STAGE FOLK

Evening Star, Issue 21636, 3 February 1934, Page 6

STAGE FOLK

Private advice has been received in 'Auckland that Olem Dawe, always a prime favourite with dominion audiences, intends to bring a musical comedy company to tbo dominion early this year.

A comparatively new theatrical organisation, the Anglo - Australian Amusements Company, is to visit New Zealand next month with a repertoire of musical comedies in addition to “ straight ” drama, and the first production, Therkleson’s musical comedy, 1 Dream Girl,’ will open at Auckland on February 10. Patricia Stanton, a young actress and dancer of promise, and Arthur M'Pherson, the Australian actor-tenor, are the principals, and over 100 performers ■ are concerned in the production. There is a ballet of ten and a chorus of thirty. Before playing other pieces in its repertoire, the company will tour New Zealand with * Dream Girl ’ at the conclusion of the Auckland season.

J. C. Williamson Ltd. have arranged to produce a new musical comedy by the young Australian composer and playwright, Jack O’Hagan. The title is ‘ Night, Night, Mitzi.’ It has been adapted from the play, ‘ Nightie Night,' by Mr O’Hagan, who has written the book, lyrics, and _ music. ‘ Nightie Night ’ was staged in Australia some years ago, the English comedy star, Joe Coyne, appearing in the leading role under the J. C. Williamson management. The company at present appearing in ‘ Gay Divorce ’ at the King’s Theatre will appear in the new play, the cast including Billy Milton, Iris Kirkwhite, Gus Bluett, Leo Franklyn, Madge Auhrey, Frank Leighton, Mona Potts, and others. The producer will bo Mr Charles A. ,Wenman.

Ramon Novarro, it is stated, intends to produce, direct, and star in a play of his own writing in London next year. It will deal with the off-stage life of a film star.

George Bernard Shaw’s new play, 1 On the Rocks,’ is as satirical as most of his works. It is set in No. 10 Downing street, where the members of the Government and the heads of the Army, Navy, and Police Force have met to receive a deputation from the Isle of Cats. Mr Lewis Casson, who was in New Zealand last year with his wife, Dame Sybil Thorndike, is producer and also plays the part of a Hindu member of the Government. .The cast to interpret the amusing play was a distinguished one, including Nicholas Hannen (who was in Australia last year with his wife, Athene Seyler, but did not come to New Zealand) —he plays the Prime Minister; Lawrence Hanray, the Duke of Domesday; Charles Carson, leader of the Conservative Party; Walter Hudd, chief of police. Sir Broadfoot Basham;, and Ellen Pollock, staunch Labour leader, who introduces the deputation from the isle.

For a nominal salary, reported to be £5 a week and living expenses, Charles Laughton will turn his back on HoUywood and a screen contract running into four figures weekly to return to London and participate in a novel then-' trioal venture. Laughton is one of a group of eight ‘ who have banded together as a stock company, to produce classical plays in London during the winter. They will defray the cost, of production, costumes, and settings themselves, and enact the Toles. Laughton will depart on completion of his current role for Paramount, opposite Carole Lombard in ‘ White Woman.’ He will return to Paramount in April. Laughton and his London theatre group will produce and act in ‘ The Tempest,’ ‘ Twelfth Night,’ Macbeth,’ ‘ Measure for Measure,’ ■‘Henry V111.,’ ‘The Rivals,’ ‘The .Importance of Being Earnest,’ and Orchard.’

Shakespeare’s ‘ Richard lII.’ was revived at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, late last year by Hilton Edwards. The performance lasted from 7.30 till midnight, omitting very little of the text and including the slaying of Henry iVI. as a prologue. The presentation reached great heights, and only the lateness of the hour prevented the audience from staying on to cheer. Barry Sullivan’s Gloucester of nearly _ fifty years ago still survives as the_ criterion for many and is the traditional criterion for those who cut their Shakespearean eye-teeth on their parents’ glowing accounts of Sullivan—lreland’s greatest tragedian of the last century. Mr Edwards’s interpretation, though, cast aside all the worn habiliments of tradition; familiar tricks of voice, gesture, and facial expression were no more. The pure text and the simple stage directions—contrasted with the inevitable property devices and other time-honoured accessories—were the solo guides, and the result was a Richard strange to old-timers. One had to see the Dublin performance last year divested of all knowledge of previous studies. It had to be seen and accepted as a new play, as it were. The single setting used was altered only by the drawing or closing of curtains and the placing or removing of easily-handled properties. Sinister lighting effects were secured, and the portrayal was notable throughout for its originality.

Special concerts for young people have been arranged by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra this season. At the first Schelling will present Mozart’s ‘ Figaro ’ overture, _ a Bach ‘ Suite,’ a movement of Tschaikovsky’s ‘ Fourth Symphony,’ and the ‘ Polovetski Dances ’ of Borodin. At the second there will he a movement of Beethoven’s ‘ Fifth Symphony,’ Mendelssohn’s ‘ Scherzo,’ ‘ Pierne’s ‘ Cyndalise,’ parts of Rimsky-Korsakoff’s ‘ Scheherazade,’ and Schelling’s ‘ Virginia Reel.’ “ Children are even more sensitive to - fineness of performance than are adults,” says Mr Schelling. “ They are perhaps like little barbarians. Their reaction is immediate and honest. If they are bored they refuse to pretend to be interested, as adults have so generally taught themselves to do.”