THEATRE-BUILDING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 21, 6 January 1928, Page 5

THEATRE-BUILDING

PLANNED ON NEW LINES. FOUR STAGES AROUND THE AUDIENCE. Berlin, Dec. 10. A theatre, planned on revolutionary hues, in which the stage is virtually set arpund the audience, will be built in Berlin early next year. It has been designed by Professor Gropius, the director of the theatre in Dessau, and Herr Piscator, theatrical producer. Plans for the theatre, wnich are to be patented, contain the foilowing features: 1. An oval auditorium, with four stages protruding into it, one from each side. 2. A circular stage in the middle of the theatre. 3. Swivel chairs or a revolving floor, which will enable the spectators to turn round as the actors move from stage to stage. The inventors, wno have been planning to construct a theatre where the audience is made to feel that they are actual witnesses of the events, believe that they save solved the problem by this design. A murder related by an actor on the main stage will be shown taking place at the same time on one, or, it necessary, all of the other stages. The centre stage will be used for episodes where the audience is to i made to feel that they are members of a crowd in which some dramatic incident in the play occurs.

A London cable reports the death of Mr Louis Sinclair, at the age of 66. Mr Sinclair went to Australia in 1878, and started life as a journalist on the Melbourne “Argus.” He later engaged in commercial pursuits and retired from business 25 years ago. Always interested in commercial problems, on his return to England he organised the Commercial Committee of the House of Commons, in which he sat in the Conservative interests from 1897 to 1906. During the war he served in the R.A.C. War Transport Service. He afterwards visited Australia, where he was instrumental in formfing commercial committees in several of the State Parliaments.