THREE PLAYS

Southland Times, Issue 22041, 14 June 1933, Page 8

THREE PLAYS

WORKSHOP THEATRE A HIGH STANDARD, APPRECIATIVE AUDIENCE Last evening in the Orphans’ Hall the Workshop Theatre presented to the public three more plays. They were all of a serious nature and each called for difficult emotional characterization. The plays were well chosen and in the main well cast. This Dramatic Society is showing the results of careful teaching during two years. Much of the members’ work is reaching a high standard and is, therefore, worthy of serious criticism. It must be remembered that the stage is with them an avocation, and that they are handicapped to a degree by the limitations imposed by the hall. This forbids the erection of elaborate settings and apparently the quick handling of such settings as at present used. There was a satisfactory and appreciative audience. “The Man of Destiny.” The first offering was “The Man of Destiny” by G. B. Shaw. The scene is an inn in Northern Italy. Napoleon (Mr L. B. Hutton) awaits the coming of a despatch rider, but the Lieutenant (Mi- R. B. Giller) arrives having been deprived of his despatches in a rather improbable fashion by The Lady disguised (Mrs N. M. Macalister). The attempts to recover the despatches from The Lady by Napoleon and the Lieutenant and later the efforts of The Lady to regain from the despatches a certain highly compromising letter form ihe main action of the play. The letter endangers the honour of Josephine and it only slowly dawns on Napoleon that The Lady is astutely working in his interests. Mr Hutton made a realistic Napoleon, but was rather lacking in that air of authority which one would expect from the great general even at the age of twenty-seven. In some early passages there was a tendency to slur over words, but his response to the flattery of The Lady was well done, and one can forgive him much for his excellent speech on the English—a masterful piece of work. As The Lady, one of Shaw’s fine female characters, Mrs Macalister bore herself with dignity, even after two Imperial slaps on the back from Napoleon, and when pitting her wits against Napoleon’s was charmingly seductive and subtle. Her words were, as usual, spoken with faultless clarity, but her disguise as a young officer would have deceived no one. As the Lieutenant, Mr Giller in his first performance lacked the vitality of a dashing and breezy subaltern. However, he certainly caught the ingenuous freshness of the character and showed that innocent disrespect for the future Dictator as intended by Shaw. Mr Alley, the inn-keeper, was swarthy, obsequious, and cheerful, but could improve the characterization with a little more emphasis on the humorous and vivacious side of it. The presentation of this fine play was altogether quite effective and the points of Shaw’s dialogue were not lost by the audience. “The Symphony In Illusion.” “The Symphony in Illusion,” by J. W. Bell, is of unusual construction. The second scene is a play within a play and therein is found the most dramatic and emotional action. The author depicts the effects of the Great War on women and the play savours somewhat of a female “Journey’s End.” No men are in the cast. The curtain rises on a group of women preparing the stage for a rehearsal. Many differences of opinion arise as to the details of the setting, but last night this part of the dialogue was too hesitating and unnatural. When a party of women converse there are few pauses; when they quarrel there are none at all with the tempo very fast. This scene should therefore go with abandon. In the effective war-time scene depicting several over-wrought women sheltering during a bombardment some very fine acting was produced. The work of the scenic group, under Mr T. H. Jenkin, had produced a fine background and with the lighting effects made an artistic stage setting. Mrs A. T. McCaw as Mary, Mrs L. B. Hutton as the Wanton and Miss Ruby Sutton as the Old Woman all gave particularly well-drawn characterizations. In the third scene, when the players are dismantling the setting, Miss Mollie Macpherson and Mrs Hutton discourse philosophically on peace and war. More differences of opinion occur which leave them just as much “in the dark.” This part is rather an anti-climax, but serves to emphasize the point of the play. The first and third parts do not call for much histrionic ability and the players were seen to advantage in the tense moments of the actual war scene. The above-mentioned were well-supported by Miss R. Brookesmith, Miss L. F. Watson and Miss B. Hoyles. “The Distant Drum.” The final offering, “The Distant Drum,” was by Malcolm Harrison, one of the newer writers. The scene was in a bungalow on an island in the West Indies. Jim Anderson (Mr D. Deacon) has advertised for a wife, and Marjorie O’Neill (Miss Wynne Giller) has arrived from New York. Anderson’s mate, George Harnsley (Mr T. R. Pry de), endeavours, impelled by jealousy, to send back Marjorie on a ship leaving immediately in order to prevent the marriage arranged for the morrow. To forward his purpose he uses native superstition and the nervewracking effect of the tom-tom beating to terrify Marjorie. As the girl in the case, Miss Giller maintained well the diction of a girl from the lower society of New York. In the emotional scenes during the incessant beat of the distant drums she gave a very faithful representation of a woman breaking down under severe nervous strain, inspired by fear of the unknown. Mr Pryde sustained well the persistent goading that his part demanded, and was natural in his stage movements. A slight fault was the rather inflectionless tone of the voice. Mr Deacon, as the breezy young man about-to-be-married, caught the atmosphere. His stage bearing and gestures are as yet rather stiff and his dialogue is inclined to be unnatural. Mr J. T. Blampied was quite satisfactory as the native servant, especially in the announcement of the suicide of his master, bringing the tropical tragedy to a dramatic ending. The plays will be repeated to-night and to-morrow evening.

—By A.J.D.