Anti-War Play

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 30

Anti-War Play

Muriel Starr Has Success in Sydney Not until 10 years after the war i a over has the anti-war play come t m * its own, says a Sydney paper. Muriel Starr and company presented Channing Pollock’s “The Enemy” a , the Palace Theatre. Sydney, recently

with great success. Seutimeuts which in war time were treasonable or. at any rate, punishable under the War Precautions Act, sounded reasonable enough in times of peace. The sentiments of the play— pacifist and patriotic—sound none the less familiar because the author has made most of his characters Austrians. The profiteering patriot, the pacifist professor, and the women who finally sicken of the sound of drums and trumpets, might belong to any nation. Sermons are not acceptable to every, one, but “The Enemy” is a powerful play. The honours went to the women— Muriel Starr and Nancye Stewart—whose husbands faced the horrors of the trenches while those at home appreached starvation in Vienna. The pacifist professor was ably played by W. Layne-Bayliffe. Mayne Lyntor gave a fine character study as the old patriot who was not above speculatng in grain and currency, and Lou Vernon, Cecil Perry. Reginald Newsoit and Lucy Adair were the other Austrians. John Barry was the young Englishman in Vienna who found that patriotism meant more than friendship when the war came.