Music and Drama

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23263, 4 February 1939, Page 18 (Supplement)

Music and Drama

Highlights of the English Theatre

THEATRICAL NOTES COMING PRODUCTIONS THEATRE AND CONCERT HALL HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE To-day.—Covent Garden Russian Ballet. February IG.—Young Australian Boys' Band and Revue.

Finance and Public Support Needed

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA [finance and lack of public enthusiasm are the main factors to be contended with by Mr. Colin Muston in his proposal to form an Auckland Symphony Orchestra. This is the opinion of Mr. C. B. Plummer, president of the Auckland Amateur Operatic Society, and a member of tho committee of the old Bohemian Orchestra, who has been connected for. 50 years with amateur music. "It is high time that something of tho kind was got under way," Mr. Plummer said, in an interview, "particularly in view of the probable visit of Dr. Malcolm Sargent next year. He will probably conduct a number of choral concerts, and for that ho will want a full orchestra.

"Guarantors will be needed, '* Mr. Plummer continued. "Certain expenses must crop up in such a proposal, secre-

tarial for instance. Then, again, the conductor must be paid if a good man is wanted, and some of the players also. Many players formerly joined the Bohemian Orchestra for experience and were glad to play. They do not do that now. The professional element- enters into it more, as the training ground formerly provided by the Bohemian Orchestra has been lacking since tho orchestra went into recess.

"Municipal support might be a way of Retting over the' difficulty, but in my opinion a lead might be given by a number of our leading citizens, each to guarantee a certain sum yearly. It Avould not necessarily be great, and as little as £lO would suffice if a sufficient number could be found to contribute. We know from experience that it will not. be possible to run a symphony orchestra on three or four concerts yearly. I ''

In this connection Mr. Plummer criticised the seating in the Town Hall, and said that lack of comfort was an important factor where audiences were concerned. Further, the gradual decline in receipts experienced by the Bohemian Orchestra in its last few seasons seemed to prove that Aucklanders were less interested in music than formerly. "It is. of course, difficult to assess what such an orchestra, probably of about 60 players, might cost," Mr. Plummer concluded. "The professional element, has introduced a new phase."

SURVEY OF THE YEAR I have made the Inst entry in my theatre engagement-book for 1938, and before putting it on the shelf with its predecessors, I have been running through it and. noting down those among the more serious plays and productions that linger gratefully in my memory. This is, of course, an arbitrary sort of retrospect, for it omits good plays L have not seen and, perhaps, good plays I have not liked, wrote W. A. Darlington in the Daily Telegraph in December. But as I have not space for a full survey, the method is as good as any. The theatrical event of the year has been "The Flashing Stream." I was on -holiday when Charles Mohan's play was first produced, and saw it after it had settled down to its solidly successful run; and it gave mo one of those rare evenings in the playgoer's experience when he finds all his faculties engaged. Low and Highbrow

Our theatre is, on the whole, rich in its oWn particular virtues. Good storytelling, quick observation of character, emotional power, entertaining dialogue —these things are so common that the critic complains when he does not get them. Artistic integrity is not uncommon. But when all these things are combined with an intellectual brilliance and sheer literary skill such as Mr. Morgan possesses, the play containing them becomes a prodigy. "The Flashing Stream" is a popular success because it has the lowbrow qualities as well as the highbrow ones —it its good entertainment as well as good art. It is based on a plot so strong and simple that in other hands it might have furnished a melodrama. (Indeed, the Admiral's wife —the one character in the play who never comes alive —is mere melodrama .as she stands.) "The Corn is Green"

Next comes "The Corn is Green." This play lives vividly in my _ mind because Emlyn Williams is writing of a country and a people that he knows, and all the more vividly because I once knew them, too. The play is about education in Wales in the '9o's and it happens that my father was in charge of much of the education in Wales in the '9o'g.

As his son, 1 know that Mr. Williams has exercised a dramatic licence in pretending that even the remoter valleys in Wales were without schools at so late a date. But as a dramatic critic, I am sure this bit of juggling with history is justified. Shaw's "Geneva" was only a moderately high spot for me. Perhaps the difficult conditions in which criticism had to be carried on at Malvern this year spoilt my enjoyment of the play; but when I saw it again in London I found even the brilliant third act heavy going. In fact if it comes to plays dealing directly with political subjects, I found Norman Macowan's "Glorious Morning," with its white-hot sincerity, more satisfying than Shaw's intellectual gymnastics. More Serious Plays The only other serious new plays by home-grown dramatists that appear on my list are Morna Stuart's "Traitor's Gate" and two by James Bridie —"The King of Nowhere" and "The Last Trump." On the whole, a thin year's output, which needed the strengthening it certainly got from America with Robert Sherwood's "idiot's Delight" and Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy." Besides these two dynamic pieces we had the Lunts with their beautifully orchestrated acting in "Amphitryon 38."

But not even the Lunts outdid Michel Saint-Denis' production of "The Three Sisters," which was the finest piece of imaginative realism that I have seen on any stage. This, with his subsequent productions of "The White Guard" and "Twelfth Night," showed how fortunate we are to have this greatly gifted Frenchman working in our theatre.