ENGLISH THEATRES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17909, 13 October 1932, Page 10

ENGLISH THEATRES

AuTiitoft Activity COWAkiJ’S ‘WORDS AND MUSIC’ DIYERTINGLY SATIRICAL REVUE LONDON, August. 23. Shaking off their summer somnolence, English theatres .have burst into autumnal activity with half a dozen new plays. Unfortunately only two or three can be said to rdaeh a standard entitling them to be called serious contributors to the drama. The rest are the kind that London theatrical managers consider good enough for the provincial hoiiday-mstkor’s annual visit. Among the welcome exceptions is the new revue “VYords and Music,” by Noel Coward, the youthful genius whose every theatrical venture nowadays turns to gold. This time he has produced something much finer, than the ordinary hotch-potch revue, an entertainment which lias a leading motive and a dramatic continuity from start to finish. At the same time it is full of irresistible fhh. SATIRISES EVERYTHING. ‘ f Words and' Music ’ ’ thing fsQm the British .bb.Brdjh&-h<WJSO to the films, from the sensational newspapers to the ‘ ‘ sahibs’ ’ in India... ; ;Ono scene, for example, shows an ultraeophisticated modern nursery where (children discuss their “ complexes ”

and “monkey glands”, as methods of rejuvenation while they play . with doll houses and rocking horses. Another assails tile “'Bright Young Things” of British Society to whose doings the London press gives nil altogether inordinate amount .of space at times. '“The children of the Ritz,” as the author calls them, (hitl about aimlessly in sea'rch of “something new,” some fresh distraction, “vaguely debonair, only half -aware” as one lyric puts it. Then there is a chorus of “sahibs” in an Indian scene, .all comically declaiming in mock-heroics that “no matter how much we sosszlc an<l souse, the sun never sets on Government House.” The eccentricities of the responsible newspapers l get a Severe handling. The'man who crossed one of the English lakes in a tub made of iiulia rubber and the oldest postmistress who “with memories of Disraeli, still delivered letters daily,” • furnish an amusing skit on what i editors think the public wants. The adoration of five film “fans” ranging from a society woman to a domestic servant, for a film star gives an easy opportunity to ridicule the present-day mania for film notoriety. And. one of the, funniest episodes in the whole revue is a sketch of a pawnbroker’s daughter who has married .a peer and muses on life’s Strangeness while seated in her luxurious autoriiobile on the way, t;o tiiu Royal Court. “Words and Music’’ was produced in Manchester, consequently Loiidon docp .not yet .know of its existence —in the newspaper hoiise, at least.

The London critics, in accordance with a somewhat absurd custom take no notice of such events unless they happen in the metropolis—a fact which irritates' provincial cities riot a little. B UNG A 111 AN ADAPTION. Gladys Cooper has appeared to the gratification of her worshippers in a new Hungarian adaption mysteriously called “Firebird.” She lakes the part of! Caro hi, the wife of a former Cabinet Minister. Stic idolises her daughter of 10. in tile prologue she is shown with a young actor who makes violent "love to her and when the curtain goes up on the first act this actor is found shot dead in his own Hat. Who did the deed? ft is not an ordinary .'detectivc-aud-crimc play but something more dramatic. 4 Carola fearing her daughter’s guilt takes it on herself to, confess to the murder; ail'd her husband after a rather emotional scene in which lie learns that, the actor, was his wife’s lover, hands her over to the police. Enter the police commissioner who quickly ‘discovers, that the wife could not have been the criminal she says she is. Who then is guilty? And so it. comes out that the daughter is responsible. The daughter makes no bones about it. Bite flatly admits that she made advances to the actor herself, that she invited herself to his rooms and lived with hint, lie did net get, tired of her, but she got tired of him. And tfyen when for respectability’s sake lie wanted to marry her — “for the sake of the publicity’.’ she

said scornfully—there was a fierce quarrel, a fight and an accidental shot from a revolver. I The daughter goes off to prison j sure of a light sentence at the worst and the husband and wife are reconciled. i Xot by any means a great play. ' but tin interesting one. Its defect seemed to be that it substituted the ordinary suspense of the plot for tho far more artistic suspense of phychology that was to -be found in the character of the daughter, a girl . rather on Shavian lines. i Marie Tempest has appeared in a new production of the lighter sort J in which her admirers prefer her. “To-morrow Will Be Friday’’ is a typical society comedy of a kind that succeeds only in. London —if there.