PIO PIO DRAMA SOCIETY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4801, 23 June 1939, Page 5

PIO PIO DRAMA SOCIETY

PRESENTATION OF “WINTER SUNSHINE.” PUBLIC READING APPRECIATED A small but appreciative audience attended in the Rest Room on Tuesday evening to hear a public reading of G. A. Thomas’s 4-act play, “Winter Sunshine.” The action of the play occurs in a ship bound from Southampton to Sydney. Among the passengers is Sophie Lewis, who has travelled so often on this vessel that the captain looks to her to solve many 1 of the problems that arise amongst the passengers. Others are Anne Simpson, who is disconsolate over a love affair, and John Trench, a blind man, and. a wife of a friend of the captain, Mrs. Blake. The latter two seem ready to elope together at Bombay, an action which the captain, by calling in Sophie Lewis’s aid, seeks to avoid. The latter finds Trench is not quite so blind nor so honest as he appears to be, but as his eyesight is rapidly failing he has to make hay while the sun shines. His method is to make arrangements to run away with some woman passenger, pocket the passage money which she makes available, and then disappear. As a result of Sophie Lewis’s talk with him, he turns his attention to Anne Simpson, but by the time that Sydney is reached it is Sophie and Trench who are paying each other attention. The lighter comedy passages of the play come mainly from the ever quarrelling Mrs. Jones and Colonel Powell who eventually end up by quarrelling how they should arrange their house together. The parts were taken as follows: Sophie Lewis, Miss P. von Tunzleman; Anne Simpson, Miss Casey; Mrs. Blake, Miss U. Murray; Mrs. Jones, Mrs. McAlley; The Captain, Mr. L. Riche; Colonel Powell, Mr. G. Dinnison; John Trench, Mr. C. H. Paine; George, a steward, Mr. R. Prichard; Young Woman; Miss Doreen Johnston; a passenger, Mr. Ray Green; chorus, Mr. Roy Stevens.