PLAYS and PLAYERS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 16, 13 October 1933, Page 14

PLAYS and PLAYERS

Professional and Amateur e :: Activities ::

'THREE operatic productions have been in season all this week in various parts of New Zealand. The Christchurch society has “The Messenger Bov” on the boards, Dunedin “Les Cloches de Corueville,” and Hamilton “The Firefly.”

“Music In the Air.” which the Williamson .firm is presenting in Australia,, is one of the most outstanding musical shows that has been performed for many years. The music is beautiful and the cast'perfect.

“The Student Prince,” “Madame Pompadour,” etc., are to be revived in Australia ini the very near future. ' * * «

Noel Coward’s new play. “Conversation Piece,” is to be produced in London by C. B. Cochran. Yvonne Printemps.’ the French actress, is to have the lead.

“The Dubarry.” which had a long run on the Continent and in London, will be staged by J. C. Williamson in Australia shortly. Sylvia Welling (now in “Music in the Air” in rielbourne.) succeeded the late Army Ahlers in the title role in London, and will take the lead in Australia.

The easting of Elmer Rice’s “Street Scene,” in which there are more than forty characters, has been presenting some difficulty to the Auckland Garrick Dramatic Society, which will produce the play on November 9 and 11. The principal parts, however, after some revision of the list originally announced, have now been definitely fixed. The whole action of the play takes place on the street frontage of a tenement house in New .York.

The Wanganui Repertory Theatre now has quarters of its own in the old ■public library building in Ridgway Street, which has been converted for the purpose. The first public use to which the new theatre was put was the staging of the one-act plays in the Drama League Festival which concluded a three-niglits’ season last evening. The festival had been postponed a week in order that the building should be available. Twelve teams competed, four plays being presented each evening- The judge was Miss Helen Gard’ner.

Lovers of J. M. Barrie will be pleased to hear that Wellington audiences are to have an early opportunity of seeing his famous play, “Alice, Sit by the Fire,” specially written for Ellen Terry, who played the part of Alice at its first London production in 1905. This play has been chosen for production by the ’Wellington Repertory Theatre and will be staged in the Concert Chamber early in December. It is proposed to dress the play in the costumes of the period so as to preserve its delicate comedy and its early twentieth century liavoijr. Mr. W. S. Wauchop is directing the production.

A three-nights’ season of Luigi Pirandello’s famous play, “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” produced by the Workers’ Educational Association, began in Auckland last evening. Particular interest centres in the production, not only because of the inherent importance of the play in the development of modern drama, but also because of the methods of stage technique adopted. The play is being given by an anonymous cast of fifteen players under the direction of Mr. Arnold Goodwin.