THEATRE ORCHESTRA ETIQUITTE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15764, 15 May 1913, Page 8

THEATRE ORCHESTRA ETIQUITTE.

Sir,—ln lust Saturday's "Passing Notes" soma quaint soul, writing under the nom do p!ume of " Vivat Rex," complains of the playing of " A Toast 'to Erin" instead of " God Save the King " at the conclusion of a performance of ''Sweet County Kerry " by the Allen Doone Company, the inference being that disloyalty or worse was shown thereby. I have read " Passing Notes" with pleasure for a good many years, but surely the writer of the column must for the moment have mislaid his usual saving grace of humour, else he had dropped that letter into the waste-paper basket. " Civis" must know, if his correspondent does not, that the playing of " God Save the King'' at the conclusion of a theatrical performance, or, for the matter of that, any other function where His Majesty is not represented, is no more a guarantee of patriotism than the omission of the anthem shows a lack of it. It is merely played to mark the end of the programme, and as a signal for the audience .to disperse. In perhaps only two of the London threatres—Covent Garden and Drury Lane—is the National anthem played regularly at the end of the performance. 'The conductor of the Allen Doone Orchestra played the curtain down with tlie chorus of one of Mr Doonc's songs, and continued to play the audience out. Other conductors as a rule take an ordinary march for the march out, but because, I presume, the leading actor of the company was an Irishman, and the plays were typically Irish, "Vivat Rex" sees a significance in the omission of " God Save the King," and the playing of "A Toast to Dear Old Erin." The orchestra, on the other hand—all local men—saw nothing out of the ordinary. The innuendo was quite uncalled for, and the reflection on the company unjust. I have had considerable experience of theatrical work, consequently should know something whereof I write.— I am, etc., One of the Orchestra.