W.E.A. CELEBRATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 22359, 8 June 1936, Page 10

W.E.A. CELEBRATIONS

DRAMA EVENING AT ALLEN HALL ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR ADAMS The coming-of-age celebrations of the Workers’ Educational Association were concluded on Saturday night, when two one-act plays, which were prefaced by an address' by Professor T. 1). Adams, were presented in Allen Hall. Professor Adams gave a brief address on ‘ The Drama in Adult Education m Fifth Century Athens.’ In those days, he said, the drama was a much more important instrument of adult education than it was to-day, for in many respects it fulfilled the functions of the Press and the wireless. The dramatists aimed at moulding adult opinion _ on political, social, moral, and religious questions—the tragic as well as the comic writers. Euripides reminded ns to-day of Bernard Shaw in his hatred of cruelty, for example, and his fearless exposure of it. He pleaded the cause of the slave and all ;'l i.nd downtrodden folk, said Professor Adams, who read a passage from the Medea of Euripides to illustrate his eloquent championing of _ the cause of womankind. Similarly his play, ‘ The Trojan Women.’ was cited as a powerful anti-war' play - ’ An, earlier war play, _ * The Persians of iEschylus,’ dealing with the glorious victory of the Greeks over the invading Persians, had unrolled before the eyes of the victors the tragedy of the vanquished, and was a monument to the magnanimity of author and audience alike; for, although at the beginning of the invasian the Persians had .viAta Athens to the ground and driven b'-r citizens as refugees from their ’.and, there was not one word of mockery or contempt or hate, and at the annual dramatic festival the Athenian jvipjc had awarded this play the first prize. The professor said the comic poet ’Aristophanes had dealt with all pe is of the life of Athens, moulding public' opinion about politics and the politicians, pacifism, votes for women, current religious and literary talk—os’earthing, in fact, that interested the average citizen, so that we had as vivid a picture of the Athens of his day _ as AV. S._ Gilbert had given us of Victorian England. His ‘ Lysistrata ’ was shown to be a persuasive advocacy _of peace and disarmament; his ‘Knights’ a daring political play, and his ‘ Frogs ’ A brilliant piece of literary criticism. Such were a few of the subjects on which the drama in ancient Athens set out to educate the adult mind. It w.vs interesting to notice how much attention was given in the comedies to politics, and to remember that the drama was sponsored by the Government, just as the Government of to-day was hoping to educate the people in politics by means of broadcasting. Mr Farqnhaf Young’s recently-published criticism of the voice production of New Zealand politicians recalled the reception given by the Athenian audience to the actor who, by a Wrong inflexion of the voice, inadvertently changed “ after storm I see a calm ” into “ out of the storm I see a weasel ” !

At the conclusion of Professor ,Aclams’s address the plays ‘ The Eternal Song.’ by Arhstein, and ‘The Recoil,’ by. Eric Logan, mere presented by the Drama and Arts Classes respectively. • ■