THE LITTLE THEATRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19991, 6 July 1928, Page 14

THE LITTLE THEATRE.

SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTION.

VANE'S "OUTWARD BOUND."

SOCIETY'S NOTABLE WORK. Tho Auckland Little Theatre Society has long wished to stage Sutton Vane's allegory of life and death, "Outward Bound." There have been unavoidable delays, but those who saw the first performance last evening will agree that the play was amply worth waiting for. Indeed, the successful production of such a work alone would more than justify the society's existence. Tho story of the play itself is fairly well known, but its atmosphere can hardly be conveyed by any description. Time and place in an earthly sense are not; the scene is on the ocean of eternity. Yet all the action is upon a human level. A procession of richly varied characters come on board a liner. None can remember just how ho came or whither he is going. There is an overworked slum curate, a snobbish society dame, a cynical young man with a fondness for whisky, a knavish magnate, a little charwoman, two tragic lovers. At sea they find that tho ship has no officers, no crew, except one kindly old steward. She carries no lights, and her destination is unknown. By chance it comes home to them that they are all dead, and that on reaching port they will be judged. Various as they are, all react variously to this new knowledge. The parson becomes carefree, the magnate blusters, the dowager keeps up appearances. The lovers clutch each other—they have committed suicide, and feav that their judge will part them. Port is reached, the "examiner" comes aboard, and, behold, he is an every-day parson. -- Human a3 he is, he allots to each his fate in the new life.' The curate is to have a parish, the magnate and the dowager will undergo their due penance, and the charwoman will keep house for the cynical young man, wno, unknown to him, is her son. Only the lovers are not judged. They are "halfways"; the gas they took has but stupefied them, and their fate is to be united on earth once more.

The whole cast does great credit to itself and the Little Theatre Society. Roberts Tolo, as the cynical youth, gives an always easy and finished performance. Daphne Knight makes the dowager a fine figure of comedy. Linda Murphy enacts the little charwoman with fine restraint. The red-faced man of business is most capably played by J. D. Swan, and Arnold Goodwin abandons coster parts to the old steward. John Stewart and F. L. Armitage are the two clergymen, and the difficult roles of the lovers are filled by Montague Steele and Nance St. Clair Whyte. The play will be given three times more, and if its merits and those of the players have their due there will be full houses.