TRIANGLE PLAYERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 95, 19 October 1933, Page 9

TRIANGLE PLAYERS

A PROMISING BEGINNING

! ■ *~~** ' A riewlnon-professjonal dramatic company, .'the Triangle Players, made its first appearance last night . and a favourable impression, too, on its audience. The play was "Number Seventeen," by J. Jefferson • i'arjeon, and the-place was tlie Y.W.C.A. Hall. Offered-as a "joyous melodrama," this initial effort of the Players succeeded, as Was intended, in keeping the aiidierice guessing and in holding it in suspense until just before the curtain fell.1 "Xumber- Seventeen,"' it may be explained, is a play of crooks, sleuths, and double crossing, real good cinema' stuff in texture and pattern. The curtain'irises on the front of an empty house,.Xo. 17, somewhere in London and during a heavy acrid fog, the sort of fog that rpehetrates the bronchial tubes and irritates the. eyes, makes wheeled traffic risky, if not impossible,' and limits the field .of vision to a radius of .from four to six feet. There is a real fanlight, i.e., .fanshaped, over the door and a mysterious light, is seen through it now and then. A street lamp near the door only punctuates the foggy gloom and intensifies the eeriness of the scene. A man passes, stops at the door, • mutters something about a friend failing to meet him, and passes on; another man passes, stops at the door., and is evidently the friend belated. Then the door is furtively opened, and a crouching figure slinks out into the night, but not before the second man -grabs him and questions him about the house and 'his being there. The explanation is that he is sheltering/ there having nowhere else to «o,' hut he is leaving because he has discovered a corpse lying prone in the room where he had lived. The mystery deepensfrom then on; there is some'gun-play, alfid a £40,000 diamond.necklace, and a secret trap door-to a railway tunnel, with otlier elements of a good .crime story, ndt leaving out the love interest. It. would not. b<J fair to the players and their prospective audiences—for "Number Seventeen'! will.be repeated-this and following evenings—to disclose any more of the stoi-y and its astonish ing. ending. ' - Of the excellent and .well balanced cast it is permissible to say that it. did all. that could be expected of it. Every member wa's perfectly audible for one th»nß—« very good thing, too. Everyone did what he! or she had to do with a c ear understanding of the part and its limitations The team work was exemplary from .nrst to last. Bluffing entered, largely into the play, and was most successfully sustained. Who and what was which was perplexing to the audience, and was .meant to be, atift the Players carried it ill off. with credit to themselves individually and as a com-. PaThe cast was as .■ follows:—Gilbert Forflyce, the mnnin'the street, Kalph ilogg, Eddie Scott, his friend, H. A. Painter; Mr. Acfcroyd, E. E. Render; Smith, Norman Hannah; Mr. Brant, G. H. A. Swan; Henry, L. D. Webster; Rose Ackroyd,l Joan Purvis; Nora Brant's niece. Marjorie Murray; Ben, F. G.. Hayes-lowns. Reference has been made to the capability of the players,' but particular mention must be-made1 of Mr. Hayes-Towns 8 lifelike and unstagey acting of the part ot a Horidon down-and-out sailor or fireman. The ladies' parts, too. were .played with intelligence and admirable restraint. I'ordyce nad most to do in the play,,and the part was made convincing along conventional lines by Mr. , Hog. . The other parts were in* quite competent hands.. Facilities for stage settings on an adequate scale do not exist at the Y.W.C.A. Hall; but some wonders have already been done with what space is available, and the Triangle Players added yet another wonder last night m their simple but highly effective, settings and lighting., Number Seventeen" ,is an intentionally goose-nesn kind of play and so it was produced by Mr. Victor Lloyd. ' Tt was good entertainment arid 'very well done. Hie only flaw discernible' Was occasional slackening in speed, which can easily be set right in subsequent performances., 'Ine lnangle Players have begun well, and hope^to continue with some further London* successes.