SECOND PLAY PRAISED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

SECOND PLAY PRAISED

MERTON HODGE'S SUCCESS "TENDERNESS AND INSIGHT" The reception in London of " Grief goes Over," by Dr. Merlon Hodge, the young Auckland dramatist, has equalled the praise accorded to his first play, " The Wind and the Rain." A typical comment is made by Mr. W. A. Darlington in the London Daily Telegraph. He writes: " 1 went to the Globe Theatre last night full of excited curiosity. Here was the second play from the pen of Mertori Hodge, whose first effort, ' The Wind and the liain,' is now at the next-door theatre, , frolicking gaily through the second year of its run. " Would the new play, ' Grief Goes Over,' prove Mr. Hodge's first terrific success as an accident, or would it establish him as a tried and tested dramatist ? " It did the latter. Not merely did it win its audience, but it did so in a way that suggested that in Mr. Hodge wp have a playwright with that surest attribute of popularity—the human touch. " He can create people with whom one feels personal sympathy, quite apart from what.they may do or suffer. He can give them touches of reality in which actors can rejoice, and transmit their joy to the audience. Above all, he can handle sentiment sincerely and without mawkishness. " The simplicity of the writing communicates itself to the cast. Sybil Thorndike in particular, as the mother of the family, brings a quiet sense of sorrow borne and mastered to everything she does. This is a beautiful piece of work. " A beautiful play and an exquisite performance by Dame Sybil Thorndike." are the comments of the Morning Post critic. " The play flouts almost every commonplace dramatic canon. 'The laugh dies with the lips, lore with the Lover; And Grief Goes Over. The very title from Rupert Brooke suggests an anti-climax which Mr Hodge remorselessly conveys. But he does it with so much tenderness and insight, lightened with wit and fine touches of character, that the achievement has a grace as well as a courage all its own."