WOMEN AS PLAYWRIGHTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 986, 29 November 1910, Page 9

WOMEN AS PLAYWRIGHTS.

It is but a very short while since a sharp controversy raged in theatrical circles, and debates were held on the subject, as to whether a woman could write a' good play, says a writer in an English paper. There seemed to be somo fixed idea that the art of pla.y-writing was a purly masculine ono. To be able to writo a play one needs to know how to tell a story, to dolineate character, to present a situation in an effectivo manner, and to know what to leavo unexplained. Why should women, who write the best novels, nro usually observant, and are such excellent judges of a play, not make good dramatists? The answer to this they have themselves supplied. For tho last decade they have been steadily and successfully proving. that they are quito as competent as the other- sex to amuse tho public, to touch tho deepest emotions,- or to doal with problems in dramatic form. And in this, as in othel work they undertake, having once put. their hand to the plough, they havo not looked back, but steadily and quietly forged ahead until it has suddenly dawned upon the world what a prominent place they are taking in this particular field of artistic labour. This season sees woman holding the position. finds itself all at once in feminine hands. A glanco_ down tho list of new plays now running reveals the fact that a very largo proportion are the work .of women playwrights, who bavo oroved that they can be equally grave o"r gay, and that they am no less gifted than man with a sense of humour or an hpnreciatior. of dramatic effect. And there "are more to come. Among the forthcoming productions of tho season there are at least three, arc told, by women writers. Here, again, therefore, woman has conquered, and she does not readily suffer, herself to bo displaced when once sho gets a footing.

NOT EVEN FOR THE KING. The recent petition to the Queen by a large number of cottage women, though rather curious in form, expresses a real grievance in the. villago homes on the roads used by motor-cars (says an English paper), liven the lato lung's popularity did-hot always stand the test.of tno trouble and dangers caused by his motors and those of his attendants. In one of the cottages on the road between London and Newmarket a visitor happened to be present on ono occasion when tho well-known motor without a number passed, bearing the ™ train of chalk-dust in its wake. that was the King,". remarked the visitor. "Eh! I wouldn't stir an inch to see mi," replied the woman, "neither lm nor any o' them motorists.' They fill my ouse with dirt no sooner am I cleaned up, and my children is never safe out o' doors. I've never a minute's peace o' mind unless they're abed or in school."