RUTH DRAPER'S TOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23111, 9 August 1938, Page 12

RUTH DRAPER'S TOUR

THE AUCKLAND SEASON Acclaimed by critics, Miss Ruth Draper is to commence a short season at His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland, starting on August 15. At each performance Miss Draper presents a series of original character sketches, playing .all the parts herself. She appears 011 the stage with no properties except a table and a chair, and no special costume except perhaps a hat and a shawl thrown over her shoulders. Perhaps the scene which the audience is asked to envisage is a railway station or a courtroom or a church in Italy. Such is the perfection .of her artistry and the strange power which she exerts, that the stage almost at once seems peopled with all the characters whom she represents. Conjured out of the imagination they assume almost flesh-and-blood presence. Miss Draper creates all . her 'own character sketches and such is her knowledge of human nature and her power of observation that it has been ireqiientl.v stated that if she were a noveList instead of an actress, she would leave an indelible mark in literature. Miss Draper's stage pictures are full of colour. life, movement, and often noise and bustle. At times she crowds her platform with characters and at others she gives it the illusion of infinite space. The following was written of Miss Draper by a London critic: "Though Miss Draper appears alone on the stage, she has a company of all the talents behind her. Like a wizard she summons them one by one from thin air and gives them shape and reality in the minds of her andience. To all slio attempts', Miss Draper brings a unique quality and a large measure of human understanding. Her humour is always spontaneous, her satire kindly, and both are seldom far from tears." Booking for the Auckland season, details of which are advertised, will open to-morrow.