FOUNDING DRAMA

Southland Times, Issue 21848, 27 October 1932, Page 6

FOUNDING DRAMA

FOUR SOUTHLAND PLAYS. WORKSHOP THEATRE TO-NIGHT. Unusual interest attends the final season of the Workshop Theatre for 1932. For this programme, which begins at the Orphans’ Hall this evening, the Workshop Theatre has prepared four plays written in Southland. For the first time the province is to see four one-act plays by Southland writers and it is confidently expected that the public will be surprised by the quality of the works. “The Gate Opens” by Jessie Noble Aitken is a play set on a New Zealand farm and deals with the struggle of a young man whose eyes have been opened to beauty. It is the revolt of the artist against the humdrum life on the land. The cast includes Mrs N. C. Macalister, Miss Wynne Giller, Messrs T. R. Pryde, A. R. Dunlop and W. Buchan. “Some Can’t Stick” by Lionel C. Grindlay has a touch of fantasy. The play is built round a young composer’s struggle to hold to his music against the call of the comforts of life. The cast includes: Misses Mary Strang, Julie Snow, Ruby Sutton, and Messrs Alan Gilkison and P. T. Alley. “The Little Man” is written round the tragedy of human deformity and the cast for this play includes Misses S. I. Aitken, Mona Muir and Mary Webb and Mr T. A. Clarke. In “A Gentleman’s Gentleman,” a brief light comedy, the perfect butler, who foresees everything, is placed in contrast with the imperfect man. This playlet, like “The Little Man,” is by J. J. W. Pollard and the cast is Messrs A. R. Grenfell and J. Fraser. The scenery for these plays has been prepared by the Scenic Group under Mr T. H. Jenkin. A season of three nights will be played, and the box plan is now open at the Bristol, where photographs of the scenery, kindly executed by Mr P. C. Hazledine, are on view.