ANOTHER TRIUMPH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23577, 13 August 1938, Page 16

ANOTHER TRIUMPH

RUTH DRAPER ACCLAIMED DUNEDiN HONOURS HER GENIUS The receptions given to Miss Ruth Draper on Thursday and last evening must surely constitute two of the outstanding triumphs of the stage history of Dunedin. The success of this amazing entertainer's first programme was great, but it was eclipsed last evening. His Majesty's Theatre could not accommodate nearly all of those who sought admission, and the many turned away were unfortunate. The audience comprised a brilliant social gathering, and it was apparent before the curtain went up that it was wholeheartedly " with " Miss Draper. It took only a very short time to confirm that impression. Her unfamiliar art and her command of it will be a topic of conversation for a long time, and certainly it will never be forgotten by those who came under its spell. It has been an experience.

From the happy little speech of Miss Draper after she had responded to an. ovation and added another sketch to her programme, she, too, will not soon forget her visit to Dunedin. She thanked her audience foi the understanding it had shown her She made strong demands on her listeners, she admitted. They, as well as she, had to use their brains but wasn't it good for people to have to use their brains sometimes to get the most out of their entertainment? Miss Draper said she regretted exceedingly that her Dunedin season had been limited to two nights, and that her performances here would remain among her happiest memories. It was a sincere and appealing good-bye. Last evening's programme introduced new and equally captivating examples of her creative art. Again she peopled the stage with dozens of characters, lovable, tiresome if taken in too big doses in real life, perhaps merely amusing, but always fascinating. They crowded about her, none the less realistic because they were unseen, as she welcomed guests to her country home, showed them her garden and made excuses for her beloved blooms —a cameo that has its. counterpart daily the world over—received a spasmodic Italian lesson, enjoyed a really sensible discussion at afternoon tea (the subject was doctors), or played the poignant role of a Dalmatian wife inquiring for her husband in the hall of a New York hospital. The Italian lesson, taken from Dante—"so divine! " —with the help of a tutor and the discussion on the ways of doctors and the ills of civilised mankind were delightful satire. Miss Draper seemed to be at her happiest drawing these rather cynical portraits, but there is that quality in her mockery that can never allow its bite to be more severe than the fall experienced by a friend of one huntin' character in the house party sketch, " really nothin' serious, y'know," although the number of injuries absorbed was rather alarming. These particular fcaets fairly bubbled over with social comedy.

The interlude in the New York hospital hall was a brilliant contrast, and to many the etching of the young wife and mother, a stranger in a strange land, almost penniless and looking for a husband who had been injured and taken to hospital without her knowledge represented her best work of the evening. The girl in the railway station of the western plains, too, was a dramatic character that was magnificently drawn. The craftsmanship of all this work is something to wonder at, but while Miss Draper and her invisible associates are . filling the stage the mechanics of her art simply do not come into one's head. And that is about as good a definition of perfection in art as could be desired.