A KEITH WINTER PLAY

Evening Star, Issue 22804, 12 November 1937, Page 5

A KEITH WINTER PLAY

‘THE SHINING HOUR’ FOR REPERTORY

It is interesting to learn, that the forthcoming play for the Dunedin Repertory Society is to be ‘ The Shining Hour,’ _ by Keith Winter, for this dramatist is emphatically one of the intelligencia among the dramatists of to-day. He may be said to belong to a group of which Mr John Van Druten is the-* leader, and of which Dr Merton Hodge is a member. They differ from the masters of a previous age, such as Pinero or Henry Arthur Jones, in this one respect at least, if not in others, that they rely more upon the manner than the matter of their plays. In such a play, for instance, as Pinero’s * His House in Order ’ the denouement is subserved by fill that goes before, though the dramatist may allow himself rhetorical passages and some scattered aphorisms, which, on the face of it, have nothing to do with the case. ‘ London Wall,’ which is the Van Druten play to have been presented by the Dunedin Repertory Society, is episodic in its course, but is less discursive than some of Mr Van Druten’s other work.

One would not care to suggest that Mr Keith Winter looks upon Mr Van Druten as a k;xler, but at all events he followed his lead in the matter of a pedagogic play. * The Rats of Norway,’ like ‘ Young Woodley,’ is concerned with schoolmasters and schoolboys. Quite a dramatic literature upon this theme has been evolved in the course of time. Edward Terry, Weedon Grossmith, and Cyril Maude have all appeared in plays concerned with teaching the young idea how to shoot, and recently lan Hay, in ‘ The Housemaster,’ and James Hilton, in ‘Mr Chips,’ have added their quota. It is interesting to learn that .the two molt notable premieres at the opening of the autumn season this year in London were ‘ 01d_ Music,’ at the St. James, and * Gertie Maude,’ at the St. Martin’s, the former by Mr Winter, the latter by Mr Van Druten. Of ‘ Old Music ’ Mr Ivor Brown writes in the ‘ Sunday Observer ’: “One need not believe in Mr Winter’s story of hearts aflame amid the footmen in order to appreciate_ the fact that it has been wrapped in the right kind of cellophane. Thirty years ago they used to sing upon-the sea shore “It’s only a beautiful picture in a beautiful golden frame.” Perhaps that is the kind of old music which Mr Winter had in mind, for whatever you may think of his picture there is no doubt about the golden frame.”

From this it may be gathered that the latest Keith Winter play is in the impressionistic mode. Impressionism and discursiveness are the prerogatives of such established favourites as Mr Keith Winter and Mr Van Druten.

‘ The Shining Hour,’ which was also produced at the St. James Theatre, and is separated from ‘ Old Music ’ by thrpe not very.. eventful _ theatrical years, was selected by Miss Gladys Cooper and Mr Raymond Massey during their joint occupancy of that fashionable playhouse in King street. The later play would seem to reveal Mr Winter as a seeker after some new thing. There is nothing particularly new about the theme of ‘ The Shining Hour.’ Paolo, it will be remembered, loved the wife of his brother Giovanni “ unwillingly,” as Stephen Phillips has it. The element of originality is to be found in the behaviour of Judy. She is probably not the first wife in drama to make off with herself iu order to leave a free field for her husband, and the woman with whom he has fallen in love. That this woman happens to be the wife of his brother induces a general atmosphere of consanguinity which is further intensified by the fact that the entire cast bear the same surname.

' The Shining Hour ’ is essentially a players’ play. It will challenge the resources of the Dunedin Repertory Society. The society has good reason to

rely upon Miss Dorothy Clark, who is to essay the part played by Miss Gladys Cooper. The selfless Judy is to be played by Miss Mercia Hardman, and the sister of the three men who each in his way are in love with the exotic Murilla is to be played by Miss Elsie MTeaik. The men’s parte are to be essayed by Mr Les. Pithie, Mr Frank Lanyon, and Mr Roland Watson. Messrs Lanyon and Pithie are graduates from the Playbox, while Mr Roland Watson attracted attention by his fine performance of the dandy in the recent revival of ‘ And So To Bed.’