PASSION PLAY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 29 December 1925, Page 7

PASSION PLAY.

PERFORMANCE IN SYDNEY. An event of uuuwual interest, a few days ago, was* the per.fonmaiice in Sydney, by students of Riverview College, one of the leading Roman Catholic colleges in New South Wales-, of a Passion play, “Golgotha,’’ said to be the first produced in Australia. The f’bi.V, writnen by Father James Kavanagh. S.J., ol California, was witnessed; by a pack-' ed audience, with no little curiosity and trepidation, for in .presenting a. play liaised on, one of the most moving of religious themes, and performed by boy actors, there was the risk not only of •destroying the spirit of reverence of the play, but of also making the general dramatic effect ludicrous. Alike l rom -the histrionic and ©motional standpoints, the performance was hailed by the critics as a .striking «suecoiss. Bruce Anderson’s conception of Jud-ns Iscariot, according to the critics, .stamped hinii as a boy* of extraordinary imagination ami insight. and as one ])os>tHs,sing the true dramatic -sense. “Tli e must touching scene of all in the ip-lay.” to quote one of the leading Sydney papers, “is. .that when our i appears a.t the entrance to Pilate s court —a silent, desolate figure.- presented to the people by the Roman Governor with a view to moving their heaths of pity. The moment is. just after their cruel scourging, which is supposed to have -taken place off the stage. The disputing between the people, calling for the death of Christ, and Ptatei. anioxus to set Him free, was carried on up to this point with remarkable real-ism by the students, and the poignant; .sorrow of the Sacred Figure. standing -meekly at the portal, with hands bound and head crowned with thorns, was inexpressibly moving.” Their sincere and reverent interpretation of this most moving of ia.ll narratives is aiipther of the many triumph© which the Riverview College* boys have won lor the, his© lve,s. None of the words of Christ is -spoken on the stage. His gentle greeting to the traitor Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the last word® on the Gross -a-re -spoken off the stage. The students who utered lies© grave sentences did so with manifest- and fitting dignity, according to the critics.