SCENE IN A THEATRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19584, 14 September 1925, Page 8

SCENE IN A THEATRE

A PLAY DENOUNCED. LONDON, September 3. When the curtain fell last night on the second act of Noel Coward’s play “Fallen Angels,’’ a woman who had been seated in a stage box rose and excitedly shouted: “As a member of the public, I protest.” Her words wore drowned in a storm of boos, hisses, and shouts of “Sit down!” The objector, however, persisted, and declared that the play was degrading. The audience continued its booing, and applauded ,a man, clad in an evening-dress suit, who, standing on a chair, requested the woman to leave if she objected to the play. The woman still continued her attempts to speak until the hissing finally silenced her. The interruption occurred on the concluding night of the production. The objector, it transpired, was Mr? ITornibrook, a member of the Public Morality Council, who made her public protest for the purpose of forcing the provision of a more vigorous theatre censorship. Amid the counter-demonstration of the audience, she denounced the play as indecent, demoralising, and abominable.