“HELP! HELP!”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10754, 27 November 1928, Page 5

“HELP! HELP!”

AGONISED APPEALS FROM DARKENED "BUILDING WOMEN PEDESTRIANS STAND STILL WITH FRIGHT MEN DASH TO RESCUE (Special to the Times.) AUCKLAND, Nov. 36. : - Coming -through the. open. windows. of a darkened room cries forhelp woke the echoes in Wyndham street last evening. People who had left the evening service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral were walking fto Queen Street, when the agonised appeals were thrice repeated and resounded through the still night air. They came from a. room on the second story of a building in Wyndham Street.

Among the pedestrians womfen stood still with fright, but about half a dozen men acted .rapidly. They gathered round the entrance or the building, and it was found that the door, although closed, was not locked. Entering, the men rushed up a flight of narrow stairs. Their fears were soon set at rest Barely had the first of them reached the top of the stairs and commenced to pound on ■ the ■ closed door, when lights were, switched on. in the mysfcerius' room. Voices were heard, and the door was opened* ’ Inside were several people all perfectly calm. An explanation was soon forthcoming.' The scene of the supposed tragedy was the Little Theatre Societies’ club room and there the members of the society were rehearsing “Danger” a one act play by Richard Hughes, which is to he presented shortly. The flooding of the coalmine is the theme of the play, and as the stage lias to represent the bottom of the mine it is kept in darkness in order to gain the correct atmosphere for the oerformanee.. <

The producer, Mr Kenneth Brampton, was rehearsing in the darkness last evening," and) it was the voice of one of the characters in danger of drowning that gave rise to the mistake.

At. Mr Brampton’s explanation, Both players and would-be rescuers the joke, and the visitors, thankful for the outcome of the adventure, were loud in-their praises of the realism- of the acting in rehearsal. For some time afterwards there was an attentive audience in Wyndham Street listening to the rehearsal as it proceeded.