HISTORICAL PAGEANT

Evening Star, Issue 23497, 10 February 1940, Page 7

HISTORICAL PAGEANT

A CENTENNIAL EVENT REPERTORY SOCIETY'S PRESENTATION To usher in evening entertainments during tne period of local onservance ot me -Dominion Uentenmal the Repertory oociety vyiU next featurclay mgnt stage a pageant and two one-act piays. The pageant will depict scenes in the development of Otago in the last 100 yeans, wtnlo the piays have been selected Decause of their suitability to the period under review. Members of the society have willingly devoted much time to making these presentations successful, and they have been assisted by two wellknown outside performers, Miss Jessie M'Lennan and Mr Peter Dawson. The pageant will be a full-dress sequence of scenes representing events which have occurred irom time to time, and they will be linked together by a commentary which will be read by Miss M'Lennan. This commentary will cover the gaps between the staged interludes, most" of which, it is worthy of note, have been written by members of the society. The costumings for the scenes are in most cases to be originals as worn by the pioneers and later settlers, and in every case are treasured by descendants of these settlers.

Tii pageant is to open with a Maori oauuc song and a poi dance staged by a group or younger girls. This will Do followed by a depiction of the arrival of the earliest settlers, who will be shown just after they have disembarked from the ships. The gold rush will form another interlude, and a special effort will bo a reproduction of the ball staged in 1869 in honour of the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh, the first representative of royalty to come to the Dominion, Another will bo a “ sitting room scene,” in which an attempt will be made to outline family life and home costuming in the earlier days. The Boer War will come in for attention in a further scene, and this will he followed by a ball of the 1910 period. Special effects are to be introduced in the scene representing the Great War period. The ‘ Marseillaise ’ will .be sung, and certain popular songs of that era will be included. A post-war scene will be laid at the 1925-26 Exhibition.

Other events of importance will be touched upon in the commentary to be given by Miss M‘Lenuaii. The entire pageant will terminate, with a special tableau in which all the performers, in the costumings worn during its presentation, will group together. ‘ Land of Hope and Glory ’ and 1 God Defend New Zealand ’ will provide the musical themes for this tableau, and the solo for ‘ Land of Hope and Glory ’ will be sung by Miss Bertha Rawlinson. The two plays to be given will be ‘ The Trollop’s Triumph,’ a burlesque melodrama of the type which had a great vogue in the latter part of last century. This is said to be a most hilarious affair, and has already becu presented, with signal success, at repertory social functions on more than one occasion. It is in this play that Mr Dawson will appear as ‘ Vile Vernon, the Venomous Villain.’ The second play (both are one-acters) • is ‘ Family Comedy,’ a play set in the Victorian era, and chosen to stress the life led in the home at that time. The production of the evening’s performances is in the capable hands of Mesdames Wakefield Holmes, 0. C. Stephens, and Miss Anita Winkel.