“WHAT HAPPENED THEN?”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 160, 8 June 1937, Page 8

“WHAT HAPPENED THEN?”

One of the best written and most drama tie of modern mystery dramas, “What Happened Then?” has been selected by flic Palmerston North Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society as its winter production for 1937. This play will bo the 28th pro cluction offered bv' the society, arid has been selected as the method by which (ho society will invito the Palmerston North art lovers to join with it in celebrating the attainment of its 21st birthday. Al though the general theme of the play is nothing very novel, the mystery is most entertaining, and, packed with action, it keeps the audience absorbed in the varying problems that are presented during the three acts. The story deals with the trot, bios that f,y:e a newly engaged couple Alicia Dcverton and Raymond Rudford Alicia is deliriously happy, but Raymond's delight is tinctured by the worry of ha* ing to obtain the consent of his eccentric ami wealthy uncle, to whom he is f.e,r, and to whom he also has to confess lhal he has foolishly backed a bill for £SOOO for a friend who is unable to meet, his commitments, and which Raymond bin been called upon by the bank to honour The interview between uncle and nephew takes place in the first act, during which a. quarrel ensues, Raymond eventually leaving his undo and both simmering with rapt The curtain rises on the second act el.owing a most realistic Court scene complete wtih judicial atmosphere. Raymond is it. the dock to face a charge of murdering his uncle. Incriminating finger prints malm the ease very black indeed. Dr Bristol gives evidence for the defence, but despite the additional evidence given by Pete/ Bronilev, a friend-, and Raymond’s stowment in the dock the jury finds him guilty. The scene of the final act is in the drawingroom of Mrs Bromley, where Peter and hie mother are trying to comfort Alieia, whose faith is unshaken. Her friends arc cleat minded, and determined to prove that the murderer was anyone tint Raymond. Luke Tims, an old cobbler, appears on Ihe scene and he, with one of tfio other characters, is involved in a most dramatic ending, with (lie mystery' unfolded just before the fall of the curtain. For this production, which will ho presented to the public at the Opera House next Thrnsday, Friday and Saturday, the'society lias gone lo great pain-'*' lo select an exceptionally strong east, and all the amateurs who arc to- portray tho j characters in the melodrama have, had a. considerable amount of experience.