“CHILDREN IN UNIFORM”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22373, 21 September 1934, Page 15

“CHILDREN IN UNIFORM”

MISS ANITA WINKEL’S PRODUCTION

Fresh faces; black, brown, red ami flaxen heads; young bodies bidden under black and white striped dresses; black aprons, white collars, black shoes and black stockings: mistresses in grey with white lace mutches and blue necklaces; grey walls, boarding school. The first scene is in a courtyard, where Manuel a (a new girl), her pompous aunt, a mistress, and later other girls, are seen. The stilted and awkward moments when the aunt is present contrast humorously with those that follow when the girls themselves dominate the stage. Second scene shows a sewing room — machine, table, hamper, and clothesrack—where a little, old matron, a girl with memories of a glorious past, and the cherished mistress of the schoool make their impressions on the new girl. Third scene shows the school at play and then at prayers under the tutelage of the head mistress, an unbending, unforgiving figure, excellently portrayed. Fourth scene is the dormitory—white clothes, grey beds, white night-gowned girls, talk of good-night kisses, and a sudden embrace between the cherished mistress and Mamjela.

Fifth scene is the girls’ room—one girl playing, one dancing, one sewing, one reciting—and discloses the fact that though Maunela is found attractive by a fencing master, she cares nothing for him because of her other interests, Sixth scene is the cherished teacher’s room, the sorting over of the school linen, and the exchange of a gift between Mamiela and the teacher herself.

Seventh scene shows the dining room after the performance of a play by Voltaire. The Turk’s princess’s and knight’s costumes stand out in relief against the black and white frocks of the girls, as Mannela’s terribly exciting triumph stands out in relief against the icy horror of the head mistress.

Eighth scene is the sick room and the ugly intrusion into Manuela’s consciousness of the head mistress’s fury for-her. Ninth scene shows the school awaiting the arrival of a royal visitor —girls in white party dresses, teachers in grey, visitors in black with touches of white — a very realistic scene.

Tenth scene is again the cherished teacher’s room, where the play reaches its violent climax after Mamiela has left flic room.

“Children iu Uniform” ip an ambitious effort. Some may criticise it as being too morbid for the stage, but the

fact that it has been received with acclamation both as a play and as a motion picture at Home and on the Continent will show that such is not the case. Rather it might be looked upon as a piece of propaganda on behalf of a saner educational system; for, had the rules of Manuela’s school not been as they were, the cherished mistress would not have stood out so prominently in contrast, nor would Maunela herself have been so centred upon her, for recreation and now interests would have been a means of sublimating her affections into wider and more controllable forms. Hero and heroine worship are only' natural in homogeneous communities and need not be looked upon with fear. Jt is only in extreme cases that they reach the point attained in “Children in Uniform,” and then, as in that play, are more the result of unnatural repression than anything else. At any rate, Miss Anita Winkcl has begun what we hope will become a fashion with producers of children's modern theatricals—plays with some body and spirit in them.