TWO FANTASIES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 82, 5 April 1924, Page 21

TWO FANTASIES

MR. C. R. ALLEN AS PLAYWRIGHT

i'THE FOUR, FOUNDLINGS."

fFHOSI OUR OWN CO&RESPONBgNT.)

LONDON, 19th February, •Mr. C. R, Allen (son of the High Commissioner) is already known in Dunedin as a- playwright of considerable ability, but until last week he had not given anyone in London an opportunity nf witnessing any of his dramatic productions. A small entertainment which ■took place 'in the Fellowship Rooms attached .to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields Church in aid of St. Dunstan's and disabled soldiers prompts one to think that Mr. Allen ought'to have sought .an' earlier opportunity of testing his talent before a London !audience.' He was fortunate in having a fairly good amateur company to interpret his play, and those in a position to judge are convinced that it and others like it are worthy o*f a larger and more critical audience. As a matter of fact, there were two plays, described as "fantasies," but it was the first and longer one, "The Four /Foundlings," to . which one's attention was particularly drawn. Its artistic conception and dignity of the blank verse, in which it.is -written are -something rarely met with in modern one-act plays. Although it provides food -for pflilosophical speculation, there is a brightness and sparkle of humour in the play which kept the audience alert' and eager until the': climax. *

* The author relies on the poetic idea rather than" on action his ■ effect. He chose a period of picturesque costumes to heighten this effect. The story is quite simple. In the cold, early hours of the morning a boy is found by .1 kindly inn-keeper, and his wife moaning at their doorstep. He tells the tale of his journey down the ."straight white road," and of how he has been molested and "struck by a sailor man. Presently another knock is heard at the door. The boy instinctively knows it is his late, enemy and is ushered away to another room. The sailor appears, a-nd in turn tells his story. He' has been "taken ill in Spain, and during his illness there appears to him a lady—his ■■ mother, it transpires later in the play—who reminds him. of the little place of joy and contentment, at the end of the straight white ■ road. He returns to' his own country,, and as he travels alongthe road he is stopped by. a carter who strikes him with his whip. The .carter is the next to arrive, a man of ; middle age, and he, too,' has a grievance. He has been struck by an old man with a crutch, who in turn appears, at the inn.

At this point or earlier, it dawns on. tho audience that all these four characters are oiie and the same person at different stages of .his life. Each one blames his earlier, self for the ills that have bofallen him. The situation is full of possibilities, and the writer of tlie play makes full' use of them. In the end a vision of the mother appears, and she smooths out the quarrel, ■ for while she understands the deficiencies of her child, .she has been quick to. Bee the good. The boy refused to join the other children) when they tormented the village fool. The' sailor did not desert his; drunken companion in a time of stressT" The carter never failed to see that his horses were fed and before he drank, too deeply at the. Vwayside inn himself.:. And to. the.old man the mother gave cotisolatio'n : dhd"• encouragement to help him on his journey to the end of the straight white road.; The play is full of delightful surprises, and the. verse is. so ,well managed that never for a moment is there a false note or a' prb-\ fluidity which tbe story'does not merit.

HEAL AND IDEAL.

"Will and the Witch," with only three characters, bus a slighter motif. -Will Simple, the under-gardener, is filled with ambition "to rescue a beautiful maiden from the hideous witch. ;He.seizes'the witch's broom and deprives her of her power.' Thereupon he strikes a bargain. The maiden must, be released in return for the broom. The witch, throws . off her mask and red cloak and the maiden is revealed. But Will' Simple's enthusiasmll peters out,'for the maiden is not so beautiful as he -had thought she was. 'Bridget, the seamstress, reappears at this moment, the erstwhile witch reassumes her mask, and Will Simple is content to take the real instead of thn ideal. .'. ' . '„.,.. At the close of the performance the author w^s called on to the stage,, and he thanked, the producer of the plays (Miss Ellen O'Malley), the actors, and others'for the excellent way in which they had interpreted his work. As a civilian he had received great kindness from St. Dunstan'gjp.he said, and this was one way in which he was able to show his appreciation-of that kindness. In an appreciative paragraph '.'Th« Observer" ."A performance by amateurs in the churchrooms of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on Friday .night brought to light two plays by. Mr. C. R. Allen, neither of them acted before, each showing a strange arid delicate turn of mind, and the beginnings of a quite remarkable gift for poetic fantasy." "In the meantime," says a writer in the "Daily Chronicle," concluding an appreciation of their production, "Mr. Allen' musft certainly write some more plays," , . .' ■

The Rev. C. H. Rutchie (late chaplain! R.N.), .senior curate at St. Martih's-in-the-Fields, referred to the fact that he and Mr. Allen were children together, were educated at the same schbols, and went to the same university.