‘THE PELICAN’

Evening Star, Issue 21992, 30 March 1935, Page 19

‘THE PELICAN’

TO-NIGHT'S FINAL PERFORMANCE The favoured niche which the Repertory Society occupies in the estimation of the local. play-going public is a merited one. The society has gone from strength to strength in its comparatively short life of two years, and its eighth production, 1 The Pelican, a dramatically difficult play, marks a prominent milestone of this organisation’s history. Written by F. Tennyson Jesse and H. M. Harwood, / ihe Pelican ’ is an unusually sophisticated play, but its subtle handling has indubitably elucidated the depth which marks its course throughout. And last night’s capacity audience in the Concert Chamber was made to live its possibilities, sympathise with its moods, and generally run the gamut of all its emotions, just as the two preceding audiences have done. This basically perfect four-act play deals with the problem of filial and maternal obligations, surely not a novel social question, but one that certainly evokes a novel answer. The cast is a strong one, and it is headed by one of Dunedin’s most talented actresses in Miss Jessie M'Lennan, who gives easily the best delineation of a succession of “bests” as the woman divorced, but not from her love for her son. It is on these two characters that the fulcrum of the play is balanced. Other performances of excellence arc given by Mr Russell Napier, Mr Lester. Holler, Mr Dick White, Mrs Irene O’Sullivan, Mr G. E. Moloney, Miss Elsie M.’Peak, Mr Maurice Joel, Miss Ina Macßae. and Mr R. Nancarrow. Mis? Bessie Thomson has produced the play, which is stage managed by Mr Ernest Griffen. The D.T.C. Orchestra, under the leadership of Mr Charles Martin, provides the incidental music. ‘ The Pelican ’ will have its final presentation this evening.