CINEMA AND THEATRE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3823, 19 October 1936, Page 2

CINEMA AND THEATRE

EFFECT ON MODERN DRAMA. ‘'The cinema has to a large extent relieved the theatre of consciously trashy melodrama and farce,” writes Mr S. R. Littlewood in “An Anthology of Modern Drama.” “The radio has helped to encourage and popularise the best work of the stage. Few plays are produced in these days without being believed in for their own sake. The rebirth of drama' through our repertory and experimental theatres and amateur societies tells of an enthusiasm too vital to be suppressed. Apart from the impact of the Great War, and the curiously late arrival of its destined classics on the stage, I have been especially struck by the revival of historical romance and sentimental comedy. Both are treated more intimately than of old. The use of current vernacular speech for characters of any period or place has had an important effect. It goes back, of course, to Shakespeare himself, in his prose dialogue, and to the miracle plays before him.”