PAEROA W.E.A.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 47, Issue 2666, 6 September 1937, Page 5

PAEROA W.E.A.

THE MODERN TENDENCIES ATTENTION TO DRAMA A GALSAVORTHY PLAY READ. Last week’s session of the Paeroa AV.E.A. read John Galsworthy’s play “The Roof,” as representative of new tendencies in drama. There was much that was new or unusual in its structure; but there was every evidence in the rapt attention of the readers and listeners that the play was a really good one.

The modern play is seldom purely a tragedy or comedy. These elements are interleaved in the play’s structure such that it really “holds up a mirror to nature,” as • Shakespeare would have it. The theme of all good plays is Life. In the Greek tragedy, man is shown as the plaything of pitiless forces, whilst in the older form of English plays, Shakespeare for example, he is revealed as shaping or conquering his fate. Modern plays appear to be little concerned with the success or failure of the individual, and the chief interest lies in the action and reaction of character on character.

The scene of “The Roof” is laid in a small hotel in Paris. Successive scenes show what is happening on different floors, more or less simultaneously, until finally all the characters assemble on the roof. The central character is an old waiter, Gustave. He attempts to advise a tipsy stockbroker, Brice, not to encourage an equally tipsy young man to drink too much, and gets snubbed for his pains.

Brice drunkenly plans his revenge. On the next floor Brice, his friend Baker, and Major Townley who is a sort of travelling tutor to the young man, Fanning, meet and explain everyone. There is a very amusing old couple, Mr and Mrs Beeton, in bed trying to go to sleep, on the next floor.

A Mr Lennox is ill with heart disease, and his wife and nurse attend him, while his two young daughters play about having great fun, when Gustave comes to tell everyone that the hotel is on fire. One of the girls goes and advises a young runaway couple and all go up on the roof with a Czechish violinist, a minor character. Lennox attempts to go, but dies in the arms of the nurse and Gustave. All are on the roof when Mrs Lennox wants her husband’s body. The Englishmen and Gustave go to get it, but are beaten back. The firemen appear on the parapet, and one by one the women go down.

The men are about to follow when Gustave is missed. Brice, who caused the fire, goes and gets him out, but subsides back into the fire. The firemen rescue Gustave, and all disappear over the parapet as Brice again emerges as the curtain falls. The characters are all well drawn, and the dialogue is brilliant throughout—a good play.