WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22610, 29 June 1935, Page 2

WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

MIMES AND MIMING On June 15 the arts and drama classes were fortunate in hearing Miss Eileen Service give an excellent lecture on "Mimes and Miming." This was all a lecture should be, excellent in form, matter, and grace of delivery. Miss Service defined miming as, roughly, the art of silent acting, art being the expression of art or self to the world. She compared miming among the primitive peoples with that of the Chinese, the Japanese, the Indian, the Egyptian, the Greek, and the Roman theatres. In miming an actor tried to tell an audience a story by gesture instead of by speech. The church, realising the possibilities of this art, made miming an integral part of their service. From this cause grew miracle, morality, and mystery plays, all realistic, not symbolic, as movements were in the Japanese, the Chinese, and the Indian theatres. In later Italy there was lively impromptu acting, in which, however, each character knew its bounds. Moliere studied under an Italian troupe. In the middle of the eighteenth century, this beautiful impromptu acting died away and was absorbed into French acting. Dubarro became the first real Pierrot, not silly and clownish, but a moonlight, adorable person. England never took to miming, but John Rich brought in the pantomime, a series of swift changes with bright tunes. The first clown in England called Joey, and appearing with white face and smeared mouth, was Joe Grimaldi, an Italian. At the present day a.wordless play to music was done every year by Irene Mower. Miss Service prefaced her delightful, illustrations by saying that people to-day were too heavy and inactive, their bodies were a prison instead of a mirror. They had to become physically pliable and flexible, inspiring the movements with their imaginations. Miss Service showed how to express action and emotion of many kinds solely by acting without words. There followed "Harlequinade," a mimed play, telling the old, wistful story of poor Pierrot's hopeless love for Columbine, who has eyes and heart only for Harlequin. Those taking part in this were: Miss Kelly, Messrs W. W. Bridgman, French and Frye. ' " ~ : Mrs Watson presented a sketch without words, "The Trousseau," a scene in a dress salon where a bride elect chooses her wedding clothes. The actors were Mesdames M'Phail and Watson. Miss Duthie and Mr Watson. A particularly well-earned vote of thanks to Miss Service was proposed by Mr Wilson, the tutor of the class. PLAY-READING. On Saturday last, two plays were read at the drama class. The first was " St. Simeon Stylites," by F. SladenSmith, a representative author of the new amateur movement. This play is written in a satirical vain and the setting is Eastern. The players were Mesdames Bridgman, Maden, Durie, Trevise, Begg and Misses Logan, Jackson, and Clancy, with Mrs Hunter as producer. The play was well produced, and praise must be given to the three new members on their first .class readings. The second play, "Legend," by Philip Johnson, is one of the prize plays of the National Festival of Community Drama organised by the British Drama League The story of the play is that of a woman who for 12 months lived with a fear that filled her rqind with dread and apprehension. The first play showed the power of habit, and the second how fear can become an obsession. The play was produced by Mrs M'Phail and read by the following member?:—Misses Bonnin and Edmonds, Mrs Jefferies, and Mr Bridgman. A group of class members also performed a well-acted play without words, which was produced by Mrs Koller. t ALDINGTON AND SITWELL. The concluding lectures given in Miss Johnson's section of the literature class programme dealt with the work of Richard Aldington and Osbert Sitwell. Miss Johnson gave an outline of Aldington's life, and the experiences which contributed towards his writings. She dealt particularly with his association with D. H. Lawrence, which seemed to lessen the bitterness apparent in Aldington's earlier works, particularly " Death of a Hero," which was published in 1929, during the boom of war-time novels. There followed a summary of his next work, " The Colonel's Daughter, 7 which depicts the influence the Great War had on the women of the country. In "All Men Are Enemies," probabiy his best book, he painted his ideal man and woman in an ideal relationship, and wrote passages of surpassing beauty. Aldington's ideas were, briefly, first that all Victorians were 6tupid, or at least hypocritical, and harmed the pre-war generation, second that the war generation gained a sense of comradeship from the Great War, but that the post-war generation was certainly not worth fighting for, and thirdly, and above all, that human beings should live complete lives. The following week, after a" brief survey of the lives and characters of the Sitwells, Miss Johnson gave two very complete and illuminating surveys of Oshert's two satires, "Miracle on Sinai," and " Before the Bombardment." In conclusion, she remarked that Osbert Sitwell's prose style must inspire anyone with admiration, while in poetry the Sitwells added vigour with their decorations, their study of texture, and their insistance on rhythm. Miss Johnson was thanked on behalf of the class by Mrs Wilson, the class secretary, for her course of extremely bright and interesting lectures.

On June 17, Mr C. R. Allen commenced his series of lectures to the literature class on Eastern influences on English poetry, dealing first with Thomas Moore. After Mr Allen had given an account of Moore's life, members of the class read portions of Moore's " Lalla Rookh r ". which includes the Poems "Paradise and the Peri" and " The Veiled Prophet."