THE AMATEUR STAGE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 102, 24 January 1933, Page 3

THE AMATEUR STAGE

Ideals, Courage: To-day’s Great Needs

(By

Victor S. Lloyd.)

The amateur theatre in New Zealand has now reached the stage when it needs a jolt. It has demonstrated that It is capable of a’certain competency in acting, there are one or two producers here and there, who can give a play coherence, but beyoud that, what has it done? , . It has been observed by several writtrs recently that amateur acting is developing in this country to a degree never before experienced. There are more amateur acting groups and playreading circles in New Zealand to-day than ever. And their number is increasing; more and more plays are heing performed and read and witnessed, and interest in matters theatrical is growing wider. The generally-ascribed reasons for this are far from being true. When the legitimate theatre was tottering on what many people thought were its last legs, a few years before the war, the ailment was.ascribed variously to.the competition of the cinema, cheap motorcars, the gramophone, and even the high-wheeled bicycle. That “Talkie” Argument. Nowadays, when there is an undoubtedly awakening of interest on the part of the public in ilesli-aud-blood drama, we are told It is due to ,the introduction of the talkies. The argument runs that people are tired of seeing the twodimensional shadows of actors who speak and crave for real flesh-and-blood entertainment. In my opinion this is not so.

Witness the recent theatrical season of Dame Sybil Thorndike and her company In Wellington. The talking pictures, giving two, some of them three, performances a day to packed houses in one or two cases, while one of the greatest, if not the greatest, actress in the world, with a first-rate company in support, presented plays by the greatest of living and . dead dramatists to half-filled houses. All the three-dimen-sional actors, all the splendours of gorgeous settings and costumes in thrilling colour would not woo Wellington audiences away from Gracie Fields and other talkie artists.

Why do people go to the theatre? For the self-same reason that they go to the pictures: to be entertained; to forget their own humdrum lives by sinkigu hemselves in the artificial world, by associating themselves for the time being with the hero, the heroine, the villain or the vamp, as their sex, fancy, bringing-up, inhibitions, or moral inclinations direct.

It does not matter what form the illusion takes. If you accept the arguments put forward to account for the recrudescence of the amateur theatre by ascribing it to the competition of other forms of entertainment, then you must lay the blame on; or give the credit to, in part, the increase in novel reading. The fundamental effect of reading a novel,' hearing a talkie, or going to a play is exactly the same. The reader, the movie fan, and the playgoer, absorb their stories and extract their entertainment out of differently coloured bottles, but that is all. Professionalism Reflected. I am speaking now, of course, of the general public. There are still a few people who can read a beautifully-writ-ten novel for the sheer beauty of Its prose, or go to a play that is a disqulsitory exposition of modern life and its foolishness, or that has real beauty in its lines or its conception; but they do this to satisfy their sense of beuaty or their interest in their fellowmen and the life around them. In auy case they do it because it gives them pleasure so to do. But whatever the causes of the recrudescence of the amateur theatre, there is no gainsaying one feature of it, in so far as this country is concerned. And that is its imitative and derivative qualities, its lack of imaginative force, and lack of courage. Go to any amateur performance of a play in New Zealand, it matters not which you choose, be it by one of our oldest and largest and wealthiest societies or by one of the smaller ■ and

younger groups, and jou " 1U “• its flection of the professional bta» . feebleness or strength depending experience or inexperience ofits pi.. ers, and the energy or lack of it of producer. Not a bint of choice of play, in treatment of setting or lighting, or production. No coura ß e. No imagination. One Successful Exception. . in the last five or six years I-know of only one attempt to depart fro strictly orthodox; and that was t Wellington Repertory Theatre tion of Oscar Wilde’s “The l’“P or of Being Ernest,” when the entire scent was done very, effectively in sheer blac k and white, with the costumes m accoru. The production of that play wiR• cessful. I venture to say that it not have been successful if it ba< done conventionally. Oscar ld ® plays are so artificial /be rcaU&tfc ally-minded modern audience tl at t would never have held their attent the setting and costumes had uot be«m in key with the .artificiality of the pl.. • But this is the only occasion that . know of where the conventional and t c stereotyped have been departed fro . That is the real trouble, and ‘ 2 serious one, with the amateur theatre, in New Zealand. It is all dressed up but it is going nowhere. vil . hie s It is one of the most ancient vlllues of the theatre and one of its 8 sources of strength that spmethino is always wrong with it and that it al ways survives. The important thnp, is to look for something wrong, polling was ever gained by an attitude of self-satisfaction. That is where the danger lies for some of our societies, thev say to themselves, “We are doi g very well; we have done this and done that; this is good and that is good. And there is nothing to be gained oj it. , The right attitude, the progress!! c attitude is based on the realisation that however well a tiling has been done, it can always be done better; that tie amateur theatre is what Dame byml Thorndike calls an “adventure” theatre; a theatre where the new is tried; where discoveries are made; yes, and where mistakes are made as well. The society that is ever on the watch for good box-office returns is on the way to a decline. It has been proved time and time again that something different clone In a different way is just as likely to attract audiences as something ordinary done competently. Holding Back Development. I am quite sure that it is not lack of talent that is holding back the development of drama in this country. New Zealand possesses as large a percentage of. original-minded people and creative-minded people as any other country of its population. But they are not given a chance. They are held back by the conservatism of the die-hards. The great danger of the amateur theatre is aping the professional theatre, and nearly every cue of our amateur societies is guilty of it. In the first place they can never hope to succeed in attaining anything like the detailed perfection of the professional stage. The professional actor worthy of the name to-day has been taught his job and gone in for his training just as earnestly and just as thoroughly as any other professional man. And he is doing his job with one of the greatest of all incentives, whatever our altruists may say, the desire to earn his living. I know that it will be argued that our amateurs should walk before they run, but it is not- the speed they are travelling at, nor their gait; it is the direction they are going. It is most essential that every amateur society should take stock and ask itself just what it is aiming at; what are its ideals; and if it is going to be satisfied only with putting on plays for the joint purpose of giving its members a chance to display themselves on the stage and to entertain their friends. Hints on Choosing Plays. In choosing plays for production do not fall into the bad habit of selecting them one at a time. Choose them for the year, and try and effect a balanced programme. I would suggest, If the yearly number of productions allows it, of the inclusion of one classical play: Shakespeare, Shaw, Strindberg, Ibsen, Euripides, and so on (I include Strindberg and Ibsen particularly because they pulled the theatre out of its era of aimless ineptitude, and rescued it from complete intellectual decay, and were the forerunners of the modern play). I would add, say, two modern plays, a comedy and a drama, even a farce and a thriller, so long as they are good of their kind and typical of the drama of to-day. I would include an ultra-modern play —a play by one of the younger men who are striving for a new theatrical form, for new- methods of expression, who are trying to say'something that has never been said before, or something fundamental in life said in a new Bay or viewed from a different angle. There is quite a goodly number of these new plays available. And lastly, I would be ever on the alert for plays by local autliors.

In production I would strive for artistic simplicity in handling the classical plays; for realism, If realism is demanded, in the modern plays; and a complete departure from traditional methods in the handling of the ultramodern. In short, I would attempt during a year’s activities, to give the members of the society a play which would show them where the drama of to-day had come from, one or two plays showing where it was to-day, and one showing where it might get to-morrow.