UNIQUE ACHIEVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 22326, 30 April 1936, Page 2

UNIQUE ACHIEVEMENT

ALL-DUNEDIN PLAY, * ROSE LANE ’ Something of a unique achievement is attained by Dunedin with the splendid dramitic production, ‘ Rose Lane.’ In every particular it is an all-Dunediu effort, and one of which citizens have just reason for pride. Firstly, and the fact of greatest importance, it was written by Dunedin’s own noted playwright, Miss Edith Howes, M.8.E., it concerns the early gold rush days of this settlement, enacted in its original se'-ing by talented amateur theatrical players. Moreover it is an eminently suitable feature for presentation during the current New Zealand Authors’ Week, and it is happily receiving the wide support it deserves, His Majesty’s Theatre again being well filled by an enthusiastic audience at the second performance last night. No one could dispute the entertainment value of the play, whose historical and picturesque sequences of a romantic age .1858) are developed with skill and finesse. But, as the authoress herself admitted after the curtain, it is the actors who give play life, and this the Dunedin Dramatic Committee’s capable cast accomplishes in admirable fashion. It is a uniformly excellent company, drawn from the city’s seven theatrical societies, and the highlights are the characterisations contributed by Majc F. H. Dampen (also the producer) ai a nameless oldtimer of the Dunstan goldfields; Mrs John Hamer as the frivolous and notorious “ gold-digger ” of the miners’ camp ; Mr Arthur Lungley as the pioneer prospector, Hartley; Mr Reynolds Herbert as an embittered tiller of the soil, who turns his family against him : Mrs Roemer Gair as the forbearing wife; Mrs Roa Johnston as the daughter, who elopes with Mr Desmond Greenslade as an eager youth led astray at the diggings ; and Mr Jack Johnston ns the unsuccessful lover whose true friend-

shi i is one of the play’s most beautiful features. Its background at the Dunstan is greatly enhanced by a realistic stage settting (by Sir J. AV. Rooney), which wins special applause. In introducing the play to the audience, the Mayor (the Rev. E. T. Cox) pointed out that it was not being staged merely for its own sake—though it would need no apology if that were s0 —but as part of the publicity associated with New Zealand Author’s Week, and he emphasised to the public the fact that New Zealand possessed a large body of literature of almost every conceivable type. Beginning with geographical expositions of the nature of the country, its scenery, its topography and its fertility, tracing through the wealth of native legend aud_ folk lore descriptive of the early colonization by British settlers, they had developed from that light fantasy of fairy stories to the deep and ponderous vagaries of the philosophic mind. So that they had that whicli would appeal to all types of thought, and to know and appreciate what New Zealanders had done and could do was surely part of their obligation to their country. ‘ Rose Lane ’ was produced as the central feature of New Zealand Authors’ AA r eek and was in the hands of a committee consisting of one representative of seven of the dramatic societies of the city working in conjunction with the New Zealand Authors’ Week Committee. This was the first time the play had been produced in New Zealand. It had won the first prize in the New Zealand branch of the British Drama League playwx-iting competition and first prize m the British Drama League competition in London.

Miss Howes was again present to thank and pay high tribute to the committee, producer, players, and stage managers for their successful efforts.