CRIES IN THE NIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20113, 26 November 1928, Page 8

CRIES IN THE NIGHT.

FEARS OF A TRAGEDY. AMUSING DENOUEMENT. REALISM AT A REHEARSAL. Coming through tho open windows of a darkened room, cries for help woke the echoes in Wyndliam Street last evening. Peoples who had left lh>3 evening service at St. Patrick's Cathedral were walking down on their way to Queen Street when the agonised appeals, thrice repeated, resounded through the still night air. They canic from a room on the second storey of a building on the right-hand side of Wyndham Street. Among the pedestrians, women stood stock-still with fright, but about half-a-dozen men acted rapidly. They gathered round tho entrance of the building, and it was found that the door, although closed, was not locked. Entering, the men rushed up a flight of narrow stairs. Their fears were soon set at rest. Barely had the first of them reached the top of the stairs and commenced to pound on a closed door, when lights were switched on in tho mysterious room, voiceß were heard, and the door was opened. Inside were several people, all perfectly calm.

An explanation was soon forthcoming. The scene of a supposed tragedy was the Littlo Theatre Society's clubrooms, and thero members of tho society were rehearsing " Danger," the one-act play by Richard Hughes, which is to be presented shortly in a triple bill. The flooding of a coalmine is the theme of the play and, as tho stago has to represent the bottom of a mine, it is kept in darkness. In order to gain tho correct atmosphere for the performance, the producer, Mr. Kenneth Brampton, was rehearsing in darkness last evening, and it was the voice of one of the characters in danger of drowning that gave,, rise to the mistake. At Mr. Brampton's explanation both players and would-be rescuers saw the joke, and the visitors departed, thankful for the outcdmo of tho adventure and loud in their praises of the realism of tho acting in rehearsal. For somo time afterwards thero was an attentive audience in Wyndliam Street, listening to the rehearsal as it proceeded.