THEATRICAL NOTES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21314, 15 October 1932, Page 10 (Supplement)

THEATRICAL NOTES

COMING PRODUCTIONS Town Hall: This Evening. —Concert by Lex MacDonald, boy soprano. October 21, 22 and 24.—Joseph Szigeti violin recitals. Concert Chamber: This Evening.—Catholic Repertory Society's plays. October 19 and 20—" The Spinster Who f Spun." His Majesty's: To-day.—" La Boheme " (matinee) and "La Tosca"; season extending to October 22. , November 12 to 24.—Margaret Rawlings in " The Barretts of Wimpole Street " and " Happy and Glorious." November.—J. C. Williamson " Follies of 1932" season. Coming.—Dame Sybil Thorndike and Company in " Saint Joan," "As You Like It," " Macbeth," " Painted Veils," et alia. THEATRE AND CONCERT HALL The three-act play " The Spinster Who Spun," by Mrs. Nello Porter, will be seen in its fun and sadness at the Concert Chamtar on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, in aid of St. John Ambulance Fund. The cast is a strong one including Misses Edna Herrick, Noni Wright, Joan Ross, Hilda Morse and Edna Thomas, Messrs. Alan McSkimming, Ken ' Warburton, Owen Jones, Zante Wood, E. M. Newling and John Carpenter. The cast of the curtain raiser " Cecil,'' written by Dr. de Clive Lowe, includes Misses Mary Cruickshank and Morse, and Messrs. Jack Gordon and E. M. Newling. Both plays are being produced by Dr. G. de Clive Lowe and Mr. J. M. Clark. Among the prizes which the Duke of Connaught presented last month to successful students of the Royal Academy of Music was one newly added to the list for clearness of pronunciation of English in singing. The principal, referring to this, said it was. no uncommon thing to be unable to say whether a singer is, singing in English, Chinese or Chocktaw—hence the prize, which he hoped would stimulate students to effort to make themselves intelligible to their audiences. The Duke of Connaught, who is this academy's president, must be one of the oldest living amateurs of music. At eighty-one years of age he is still found enthusiastically pleading the cause of musical art, and saying at this prize-giving that his life would be dull, and the world would indeed be dull, without music, "which has no warmer supporter than myself." " The art of the theatre is an art that everybody is able to understand; everybody can act," said Dame Sybil Thorndike, discussing the condition of the drama. She is enthusiastic in her praise of amateurs, who, frequently, producing modern plays, are the advance guard in the theatre—"the diggers in the pioneering work of the greater drama." It was a remarkable fact i o her that, when the great sweep of the pictures came, the theatre was not absolutely killed. She was sure it was the amateur movement that had stood it-through. In England amateurs were doing most of the pioneer work. Sheer amateurs, they were, not working for money,''but doing work as artists that the commercial theatre could not touch. Josef Szigeti, branded with the imprimatur- of greatness by nations more musically sophisticated than New Zealand can boast to be, created an unforgettable impression upon a large audience at the Town Hall at his opening concert, when he appeared in conjunction with the Wellington Symphony Orchestra. If one were indiscreet 'enough to make comparisons, it could be said without flattery that the visitor possesses the crystalline quality of tone which made Hoifetz tamous; the warmth, suavity and "clinical* brilliance of Kreisler, and the dynamic energy of Elman, illuminated by a lofty and gracious mind, states a Wellington writer. Szigeti chained the attention by the magic of his playing —his extreme delicacy and sensitiveness, his appealing sympathy, inherent sense of rhythm, and beauty of interpretation. He will give concerts in Auckland on October 21, 22 and 24. Theo Shall, the Viennese star of stage and screen, who is to make his first appearance in Australia at the King's Theatre, Melbourne, in "Autumn Crocus," and is now in Melbourne, has had unique experience, having appeared not only in screen and stage productions, but being also noted as a producer. In Berlin and Vienna he has produced and played the leading i*olc in such productions as "A Woman of No Importance " (Oscar Wilde), " The Guardsman " (Molnar), "Anatol " (Schnitzler), "Lady Fanny And a Question of Domestic Affairs" (based on a story by Jerome K. Jerome) and others. He went to Hollywood for Metro-Gold wyn-Mayer to appear opposite Greta Garbo in a Continental version of "Anna Christie," and also in " Olympia," whilst for Fox be played the lead_ in "The Big Trail." One of his most"interesting experiences with the talkies was in making a German picture in Tunis, Northern Africa. Here, for several days, lie was camped in the , desert, with a big party including Arabs, soldiers and others, with camels for transport. " Starlit nights in the desert are something that can never be forgotten," said Mr. Shall.