“THE SHINING HOUR”

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 13

“THE SHINING HOUR”

Final Week of J. C. Williamson Season Commences To-night Following the lilial presentation at the O]>era House last evening of Emlyn Williams’s dramatic murder story, "Night Must Fall,” the J. C. Williamson company is to present, for the first time in New Zealand, Keith Winter’s beautiful and compelling play, "The Shining Hour,” for a season of six nights aud two matinees, commencing this afternoon. The story deals with the Lindens, yeomen farmers, essentially simple in their way of life and thought. Hannah is the eldest of the family, capable and managing, caustic of tongue, yet kind of heart. Judy, the next of the Linden women, is married to David, whom she loves very deeply. When Henry, the eldest of the family, brings a young wife. Mariela, to settle among his family he is for Judy an instrument of fate. Mariela comes not only to a strange land, but to an environment entirely foreign in ber experience. To the Linden atmosphere she, too, brings something strange—to Hannah something alien, disturbing, aud eventually hateful; to David a new interpretation of the meaning of life, a response to that side of his nature which finds relief from the even tenor of his life; to Micky, the youngest Linden, something stimulating to his vanity until he provides her with the opportunity of shat* tering his self-conceit; to Judy, an experience that leads her to the final stupendous act of sacrifice, so that the “miracle” which she accepts as' inevitable from the moment that David and Mariela meet may be consummated. Miss Ethel Morrison as Hannah Linden will be seen in a part which won her the highest praise abroad. Miss Elaine Hamill is said to give her very finest performance in the role of Mariela, in which she also wears some wonderful frocks. Campbell Copelin, according to the critics, has never been seen to better advantage than in the part of David Linden. That sterling actor, Harvey Adams, brings West End London polish to the performance of Henry Linden, and Phyllis Baker and Lloyd Lambic should further endear themselves (o Now Zealand theatres in the parts of Judy Linden and Micky Lindon.