A TYROLESE IDYLL

Evening Star, Issue 22382, 4 July 1936, Page 10

A TYROLESE IDYLL

C. L. ANTONY’S ‘AUTUMN CROCUS' [By C. R. Alien.] Wc are told that ‘ Autumn Crocus ’ was the outcome of a holiday in. the Tyrol. It must have been a profitable outing, for tho play ran well through a season .at the Lyric Theatre. The author, who adopted the nom do plume of C. L. Antony, was, and as far as one knows still is, employed in Heale’s, that great furniture emporium in the Tottenham Court road. A later play of hors, ‘ Services,’ is concerned with a great shop, though of a more eclectic nature than Heale’s. The secret of the success of ‘ Autumn Crocus 1 is not far to seek. It has atmosphere. It is informed with the gentle melancholy which rendered such a play as ‘ Old Heidelberg ’ popular to a former generation of playgoers. Renunciation is usually effective on the stage, and renunciation is the theme of ‘ Autumn Crocus.’ A school ma’am, small and frail, but no longer young, is enjoying a holiday, an event towards which she has been looking for months, with a friend in the Tyrol. They arrive at an hotel, where they encounter the other guests. Ultimately the school ma’am launches upon a friendship with the proprietor of the hotel, which threatens to become something more serious. There is a scene by a mountainside shrine between these two which is very effective. The decision of the lady not to take the hotel proprietor away from his wife will be endorsed by those who still retain a feeling for rectitude at any cost. In the original production Fanny, the school ma’ani, was played by Miss Fay Compton, whose success in the part must have been particularly gratifying, as her brilliant reign at the Haymarket had come to an end and it might have been that some were prepared to look upon her star as definitely set. The part of the innkeeper was created by Francis Lederer. Mr Ivor Brown, writing of the appearance of Mr Louis Borell in a recent play at the Embassy, says: “ A player with a foreign accent always begins with a start of 10 yards in a hundred before an English audience, at least in estimation of charm.” Francis Lederer enjoyed this advantage, as did Miss Yvonne Arnault not a few seasons back. Like * Old Heidelberg,’ ‘ Autumn Crocus ’ is rendered attractive by the introduction of music well attuned to a picturesque setting. The cast selected by the Dunedin Repertory Society for its forthcoming production of ‘ Autumn Crocus ’ is a strong one. The Fay Compton part, that of Fanny, will be essayed by Mrs Gair. Mr Richard. White * will play Steiner, the innkeeper. Those who heard Mr White’s rendering of this part’wvhen the play was read at what is now the Little Theatre will have no doubt as to his ability to fill this role. A newcomer to a repertory major production will be Dr de Moncbauk, who will play the part of the clergyman. The music incidental to the piece is entrusted to Dr de Alonchaux, who has been heard both as musician and raconteur from station 4YA. Other members of the cast include Mesdames Fairbairn and Monheimer, Misses Hud-

son, Newlands, and Knowles, Dr MaV one, and Air L. E. Bullock. Special attention is being paid to the dressing of ‘ Autumn Crocus,’ and authentic Tyrolese costumes have been lent for the occasion. The production of ‘ Autumn Crocus ’ synchronised in London with that of ‘ White • Hors«! Inn,’ so that the capital was subjected for the time being to a minor Tyrolese invasion. ‘ Autumn Crocus ’ will provoke an association of ideas that will vary according to the reading or the experience of the individual. To some it niay awaken memories of that Victorian chef d’oeuvre of Miss Beatrice Harraden, ‘ Ships that Pass in the Night.’ There is the same atmosphere! of snow and not unpleasing melancholy. There is kinship, too, with some of the earlier works of tho Countess Russell.This is to infer that the author has imparted ‘ a certain literary note into her three hours traffic. . ‘ Autumn Crocus ’ is a play that relies on its incidentals rather than its denouement for its appeal. Such works always demand more from the actors who interpret them than do the plays with the “ big ” situation. ‘Autumn Crocus ’ is what one might with propriety call “ a slice of life,” and it says something for life as the authoress sees it that her play emphatically comes under Air Bernard Shaw’s classification of “ plays pleasant.”