THE CHALLENGE TO FASCISM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23365, 3 December 1937, Page 13

THE CHALLENGE TO FASCISM

LITTLE THEATRE'S TOPICAL PLAYS Those who believe that in this politically-minded age the drama should be more than an entertainment medium will have a special interest in the Dunedin Little Theatre’s presentation next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of a bracket of plays by Clifford Odets—“ Till the Day I Die” and “Waiting For Lefty,” Both these plays, one set in Nazi Germany, the other in New York, reveal an awareness of the challenge implicit in such varying forms of political ideology as Fascism and Communism, and a strong indictment is provided of that form of extremism exemplified in Nazism in the Reich, and of Union dictatorship under the control of the gunman, which may be discovered in the United States. But the Little Theatre Society emphasises that, above all, these offerings are superb drama. Mr Odets, who is one of the younger of the American playwrights, proves himself in them an author with the power,- as old as the theatre itself, to extract the utmost in dramatic values from his material, and the original and unusual method of presentation of the plays adds to their stark and impressive effect. In “ Waiting for Lefty ” the members of the audience become in a sense participants in the events which are being enacted, though the association is not such as to. cause them embarrassment or discomfort, The scene in principal is a meeting of taxi-drivers in New York, and the urgent question facing those present is the action to be taken to redress troubles caused by the perfidy of the union leaders and a lack of employment. Ingenious treatment enables the large cast necessary for the presentation of “ Waiting for Lefty ” to be handled with the greatest effect without crowding, and serves to provide unusual and varied opportunities to individual players to prove their ability. , , The brusque and brutal methods of the Nazi State in dealing with its “ enemies ” —the upholders of the old-fashioned democratic ideal —are the subject of intensely dramatic treatment in the other play by Clifford Odets, “Till the Day I Die,” which is bracketed with “ Waiting for Lefty.” “ Till the Day I Die ” is a human document which offers extraordinary opportunities to cast and producer, and it is claimed that the Little Theatre has utilised resources with striking effect in this moving work. The box plans are now open at the D.I.C.