A THEATRICAL RETROSPECT

Evening Star, Issue 21299, 31 December 1932, Page 11

A THEATRICAL RETROSPECT

[By C. R. Allen.] This consideration is concerned, not with the theatre in New Zealand, which, but for the slowly-increasing number of amateur performances, has been practically non-existent, but with theatrical London, as its history has been vouchsafed to us through the medium of the Home journals. A glance at the advertisements in the Sunday ‘ Observer ’ might cause an old Londoner to rub his eyes. At the Savoy Theatre Gilbert and Sullivan is once more enthroned, while at the Haymarket two of the stars associated with that fashionable house cave _ affected what might almost seem a miraculous conjunction in the persons of Miss Fay Compton and Mr Cyril Maude. The eye might wander wistfully on to the advertisements concerned with His Majesty’s, to see whether -the shades had restored Tree to his rightful place under the great copper dome next to the Carlton Hotel, or whether Sir George Alexander had been granted a second life at the St. James’s Theatre off Piccadilly. It is to be feared that Mr Cyril Maude’s Indian summer at the scene of his old partnership with Frederick Harrison will have ceased before the close of 1932. A feature of the theatrical season during the year that is closing has been the institution of the “ non-stop ” show. The Duke of York’s Theatre, which is associated with so many of Sir James Barrie’s successes, has become the home of Grand Guignol. This is surely a retrograde step. A new dramatist was discovered during the year in Mr Ronald Mackenzie, whose _ ‘ Musical Chairs ’ broke the long tradition at the Criterion Theatre, where farce has been the order of the day almost without variation since Sir Charles Wyndham produced * The Liars ’ there, back in the abundant “ nineties.” The cast of ‘ Musical Chairs ’ contained one New Zealander in the person of Miss Atkinson, of Wellington. The success of the year has been the adaption, by Mr Edward Knoblauch and the author, of ‘ Evensong,’ by Beverley Nicholls. The triumph of this piece was unexpected, and must have been due largely to Miss Edith Evans, whose impersonation of the temperamental cantatrice, with her back to the wall, seems to have been a tour de force. Sir Barry Jackson did not repeat the success of ‘ Evensong ’ in Bernard Shaw’s latest play, ‘ Too True to Bo Good,’ which was transferred from Malvern to the New Theatre. The failure of this play is significant. Critics said of it that it bore a strong family resemblance to ‘ House,’ another of Shaw’s plays which failed at the outset, though it has since been revived with success. Sir James Barrie has been silent. Sir Arthur Wing Pinero made a brief and unfortunate reappearance as a dramatist in ‘ Cold .Tun6,’ which was bowed off the stage with tempered respect by the critics. Air Noel Coward continues on his triumphant way. His latest revue, ‘ Words

and Music,’ was given a preliminary run in one of the great northern provincial towns, and has now settled down at the Adelphi. A successor to Sir Nigel Playfair has been found to run the Lyric Theatre at Hammersmith, and the tradition he established there in 1914 or thereabouts is being carried on. Shakespeare has been played with success during the year, both in the West End and across the water at the “ Old Vic.” The most noteworthy Shakespearean production was that : of 1 Twelfth Night ’ at the New Theatre, in which Phyllis Neilson Terry and Jean Forbes Robertson appeared. It; is interesting to reflect that this production followed on a wish expressed by Mr Ivor Brown, the critic of the Sunday ‘ Observer,’ that someone would undertake a production of this gay and heartless creation, in which the colour scheme should be black and white. ‘ Twelfth Night ’ was' performed, with the New Theatre cast and accessories in the gardens of the Royal Botanical Society at Regent’s Park. The hot summer induced many openair performances in England. One of the most remarkable of these was ‘ A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ played by the Mid-Somerset Amateur Dramatic Society. So considerable was this production that the Sunday ‘ Observer ’ broke a rule which it has been obliged to establish, that no performance by amateurs is noticed in its columns. Mr St. John Ervine, who occupies a kind of emeritus position on that splendidly catholic journal, was present at this performance, and admitted, in the course of his critique, that a prejudice against this Warwickshire fantasy, with its irrelevant Athenian setting, had been overcome, and beauties revealed of whose existence even so experienced a student of the drama as himself had been unaware. The authoress of ‘ Autumn Crocus,’ who is an employee in a large furnishing establishment in the Tottenham Court road, has come into prominence during 1932 with a play called ‘ Services.’ This title is a thinly veiled reference to a great emporium in Oxford street which, to quote Lady Tree in her amusing autobiography, has “ out-Harroded Harrods.” There seem to have been few visits from Continental players during the year. Miss Gladys Cooper has continued her reign at the Playhouse, her latest production, ‘ The Fire Bird,’ having been praised by the critics. Dame Sybil Thorndike, of course, has been absent in Australia during the greater part of the year. ‘ The Dark Saint ’ was produced by her early in the year. By the death of Mr Denis Neilson Terry at the early age of thirty-seven the chain of a great theatrical family tradition has been broken. Mr Terry was the son of Fred Terry, the “baby” of the Terry family, and of Julia Neilson, one of the greatest exponents of romantic “ costume ” parts. On the death of Mr Edgar Wallace there seems to have ensued a slump in “crook ” plays, for which relief one should be thankful. On the whole 1932 has not ■ been a fruitful year. There seems to have been a general tendency to mark time, or to bo swayed by whatever winds of popular favour there might appear to be blowing. ‘ The Miracle of Verdun,’ produced at the Embassy Theatre, provoked much comment. The purport of this play was similar to that of the epilogue to 1 Saint Joan.’ The world would bo embarrassed by the return of its illustrious dead. . This play, which one woidd think displays some affinity with Ernest Toller’s didactic fantasy, ‘ Man and the Mass,’ did not enjoy the “ succes foil ” which attended the production of ‘ Journey’s End.’ Perhaps one war play suffices a post-war genera-

tion. The revival of ‘ The Miracle,’ by Mr Charles Cochrane, proved to be a costly piece of altruism. The Lyceum Theatre was converted into the semblance of a cathedral for the purpose. At Drury Lane, which used to be regarded as the people’s national theatre, ‘ Cavalcade ’ ran its course. It was expected that this spectacle would enjoy a longer life than it did. There has never been a more brilliant premiere. It appears that Drury Lane is to revert to the policy initiated when ‘ Rose Mary ’ was produced there, in despite of Mr Basil Beane, who fostered high hopes of producing something on that huge stage that would be consonant with the spirit of the people. His production of ‘ A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ which be hoped would become an annual institution, like-the revival of ‘Peter Pan,’ was never repeated. Among the established dramatists who have had plays produced during the year are Mr Van Druton, Mr Somerset Maugham, and Mr A. P. Herbert. Mr Ronald Mackenzie, whose death in a motor accident was so much regretted, was the “find” of the year. Mr A. A. Milne has been silent, but word comes at a late hour of the forthcoming production of a new play by him under the auspices of a play-producing society. New Zealand was represented among the dramatists by Mr Merton Hodge, whose comedy‘ As it was in the Beginning,’ was similarly produced. There was some talk of this play being put into a regular evening bill, but it appears as if this consummation were reserved for 1933. Altogether 1932 can hardly be regarded as a fecund year for the theatres in London. Theatrical managers will be inclined to coincide with that secondary mood of Tennyson when he wrote ‘ The year is dying. Let it die.”