No Dominion Motive In the Theatre

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 18 (Supplement)

No Dominion Motive In the Theatre

DISREGARD FOR EMPIRE OVERSEAS THE following article by Sydney W. Carroll in a recent issue of the London Daily Telegraph and Morning Post describing the disregard of the English theatre for the Empire overseas as one of the theatre's more serious shortcomings, is one which will meet with the complete approval of New Zealanders. "We are fprtunate as Britishers in being partners in the greatest Commonwealth of peoples, all inspired with the same ideals of life and conduct, that the world has known," Mr. Carroll states.

"But so far as British drama is concerned, or such expressions of it as we are privileged to see in our West End theatres, there is little or no attempt truthfully to represent the ways of living, the manners, circumstances and difficulties, the pursuits, thoughts and achievements of the British peoples in the four quarters of the globe. West End Plays "For this grave omission from our theatrical programmes the Dominions quite as much as our theatre managers and authors would appear to be to blame. No millionaire Australian, if there be such person, ever subsidises plays of Australian motive. "Here and there the English professional play reader may encounter a piece of passion, a comedy of intrigue, or a melodrama by a Dominion writer, hut the central figure is usually utterly fictitious and devoid of any local value, used for reasons of ridicule or romance, but quite destitute of any proper Dominion objective. "Playgoers in the West End to-day are entertained with glimpses of Italy (medieval),- China (Kith century), Tibet and Cathay (time of Marco Polo), Hungary, France, the Geneva Council Room, Russia, Germany, and now and agafn America. Scotland, Ireland, and Wales are fairly well represented. But for any sight of presentday progress in our Dominion centres we have to content ourselves with brief travelogues on the pictures. Merton Hodge's Latest "Nowhere in any English theatre will the playgoer be offered the life in New Zealand, with its original social and advanced system of existence. And even the knowledge that such picturesque figures as Maoris still exist in the country never tempts the dramatist to experiment with this promising territory. Shades of Captain Cook! The influence of the Scottish invader is only one of a thousand possible topics. , "Even Dr. Merton Hodge, himself a New Zealander, author of 'The Island,' 'The Wind and the Rain,' and a play about a Chinese Empress, has contented himself with dramatising a Victorian novel about an African farm, in which the English people shown are not wholly admirable. "It may be retorted that, as a Dominion-born theatre manager, I should have repaired this breach in our dramatic wall. Perhaps so, but no author has ever sent me even an unproduceable play attempting to show modern life in any of our Dominions. I have seen no such attempt on the part of our experimental societies.

Spirit of Adventure "In a lengthy experience of stage productions 1 cannot recall a really worthy and inspired piece of drama that aroused in me the thrill of Dominion pride, or gave me the satisfaction of feeling that I was a son of Empire, a member of the greatest race of world explorers and navigators, men whose expeditions into strange and unknown lands called for a new Shakespeare to do them credit.' "We need a dramatist of fire and invention, with the necessary Dominion knowledge and spirit of adventure, to arouse our old mood of discovering unknown lands and uncharted seas.

"I fling this idea pathetically into the air. I have no hopes of it being recovered and exploited. But if we value our Empire, if we wish to cherish the links that bind to us our brethren overseas, we should do something about it, and quickly."