $1550, but an oil of a Maori child and dog by the almost unknown Southland artist, E. K. Sperring, sold for $2400. It was the first time many of the paintings had been on show since they were painted by the friends of the original collector a century ago, and it was noticeable that the. many South Island works sold for less than might have been obtained had they been up for auction in Christchurch. Paintings of North Island scenes met a readier sale.

Festival farce Why Chester Dreadnought hid in a suit of armour, disguised himself as Mrs Gribble, and pretended to be a standard lamp are among the mysteries that will be unravelled in the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society’s farce. "Wild Goose Chase,” which will open a seven-night season at the Repertory Theatre on Saturday as an Arts Festival attraction.

The play is by Derek Benfield, and the direction is by John Kim, who was the society’s resident professional producer from 1963 to 1966. "Wild Goose Chase” is the first of Repertory’s fiftieth anniversary year productions.

Set in “one of the last few remaining inhabited

castles of England.” a time-honoured domain of English farce, “Wild Goose Chase” makes full use of its comic possibilities with misunderstandings, madcap characters, mistaken identities and chases. All the cast have scenestealing opportunities, from the larger-than-life eccentrics to the more straightforward younger characters. The cast comprises Paul Bushnell (as Chester Dreadnought, a role played by Leslie Phillips in the London production), Ann Simpson, Michelle Glenmare, Fiona Samuel, Rosalind Peek, Mary Turnbull, John Smyth, Mark Lewington. Chris Maher, and David Rich.