MISS RUTH DRAPER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23113, 11 August 1938, Page 16

MISS RUTH DRAPER

FAMOUS CHARACTER ARTIST The power of creating an imaginary company of many performer's and making them live vividly is possessed to an infinite degree by the unique artist Miss Buth Draper, who will commence) a season at His Majesty's 'I hcatre on ..Monday night. At each per'formanco Miss Draper presents a series of original character sketches, playing ail the parts herself. She appears on the stage with no properties except a table and a chair, and no special costume except,, perhaps, a hat and shawl thrown over her shoulders. Miss Draper creates all her own character sketches and such is her knowledge of human nature and her power of observation that it has frequently been stated that, ii she were a novelist instead of an actress, she would leave an indelible mark on literature. Miss Draper's stage pictures are described as being • full of life, colour, movement and often noiso and bustle. At times she crowds her platform with characters, and at others she gives it the illusion of infinite space. One of her most famous sketches is "An Englishwoman Shows Her Garden." It has caused a sensation throughout the world and she includes it in most of her British performances. Her portrait of a love- , lorn wife in "Three Breakfasts," during which she traverses many years without a single change of-costume, is another of her more famous sketches. As a London critic said about ]\liss Draper's art: "There is more comedy, satire, observation and pathos in the character sketches of Miss Draper than in half a dozen ordinary plays."