MISS MARIE NEY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 284, 26 August 1940, Page 9

MISS MARIE NEY

Took Part In Wellington Competitions

VISIT TO AUSTRALIA

(By

H. P.)

Miss Marie Ney, the English actress, who is to appear in Sydney next month in the mystery thriller, “Ladies in Retirement,” stated in an interview that she had flown all the way from England. Last summer she flew out to Malaya to join her planter husband, Mr. T. Menzies, for some time, and this year she had flown out from Naples. Miss Ney explained that her husband was a rubber planter. She bojxed he would be able to visit Australia during the six months she would be there. Iler five months in Malay was not all holiday-making. While there she arranged a series of lectures on Shakespeare, which she illustrated with scenes from the plays. By this means she was able to raise £350 for the Actors’ Equity in London. Her last effort before leaving England for Malaya this time was in the film “Jamaica Inn,” the pictorial version of Daphne du Maurier’s book.

“It was so sad, for nine hours a day, that the part bit right into me, and I used to go home and cry into my dinner,” said the actress. “In stage plays you suffer while you're rehearsing, but once the actual performance begins, you seem to work it out«of your system. In pictures you never play the play as a whole, and therefore you always seem to be rehearsing—so you never have a chance of working it out of your system. I have played in one or two other films, including ‘The Wandering Jew,’ with Conrad Veidt.

The last time Miss Ney appeared in Sydney was at the Theatre Royal, with Emile" Polini in "The Lie.” That was in 1922 or 1923.

“And now, I’m out here,” said Miss Ney. “I hope Harrison Owen, the Australian playwright, will write a play specially for me.” Early Competitions.

Miss Ney, then Marie Fix, was a competitor at the Wellington competitions in 1912. On that occasion Miss Ney appeared In the Shakespearian recital, the potion scene from “Romeo and Juliet”; the dramatic recital, “Paul Revere's Ride”; the girl’s song “ ’Neath Your Casement”; recital epilogue from “As You Like It”; musical monologue (own selection) ; prepared reading Ruskin’s “Sea Boat”; humorous recitation (own selection) ; dramatic recital, “Atalanta in Calydon”; and character sketch.

In 1912 the competitors included Cecial Haines, Coralie Stahley, Ethel Churchill, Thelma Browne, Betty Purdom, C. A. L. Treadwell (now with the New Zealand Forces in Egypt), Mrs. C. S. KeedweU, Ruby Scott, Hazel Jeffery, Lilian King, Cissie O’Keefe, Zita Chapman, Gwen Shepherd, Muriel Bennett, Culford Bell, Byron Brown, Harry Phipps, Zante Wood, Fergus Reeves, L. A. Ridell, and L. Power. The first organized competitions were held in 1911, when the prize winners included Lilian Pritchard, Thelma Brown, Helen Gard’ner, Florence Pacey, Zita Chapman, Mina Ward, Madeline Knight, Ethel Lissack, Messrs. F. Blanford, Leonard Power, Winton Brown, J. Culford Bell. Baxter Buckley, W. Aspinall, J. A. Doherty, S. I-I. Osborn, and A. S. Hilliker.