THEATRICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19406, 14 August 1926, Page 8 (Supplement)

THEATRICAL NOTES.

A New Play by Clemence Dane. ' Miss Clemence Dane, the talented author of " A Bill of Divorcement," the play which brought her fame a few yoais ago". has had a new play produced in London. It is called " Granite," but, unlike its predecessor, it war, received with a certain coldness by the critics. The principal character is a woman riaclen In - loneliness and lovelessness on the almost deserted island 01 Liindv. Hor husband is an inhuman miser and a wrecker of .ships—the period is in the 1820's. i.)ne night she prays to the devil to come from the sea and grant lief release. A laugh is heard outside. She opens Lie door, a sodden waif staggers in. In return for shelter, he promises to be her servant, to take her quanVls upon his shoulders, to kill whatever man lays hand un her.

The husband wrenches her arm in a quarfel. The waif shoots him over the cliff. . !>he thus gets her wish, which is for the husband's half-brother, crippled under Nelson and arrived from the mainland. The nameless outcast stays on, incites a quarrel between wife and second husband. The wife's arm is again wrenched, and another murder is committed on the cliff. The woman is left alone with the slaver, who dominates her. The part of the woman was specially written for Miss Sybil Thorndike. and she played the role in the London production. The part, however, did not call out her finest qualities. As for the play, the opinion of the London Times is typical: "Almost Miss Dane has had tho courage to make the devil a person in her play. ' Almost,' we say, for she compromises her devil with an explanation. Having chosen tho greatest of ail satanic myths, she has not given the devil his due. " If this stranger is the devil, then Judith's soul is his prize, and Miss Dane, taking wings of faith and poetry, must plunge without swerving into spiritual fight. But if he is a man, then his prize is Judith's body and Judith's farm. He becomes not a dark angel, but a blackmailer. His laughter is not satanic laughter, but a melodramatic trick. The whole theme shrinks, and much that once promised to be its significance becomes mere sound and emptiness.

" From which angle are we to approach the play? Unhappily, from both, for, in spite of the imaginative vigour of the opening scene and the hints of devilry which continually recur, all the later -•"evidence is in favour of the narrower ' interpretation."

Plays and Players. A word of praise is due to Guy Bates Post for his belief in the acting abilities ot' " Miss Australia," for all the important feminine roles in the actor's repertoire for Africa have been entrusted to Australian actresses; In "The Masquerader" there are three outstanding women's roles—Eve Chilcote, Robbins, and Lady Astrupp—and Mr. Post engaged M'iss Dorothy ■ Brunton, Miss Cecil Haines, and Miss Jean Athol, to play the parts during his African tour.

The next Williamson company to visit Auckland will bo the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company, whirh has enjoyed a remarkably successful season in the Australian capitals. The comppy should be here in the course of the next week or so, and will play a season of some of the best-known Gilbert and Sullivan Operas. It is many years since Aucklanders knew the joys of a Gilbert and Sullivan season, so that expectations will be keenly alive to the treat, now m store. Appetites .will no doubt ha further whetted because His Majesty's Theatre has been without a professional show, vaudeville excepted, for several weeks. This unfortunate state of affairs was due to unforeseen circumstances

namely, the disastrous fire which terminated the Allan Wilkie season in Australia, and the railway disaster which compelled the temporary abandonment of the "Katja" season.

The Lord Chamberlain has been kept busy lately rejecting plays submitted to him "for licensing by the young playwrights of the ultra-modern school. Mr. Basil Dean, a well-known London pro-

ducer, has had four plays censored in the past twelve months, and they are, with one exception, all works by young British authors under thirty years of age. "These clever young men," said Mr. Dean, "are trying to express life AS they see it and give us some now ideas. ' Yet they are stopped. This treatment will only throw the English official attitude- into a ludicrous light in regard to,the treatment of the drama in this countiy. - ' Young Woodley,' which was turned down in England, has been a great success in America. It is still running after thirty weeks. ' Recurring Docirna,' which the censor has refused to re-license, is written in a light, satirical ; vein, and is not to be taken liteiully," concluded Mr. pean.

"Hamlet" \vas played in Italian in London recently, the rendering of the famous role by Signor Ruggero Ruggeri winning enthusiastic notice. This was not Ruggeri's first visit to England, though it was the first time he had brought his own company there, and he confessed that he had feared to find English audiences cold and undemonstrative. His reception, however, convinced him that, London is no less warm and appreciative than is' Paris, where he has recently been most favourably received. It has always lieen his arhbition, he said, to play Hamlet in Shakespeare's own country. Ten years ago he scored his first success as Hamlet in 'Milan, and earned himself a

recognised place among the tragic actors of his day. He had, indeed, been well known before that, having, after only one year on the stage, come into the front rank about fifteen, years ago, through his performance in D'Annunzio's famous play, "La Figlia di Jcrio." But Hamlot ' has always been his favourite part, and, whatever' his triumphs in French and Italian plays, it is as Hamlet that he hopes to be remembered. Despite the barrier of language, Signor Ruggeri takes a great interest in modern English drama, and is especially keen on Shaw. The only other English plays in which lie has taken part are " The Second Mrs. Tanqueray," called in the Italian version " La Seconda Moglie," and " His House in Order."