REVIVAL OF DRAMA

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 71, 21 September 1933, Page 12

REVIVAL OF DRAMA

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS

DOMINANCE OF THE MACHINE

Reasons for the revival of the drama during recent years were given by the Eev. AY. A. Constable, M.A., Auckland, adjudicator at the national finals festival of .the. New Zealand branch of the British Drama League, in the course of an address at the luncheon of the Optimists' Club today. The speaker remarked that there had been a worldwide emergence of' enthusiasm, for the drama, and several contributing factors could be advanced in explanation of the development.

In Russia there had come a realisation of the power of the theatre for propaganda purposes, and in that country propaganda, linked with art, had revived drama. So far as the rest of the world was concerned, the reasons for the new enthusiasm for the drama could be summed up under the heading of reaction from the dominance of the machine.

In the 19th century it was claimed that the machine was going to solve the problems of civilisation, but it had been discovered that while machinery had gone ahead in the mo«t extraordinary way, particularly during the last thirty years, it had not solved the problems of civilisation. Indeed, it had created other problems as serious, if not more serious, than those it^ was expected to solve.

One of the earliest expressions in literature of the fear of the dominance of the machine had been made in NewZealand by. Samuel Butler in "Darwin Among the Machines." The reaction from the machine, which appeared most markedly after the war in Middle Europe had resulted in several notable additions to literature, and two writers ■who had taken that subject as their theme were Karel Capck and Georg Kaiser. In America, Elmer Bice had written on similar lines in "The Adding Machine." Many people were inclined to regard such writings as crankiness, but beneath it all there was a brooding sense of danger. MECHANICAL RIVALS. About the time that these plays were being written the drama had to face rivals which it had never before known in the form of mechanised entertainment. Tho cinema, from which was evolved the talkie, the tremendous spread of the use of gramophones, and the extraordinarily swift emergence of radio caused theatres to suffer tremendously and it became a problem to keep them open. That, however, was more or less the darkest hour before the dawn. Although hardly anybody expected it, the drama took a new lease of life just after that. Throughout the 1920's there was an enormous spread of the "little theatre" movement in America, and now practically every town in England boasted of its repertory theatre. There was often only a paid producer, and perhaps one or two professional actors, most of the work being done by amateurs, but there was great keenness, as was also tb be seen in New Zealand today. * EFFECT OF DEPRESSION. Then came the depression and what happened? Many of those societies were distinctly insecure in their financial foundations, but in spite of the depression they flourished and multiplied to an amazing extent. One reason was a desire for expression, both individually and socially. The cynic might say it was due to a desire for the' limelight, but although this certainly played a part, it was not as important as the cynic might pretend. People became tired of being amused from outside and wanted to enjoy themselves in something in which they had a vital part to play themselves. The drama was tlie most social of all arts. There was no such thing as purely literary drama which was just as barren as the work of an architect who prepared wonderful designs without a knowledge of building construction or a desire to have his designs put into effect. Drama was written for the theatre and to give it its full expression required the co-operation of actors, producers, lighting experts, scenery and costume advisers, and audiences, which played a much more important part in a production than many people imagined.

If considered size for size, an ordinary thread of spider silk is decidedly tougher than a bar of steel. An ordinary thread ■n-ill bear a weight of three grains. This is just about 50 per cent, stronger than a steel thread of the s«n« tricknws.