SUNDAY THEATRES

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 February 1928, Page 9

SUNDAY THEATRES

— , s LONDON EXPERIMENT J f; PRODUCER’S OPINION ' ■ A movement to test the demand for Sunday theatre performances, with a view to organising them on. a more frequent and regular basis, is to be made by Mr. Andre Chariot, the London theatrical producer. Under the Lord Chamberlain’s regulations Sunday plays may be given only by a society which sells the seats beforehand to its members, and no money ’ may be taken at the doors. Stage hands, theatre attendants and musicians can be paid for their services, but no salary can be given to actors and actresses; they are not, however, debarred from accepting an “honorarium.”

Mr. Chariot intends to test the strength of the Sunday play-going public with a performance of “Icebound” to a society he is organising. If the response shows an increasing demand for this form of entertainment he irftends to' confer with the Lord Chamberlain in an effort to secure a relaxaton of existing regulations, particularly as regards payment of actors and actresses.

“I quite agree with those people who aro opposed to a seven-day week in the theatrical profession,” Mr. Chariot told a “Daily Chronicle” representative. “But at present there is more unemployment than employment in the theatre world, and it would be. an easy matter to get together a special company for Sunday plays.

“Instead of giving a play only once, I would put it on twice each Sunday for as long as it would run. But on this basis we should have to be able to pay the players salaries.”

Asked if he considered his movement the thin end of the wedge of regular Sunday opening of theatres, Mr. Chariot said: — “It all depends on the demand. If the public want a thing it is for them to insist on getting it. “It seems ridiculous that a person can play golf on Sundays, attend the cinema, go 1 to restaurants and dances, see a cabaret show, listen to the wireless, play cricket, football, or lawn tennis, or go joy rides by charabanc, and yet not be allowed to go to a theatre.

“Theatre-going, apparently, is practically the only form of entertainment denied him on Sundays.”