SPREADING THE NEWS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 17 December 1927, Page 11

SPREADING THE NEWS

jgOVIET Russia’s “Living Newspaper,” whoso latest message it is to inform the dwellers in the outlying provinces of a change in the system of weights and measures, appeared for trie first time recently in Berlin. It was a small edition only, consisting of eight men and four women, grouped under the title of “Blue Blouses.” In a West End theatre at midnight performances —'owing to no stage being vacant—it received frantic applause. In Russia every appearance of the “paper” implies a troupe of 20 actors and actresses, who must be at the same time first-class acrobats, singers, dancers, and parodists. There are 6000 of such troupes, incorporating 100,000 players. If the small selected company that chose Germany as its jumping-off place for the rest of the Western world is known as ‘ ‘Blue Blouses,” this is only bv chance reminiscent of the “Blue Bird” cabaret. There are Red Blouses and Green Blouses, and Blouses of all colours, the uniform being the plain working I man’s garment, fitting as close 1 ;/ as al mannequin’s working robe. Marvel-1 lously contrived costumes are slipped! over it. These can be utilised both) back and front, and apparently upside dr wn as well. Much use is made of, the crudely painted, vividly. coloured | cardboard picture frame for heads toj be stuck through, as in the elder Ras- ' sian cabaret shows. Otherwise it can | be plainly seen that expenses are kept ! down to a minimum. j In every Russian factory There is a ■ hall which can be utilised for such per- ! formances, and there are few working ■ men, women and children who do not j avail themselves of this unique method ' of watching the singing and dancing, and demonstrating of news. The programme changes fortnightly, | and is provided by a central bureau in j Moscow. Each group of 20 performers j is attended by a composer, a. stage : manager, and a scene painter. At ■ headquarters there are 20 dramatists—-scenario-writers might be a better term —constantly occupied in arranging the i world’s news in a vivid and assimilable I

RUSSIA’S “LIVING PAPER-

‘I’ form, suitable for the simplest reader. 1 j These ideal journalists are the suc- [ cessors of a group of young students ■of the technical university who, in de- ' spair at the shortage of paper in the year .1020,.started the practice of rcad- ; ing one newspaper out to a group of ' hearers from a platform or stage. One or two inventive minds added an improvised cabaret show parodying these current events. When some young artists joined the band, the first programme of monologues, songs, sketches, and song-scenes was complete, j It was not till 1!>23 that the organisation was taken in hand by the State Institution of Journalists and became the feature of public life it is to-day. These various “Blouses,” whose performances are free, are not. subven-ti-oned by the State. The trade unions | which run the working men’s clubs receive 2 per cent, cf their wages for the entertainments they provide, and for j the evening’s performance they pay 67 !roubles, or about £6 10s. The players’ | salaries are five roubles, or, "roughly, 10s a day. All the news items on the proigramme being lost on a member of I Russia, there remained from these 'Berlin performances only the impress-' iion that; when the apple-cheeked, 'flaxen-tailed maiden of the Russian I cabaret proper is singing, she is telljing, not of love, but of the new regulations in girls’ institutes. When she 'toys with a sunflower it is of the expedient utilitarian properties of sunjflower seeds that she wishes to iniform those in front. The acrobatic 'imitation of an automobile is accomjpanied by bitter remarks on Mr. Ford and capitalism. Every performance begins with a [military parade, a march-past of the performers explaining their programme. The outstanding merit of the performance is its break-neck speed, swift changes of costumes and scene, and the certainty that whatever the Russian peasant and working man thinks of the news, he will never bo bored with his newspaper.