LITTLE THEATRE PLAYS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22250, 26 October 1935, Page 10 (Supplement)

LITTLE THEATRE PLAYS

DOUBLE BILL SELECTED The Auckland Little Theatre Society announces as its next offering, - and the last of the 1935 season, what is certainly the most ambitious of its 41 productions, in a double bill containing Gordon Bottomley's tragedy "King Lear's Wife," and "Salome," by Oscar Wilde, to be presented at the Town Hall concert chamber for a season of five nights commencing on Saturday, November 9. Tho former play is a verso drama of early Britain, depicting tho illicit love of the king for one of Queen Hygd's serving maids, and the maid's ultimate death at the hands of tho Princess Goneril (plajed

by Althea Parker). Others in the cast are lan Moir (Lear), Ethel wyn Geddes (the Queen), Trixie Abel (the maid), and Zante Wood, Jane Fisher Ann Lane, Mary Pilkington and Audrey Ivil. Few plays have provoked wider discussion than "Salome," the other piece of tho production. Although written in 1891, this remarkable drama, translated and played continually all over tho world, took some thirty years to make its public appearance in England, and only then after tho Lord Chamberlain, censor of plays, had witnessed such a remarkable private performance at the hands of the Gate Theatre Studio that lie lifted the ban that "Salome" had carried since 1891. Tho play offers exceptional acting scope for the large cast, which includes Nora O'Halloran in tho namo part, Richard Sharp as Herod, Edna Craig as Herodias. Kenneth Warburton as Jokanaan and a number of other wellknown players. Spectacular costuming and scenery has been designed by the producer, Frederic McCallum.