A NOTABLE SELECTION

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 85, 13 April 1929, Page 21

A NOTABLE SELECTION

.'' The .Plays of 3, IL Barrio "; and "Peter Pan." By J. Si. Barrio. London: Hodder and Stoughton. (Through Whitcombc and Tombs.)

Sir James Barrio in this omnibus uilition .of his plays—not quito all of them, however—gives prido of : Mlaec to "Peter Pan,'; which ho dedicates "To the Five." Ho openly confesses that ho had no recollection of having written the play, although ho- docs admit having written tho story of "Peter and Wendy." Except for a few pages of "Peter Pan" lie assures "Tho Fivo" that he docs not know what has become of the original MS. However, ho , was not very encouraged during tho first rehearsal by'the opinion given to him by a stage hand who used to appear, holding a'mug of tea or a paint pot, by his .sido as he sat in the stalls and whispered, "The gallery boys won't stand it." As it was, tho play had to be slightly ddded to after its 'first production at the urgent' request of parents of children who had seen it. Something had to be put into it, "about no one being able to fly until tho fairy dust had been blown upon him; because so many children having gone homo and tried it from their beds h,ad needed surgical attention." After due consideration Sir James thinks that he really must have written "Peter Pan" and that some of it must have been written in his native Kerrimuify which to him is "tho dearest spot on earth," although ho affirms that his last heartbeats will be with his "beloved solitary London."

Looking backward to his own boyhood when at. seven with his fellow conspirator Bobb, ho says entertainments were given in an old washhouse —that still stands—when tho charge for admission was "preens, a bool, ora peprie." The culminating act consisted in each trying to put tho other into the boiler. Tho washhouse was not only the theatre of the first Barrio play but tho original of the littlo house built by Lost Boys in the Nbverland ' for Wendy. So tho dedication runs on in a'purling stream of autobiography, showing young Barrie- storing up dramatic- material extracted from penny numbers and discovering in the highly proper "Chatterbox" that such penny numbers were in'reality guides to perdition, 1 bringing their 'readers with certainty to the gallows. As an y undergraduate, he yearned to become an explorer, and so at 20 his fancy placed him at the masthead, a spyglass to Ms eye, sweeping the horizon for some elusive strand. But the strongest evidence that lie .has, to offer that ho was really the author• of "Peter Pan was to bo found in a melancholy 'volume, '"The Boy Castaways of Black Lake' Island; being a Record of tho. Terrible Adventures of Three Brothers in the Summer, of 1901; faithfully set forth by No.'3. London: Published by J. M. Barrie, in tho Gloucester road, 1901." There were 10 chapter headings to'this book, but no other letterpress—" an absence (remarks the author) which possible purchasers might complain of, though there aro surely worse ways of writing a book." ; ■ The thirty-five illustrations wero .from photographs,, taken l>y "thd publisher." Two volumes of the "Boy Castaways" were produced, but ono was mislaid-in a railway carriage and never recovered.

To the Five, Sir' James Barrio admits ho owes much: Some of them wcrp his keenest and^iiiost candid critics. Not among them, however, was that small boy so highly favoured by the author with a seat in his own box ;at the play. When'the Boy. was asked at the end of the play what he liked best, he was quite open about expressing- his preference. It was to-tear his programme into little .bits and drop them-on the heads of people below! Tho plays in their order in the volume are "Peter Pan," ".Quality Street," "The Admirable Criehton, 5.' (.'Alice: Sit-by-the-Fire,'.' "What Every' Woman Knows," "A Kiss for Cinderella," "Dear Brutus," "Mary Rose," "Pantaloon," "Half-an-Hour," "Seven Women," "Old Friends," "Rosalind," "Tho -Will," "The Tw.elvo Pound Look," "The New Word," "A ■Wellremembered Voice," "Barbara's Wedding," "The Old Lady Shows ,llcr Medals," and "Shall We Join tho Ladies," a full score of plays. Of the popularity df most of the plays in the theatre there is no doubt. Quite recently "Quality Street" was successfully revived at tho Haymarket, London, under the personal supervision of Sir James Barrie, 1 and in the cast were some whose names 'and art aro familiar to New Zealand playgoers, only to mention Miss Angela Baddeley as Phoeb© Throssel (with Dion Boucieault) and Mr. Francis Lister (with Margaret Bannerman), "Quality Street" was first performed nt tho Vaudeville, London, in 1902, when the cast contained the names of Ellaline. Tcrris (Mrs. Seymour Hicks) as Phoebe, and Mr. Seymour Hicks as Valentino Brown. The- plays in the volume under review havo been edited rather for reading than performance, being without actingdirections, but with a full introductory explanation." They aro to .bo commend:' ed as showing Sir James Barrio at bis best in his plays. The volume is rather heavy to handle, but the binding is strong ana tho print large, clear, and generously spaced.