THE STAGE OF LONG AGO

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 8

THE STAGE OF LONG AGO

I Acting In Wellington In The ’Seventies ‘VISIT OE OCTOGENARIAN PLAY PRODUCER There are few living wlio.se memory lean 'be relied upon to trace, however olAscurely, the part played by the theatre in the lives of the Wellington people of the '7()'e. Yet more limn a glimpse of those misty days was caught from a talk wiflt Mr. J. M- Clark. Auckland, who is visiting the capital city for a few days on business. Mr. Clark, now post bis eightieth birthday, is probably tin? only play producer of that age living in New Zealand. For some years he lias directed the presentation of radio plays from station IYA in Auckland, with very pleasing results to the listening public. Mr. Clark believes that the play produced direct to the public from the public stage is the most satisfactory form of presentation. After that lie holds that direct presentation to the microphone comeg next, and after that the recorded play. He discriminates between the two last-named by instancing the difference between a recorded song by iatwrenee Tibbett and one by Lawrence Tibbett in person. “We all knew Tibbett. to be a line singer by his records.’’ said .Mr. Clark, •‘but it was not. until we saw ami heard him in the flesh that we realised what a magnificent artist he is. it is that intimate touch, the personal contact, which gives us the whole of lhe artist, I think. .For that reason I regret that the National Broadcasting Service has, I believe, decided to abandon the production of plays by separate groups of players in the direct way, and, for the future, to record radio plays for the whole of New Zealand in Wellington. Mr. Clark’s activities on the New Zealand stage go back to the ’7o’s. Then a resident of AVellingtou, he, with others, used to come to the assistance of visiting actors and actresses, helping them to All out the casts. Had that assistance not been available, many of the playg presented by leading stage stars of that day could not possibly have been presented with anything like

i the completeness with which they were | given. Not that they were complete, in I any way, from -the modern standpoint of 1 production. Usually the companies who visited New Zealand so long ago consisted of the leads and three or four ■ people :ts supports. They, as a. rule. I brought no scenery of their own, bul 'managed with the stock scenery of the theatres itt which they played. This, one could imagine, was not by any I means elaborate; indeed, it was ollmi ivory shabby. Bur in those days "the i play was the tiling.” and the public, not j being used to anything better, was enabled to concentrate on the lines of the play and Che acting, instead of being distracted by marvellous scenic effects. Is there another man living in New

Zealand who acted with William llosking? Mr. Clark supported this actor ! and ids wife i l'’lorcnee Colville) on ) many occasions in tiie old Theatre Itoyai I and. meta[iltorically, still sits at tile feel iof that title actor. And lie must have I been among the near-great, for the late 1 Sir Henry Irving remembered with gratitude the hints given him by that actor, who, after being well known on the London stage in the middie of the last century, exiled himself in these parts. According to Mr. Clark, William Husking was a most versatile actor, possessing tine intellectual graces ; an actor who could not help being interesting to his audience.

i It is a far cry to more than 00 years j ago. hut Mr. Clark's memory is still ' verdant. He remembers Horace Lingard. who toured up and down New Zealand for some years, witli companies dramatic and operatic. He avers, with firmness, that John Hall—a performer of the ’Bo's —was one of the best comedians who ever breathed, and his performance in “The Guv’nor” one of lite most brilliant ever witnessed in this country. Mr. Clark the late Mr. J. C. Wlllianisort as an actor, ever so good as John Stofel in “Struck Oil” and excellent in certain Irish parts, notably in a little play called “Kerry”; and his then wife, the late Maggie Moore, was a brilliant actress, either in comedy or drama. Mr. Clark said he always held that the late Nellie Stewart owed much of her success to what she picked up from Maggie Moore. Fifty years ago in Wellington, Mr. Clark was associated witli a team of young men who were just as keen on the •stage as he was. These included, at various times, the late Messrs. H. E. Nicholls, J. Read. W. D. Lyon, Cecil Keyworth, Fred Haybittie, Morris Fox, and others, all of whom became experienced players as the result of their many contacts with the professional stage.