LITTLE THEATRE SOCIETY

Evening Star, Issue 22817, 27 November 1937, Page 1

LITTLE THEATRE SOCIETY

TWO PLAYS TO BE PRESENTED The Concert Hall has heen the scene of many and varied _ types of assemblage during its brief history, but those who visit it during the season of* plays to bo presented by the Little Theatre Society early in the coming month will probably decide they had not realised the transformation that could be created in a theatre by unusual settings and the skilful creation of atmosphere. In * Waiting for Lefty ’ the members of the audience become in a sense participants in the events which are being enacted, though the association is not such as to cause them embarrassment' or discomfort. The scene in principal! is a meeting of taxi-drivers in New; York, and the urgent question facing those present is the action to be taken to redress troubles caused by the perfidy of the union leaders and a lack of employment. Ingenious treatment enables the large cast necessary for the presentation of ‘ Waiting for Lefty to be handled with the greatest effect without crowding, and serves to provide unusual and varied opportunities to individual players to prove their ability. The play _ reaches a climax which ‘ Time ’ described when ‘Waiting for Lefty ’ was staged by the Theatre Group in New York, as the most rousing finale that had been seen in Manhattan in many years. The brusque and brutal methods or the Nazi State in dealing with its “ enemies ” —the upholders of the old-fashioned democratic ideal—are the subject of intensely dramatic treatment on the other play by Clifford Odets, ‘ Till the Day I Die,’ which is bracketed with ‘ Waiting for Lefty.** “ Till the Day I Die * is a human document which offers extraordinary opportunities to cast and producer, and it is claimed that the Little Theatre has utilised resources with striking effect in this moving work. For both the plays the Little Theatre has obtained casts of strength and versatility. Both plays are being produced by Miss Madge Yates.