DRAMA LEAGUE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1933, Page 2

DRAMA LEAGUE

TWO NEW ZEALAND PLAYS

■ The British Drama League organisation has gone forth into the highways and byways and has kindled the dramatic spark >in all sorts of places. Tho Drama League's industry is one that defies bad tiuie.i, and it was good to bo in the Blue Trianglo Hall last evening and sco five plays (mostly of one act.) put on very creditably by the' amateur disciples of what is evidently a flourishing art. Tho Silvcrstream .Women's Institute led off with "At Snobs' Court Hotel" (by M. E." Forwood), in which Joau. Chapman-Taylor (a widow) and Mary, Pierard (a spinster devoted to art) arc seen in the hotel lounge preparing their snobbish plans to fawn on a Russian, princess who is expected to arrive. They; mistake a French dressmaker ■ (Madgo Bown) for the princess, and, after wasting their gunpowder, try again, on a "quiet woman" (Patricia Ridling), but they never catch the real princess, because she never comes. Cecilia Campbell was the waitress, aiid tho producer was M. Boylc-Bur«lay. The adjudicator (Miss Kiore King) pointed out that1 the entry of the suspected princess (tho first one) could have been more dramatic, and tho exit of tho waitress could have been less dramatic, but she conceded that tho performers grouped well, that their speaking improved much after the first couple of minutes, and that tho atmosphcro was right. The Stokes Women's Institute put oa a New Zealand play (by Helen Gordon, two acts). This was another creditable performance. Tho difficulties will be judged when it is said that tho play is intensely dramatic, and that continuous pressure of emotion and strain falls on three women players, who aro the whole cast. Though the audienco only realises it gradually, the three women ' arc mother, daughter, and du,ughtor-iu-law, being all tied, in tho several relationships, to a brutal criminal (son, brother, and husband) who has escaped from gaol, - and who is hanging about the bush home where the women are living. There is a face>atthe window episode, daughter recognising brother and daughter-in-law recognising husband, after which the thrco women confide. The man himself, who is a murderer,- is never seen. Tho police telephone comfort to the bush home, and say that if the fugitive -is killed in the course of capture, the iignal will bo three telephone rings. On jlliat fatal signal the play ends, but the .telephone is indistinct and its dramatic possibilities are lost. Emotions of wife, sister, and mother in such a situation require gQod acting, and' Mrs. Fen« , ton (wife), Mrs. Cording (sister), .and, Mrs. BranVell (a lovable mothor) .by, no means fail. Th© adjudicator emphasising the importance of atmosphere in such a play, would have preferred & • lamp in tho bush home instead of an. electric light, and would have used the telephone better. The seeing of the face at tho window was not vivid, enough. The wife showed feeling, but it was rathor on tho same note. Still, a good performance of an exacting play. Mrs. Cording was the producer. "Smoke Screen" (by Harold Brighouse) is a sketch, of a mother who divorced her husband, made a fortune in business,- and educated her girl, but failed to get inside the girl's character. This business mother has a heart of gold, but is outwardly cynical, and her superficial disposition becomes a smoke ■ screen that the daughter cannot penetrate; finally, the daughter becomes estranged, and the smoke screen thicken* into a barrier. It is a. message to mothers who have been divorced' and have assumed .masculine .responsibility. Mavis Windsor and Helen- Sinel, 'as mother and aunt, are the older generation; Marjorio Eberlet is the .daughter, and Mary Leach, as the sister of the 'daughter's young man, explains that he is painfully ugly, which will be at least some safeguard against having a second divorce in the family. The producer was Sybil Williams. The adjudicator thought that the ladies spoke well and made a good team, but walked about the stage rather too much. The players belong to.the Wellington East Amateur Dramatic Society. Another of the New Zealand plays was V. Targuse's "The Touchstone," notable for its real New Zealand .colour, for the atmosphere the players gave, it, and for Annie Woodward, who acted brilliantly and naturally, ftnd was heard better than anyone else last evening. Two farmers, close friends, have become estranged through suspicion of sheepstealing. McLean and his wifo, Kate (L. E. Pedrotti and Annie Woodward) are drifting apart from Balfour and hiswife, Nellie (Cyril Eamsey and Edna Shore), but Kate fights for the old love and trust, and her loyalty is rewarded by the arirval of an old' Maori woman (Areta Wharton) with evidence that the real, thief is Mitchel (Gay Gatling). Mitchel is not presented a 6 the mystery, man he might bo, but at the outset an artificial dog in the wings growls at' Mitchel, and this is some clue as to who the real villain is to ta. At the height of the crisis Kate has ft speech that is almost Shakespearean, and Miss Woodward speaks it finely. The adi judicator thought that the two men could have put more vim into it. She was pleased with the atmosphere, and the performance generally. The producer was Fay Smith. ' <«The Heart of a Clown" (Ohphant Down) is about a Columbine who is aharaed with her Harlequin, but realises that Harlequins always want to • havo their Columbines young, and as she is >a sensible Columbine, and as sho seeks someone who will love her when she is old, she dismisses the careless Harlequin and weds the Clown (the real hero). Nathalie Pollock is Columbine,. Constance Kelly is Clown, Georgie Sterling is Harlequin, and Leah Black is Gipsy. Producer: Mrs. I. Halligan. This evening at the Blue Triangle Hall the Crescent Players will present "Thirst," by J. J. Bell. Tho Wellington South Kindergarten Mothers' Club will produce "Postal Orders," by Koland Pertwee. '' Murder Trial,' ?by Sidney Box, will be presented by the Triangle Players, and "God Made Two Trees" (one of the New Zealand plays, the work of lima M. Levy), by the Victoria University College Dramatic Club.