"GRIEF GOES OVER"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 12 (Supplement)

"GRIEF GOES OVER"

MERTON HODGE'S NEW PLAY FINE PRESS RECEPTION "Grief Goes Over" made its appearanco at the Manchester Opera House this week, wrote tho London correspondent of tho Hekat.d on May 25. "Tho Wind and the Rain" started upon its successful career 18 months ago in the same theatrically discriminating centre. If tho first in thoso days seemed, in tho words of the Manchester Guardian, unlikely to succeed, Dr. Morton Hodge's second play "should not need even the meagre knowledge that comes of 'following form' to bo spotted as a winner. "It was surely clear he has the gift of drawing peoplo as those who see them on the stage know tlicm to be," the newspaper critic wrote. "With a welcome provincial detachment, he does not present the Bright Young Peoplo of London, nor the Chelsea set, nor an.v tiresomely sophisticated section of humanity. None of his characters knows tho latest reaction to tho poems of Ezra Pound, or can say the latest and wit- | tiest thing about tho pretensions of that doubtless outmoded sculptor, Epstein, to enduring fame. With a wider grasp of humanity that comes perhaps of the study of medicine, Dr. Hodge makes his characters as intelligiblo on Ciydeside or on Merseyside, as on Thames-side or on the banks of tho Hudson." Tho cast is strong, with Dame Sybil Thonulike as a stately Victorian mother of 50, who possesses a tender under- j standing of youth. Tho title, "Grief j Goes Over," is from a poem by Rupert ; Brooke. Tho play presents a present- I day middle-class family to which much j happens in two years; it deals with tho dangers of middle-class unemploy- j ment. If work had been available for j tho two younger boys of that well-to-do widow, Blanche Oldham, when they left school and university, Tony would not have had time to be merely charming and irresolute, nor would he have j drifted into such complications with a ; young married woman as resulted in his j suicide; and Kim (Mr. Geoffrey Narcs), j a boy with more stability, would not ! have rushed into parenthood before marriage at the pace he did. The author makes the spiritual distresses of this family highly convincing. Miss Mary Jones, selected by Miss Aureole Lee, the producer, from a school of acting, brings to the part of tho girl Kim loves a combination of innocence and wisdom that makes her presentation of it delightful. The Manchester Guardian adds that Miss Elliot Mason presents a Scottish nurse with an authenticity of accent and outlook on life which Sir James Barrie would surely delight to contemplate. PLAY FOR PUBLICATION ASHBURTON MAN'S SUCCESS Mr. L. A. Charles, a solicitor of Ashburton, who has been treasurer of tho j local Repertory Society since its in- j ception and has appeared in several J productions, has received advice from I Messrs. Samuel French, Limited, the j dramatic publishers and agents, of , London, that his three-act comedy | "Pedro tho Merciful" has been accepted i for inclusion in their acting edition. j The play was entered in the New Zealand Drama League's competition in June last year and was awarded second place A one-act play, "The Substitute," also written by Mr. Charles, was placed fourth in the series for smaller plays. The publishers forwarded with their letter of acceptance the critic's review, which states: "This is a delicious comedy, slight, but most entertaining. . . There is a great deal of fun to be got out of the impoverished officials; and the penniless governor of Asturias is a fine character. The play reminds one of that grand farce 'The Inspector General,' having the same artless common-sense attitude that i>; unexpected and amusing."

The critic adds, after reviewing the plot, "Every character is alive and in the picture, and the dialogue is good. This play would have rejoiced a manager like the late Nigel Playfair."