LURE OF THE STAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 18

LURE OF THE STAGE

MISS JENNIE BENSON INTEREST IN NEW ZEALAND " I am very anxious to see what New Zealand girls can do on tho stago," said Miss Jennie Benson yesterday. " 1 have heard a good deal about them and since I have been here I have seen some beautiful girls. If they are as clever as I have heard I am sure they would do well on the other side." Miss Benson also has a great admiration for the Australian girls. "It is no wonder that they have such a splendid physique," she said, " when they have such a magnificent climate, such fiunshine,' such open spaces to grow up in as are to be found in Australia. When I arrived there from England a few years ago," sho said meditatively, " .1 was more or less a physical wreck and had been ordered to leave England and everything associated with my work. Australia has made a new woman of me."

Miss Benson spoke of the great hold that stage life has upon those who follow it. " We grumble sometimes," sho said, " because it takes us away from our homes and we have to face certain inconveniences at times, but we see many countries and come into contact with many people and points of view. It is a stimulating life and does not allow us to crystallise."

In discussing Noel Coward's play " Cavalcade," Miss Benson mentioned that the famous playwright, about 18 years ago, was in the chorus of ono of her husband's companies. "He was always writing sketches and small plays then," she said, "and showing them to my husband who thought some of his work rather clever. As a matter of fact," sho added, " I think we have some of his youthful efforts in some old trunk or other now. He has advanced a long way since then, and is undoubtedly a most brilliant man." Miss Benson also spoke of Sir James Barrie, whom sho knows personally. She described his home, small and meticulously well kept, with its charming garden, which he dearly loves. " Like his home," she said, "ho is fastidiously trim and neat in person, small, and, as you might expect from his plays, is extraordinarily intuitive. There is a Puckish element about him that rather bewilders people—they never know whether he is laughing at them or is really serious in some of tho things that ho says." Sho was greatly interested in learning that " Mary Rose" had been produced in Auckland. Another writer whom Miss Benson knew was Somerset Maugham—keen, clever and analytical, but not so lovable as Sir James Barrie. Miss Benson was in London in the early days of the war and her home was always thrown open to the men on their return from the fighting lines —British and overseas men alike. Among her treasures is a large book in which is written personally the name of practically every man who entered her home. She also did a great deal of recruiting work, and helped in entertainments for the men on leave.

Speaking of theatrical work in general Miss Benson said that undoubtedly the legitimate stage was coming back into its own.