MUSIC AND DRAMA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CIV, Issue 15979, 3 June 1916, Page 3

MUSIC AND DRAMA.

Harry Lupino, the pantomime favourite who was such a success in Australia, under the J. C. Williamson management, is in the cast oi' tile big production o-f "Jiobinson Crusoe, Jun.," in New York. It is rather a curioius coincidence that in the same production sue the Throe JUibes, wJio appeared in Australia with Mr. Lupino in "The Forty Thieves." In "IJohinson Crusoe, Jun." they aro billed under their own names, of Bowers, Crocket, and Walters.

Italian Futurists solemnly commomo-. rated last night the glorious death in battle of the Futurist poet, Ugo Caitucci, who fell on the Carso, after being decorated witli the Medal of Honour (write:; the Milan correspondent of ''London Chronicle" on 23rd Marcii). At the outset of Italy's war with Austria, Signor Marinotti, the founder of Futurism, and nearly all the leading spirits in the movement not otherwise called to arms, forthwith enlisted in a Volunteer Cyclists' Corps, in which they continued their service on the Trentino front till General Cadoraa finally disbanded the corps last November. Signor Marinetti and his followers are now daily expecting receipt of their commissions as -officers. Pending their second departure for the front, they arc busy popularising the latest thing in Futurism, known as the Synthetic Theatre. Fourteen dramas of concentrated impressionism, shorn of conventional technique, were played last evening to a crowded house. The most successful comedy was one wherein there were no human actors, but only a clog: this piece being closely run by' another in which only the legs of the players appeared behind a half-raised curtain.

Mr. J. Rankin Towers, who lias been writing for the New York "Saturday Magazine" a series-of articles dealing with sixty years of the theatre, deplores the fact that the high imaginative drama, tragic or romantic, lias virtually disappeared, nor because the public will have none of it—for occasionally revivals of it ate eagerly attended —but for the lack of competent interpreters. "To-day," ho adds, "there are not on the American stage half-a-dozen players, male or female, who could bear the test of comparison with any one of fifty wlio were flourishing thirty or forty years ago. Of great .actors there is not one. The best we have, in almost every department of drama—musical comedy and wild farce, of course, are not included in that category—are survivors of a past generation. Stars there are in plenty, but only two or three of them could by any stretch of courtesy be called first-rate actors. Most of them are specialists in the art of self-reproduction, and, thorciore, utterly unprogressive. The name of the new performers is legion, but the number of them who exhibit signs of brilliant promise is woefully small. In all the arts of production—in painting, lighting machinery, and spectacle even m play-writing—the stage is making progress, but the nice of competent ?vt ors i JS tlu ' caten «l with extinction. Why this is so is no mystery. It is too inevitable result, long" ago' foreseen and foretold, of the prevailing sv.stem of purely commercial management (hat has obliterated the old stock companies (not the modern affairs of two performances daily and a fresh play every week, which are a. great deaf worse than useless) which were the onlv practical .schools of acting, abolished competition, provided endless circuits fc-worth-ess plays, and manufactured •stars at will by the process of advertisements. '•'

" It is a profound mistake to think that most of the young men and women leave the country for the town because of the difference in wages: it is because the town off ere more amusement, .therefore, I believe, although 1 may shock many of my friends whoso good opinion I would wish to preserve, that the cinema introduced into our villages has been an excellent social improvement/—Lord Selborno, Minister of Agriculture,, in a speech at the Mansion Jlouse.

There i* ad-stinet falling off in tlio buying of official war films.' Tho average saJooi'thc latest and perhaps the best scries is down bv ten copies. In .spite or the. fact that exhibitors can now hire tho first set of pictures issued for as low a price as 7s 6d for three nights (says a. London paper}, hundreds or thousands of people going to picture theatres have been denied tho privilege of seeing these official war films.

The German picture theatres appear I to be having ns successful a time as our own (writes "The Projector" in 'lxmdon "Daily Mail.") Just now the programmes are particularly strong in big pictures, and an effort "is being made to popularise ringing pictures, of which we. know something in this country. In tho Union Theatre of Ijorlin. Wagner's '• Lohengrin " has been screened,' with some first-class opera, singers in the principal roles. In each scene the director of. the German Landstheater is seen directing the opera., the singers being .seated in a darkened room at the side o! the .stage. The experiment dors not appear to have been a- success, for Berliner* know too well the voices of the singers shown in the picture to lie satisfied with the .substitutes. "Loheh, grin," with its long acts, tired tho spectators, who could not reconcile, a. long pose with the usual action in a moving picture. One producer has turned out a. very popular fihn, "The Great Pet,'' which depicts life as he expects it to be in 2000 A.D. By tho aid of technical and mechanical contrivances lie shows, an air line cab service, iiirnitnro which moves on the pressing of a button, books which come out of the shelves at command, and an extraordinary automatic figure which behaves like a human being. The Germans are already talking about this picture as representing a. new school of production.

Mr. Pliilip Xewbury, the tenor, intends beginning early in June a series of shilling popular concerts at iho Sydney Town Hall.

I wo singers well known to vaudeville audiences, Miss Cissie O'Koeie and her brother Clifford, arc- now equipping themselves wills a classical and operatic repertoire in Australia under Mr. Roland Foster, who considers them likely to have a successful career <in the Knglish stage and concert, platform in duo season. Another probable candidate for London honours is Mis.s Ro=a Alba, a. young coloratura .soprano, who recently gained one of the Conservatorium teholnrships.

The I'ink Dandies are to four New Zealand shortly. The company will include the Fitzgerald Sisters, Ford W.il'cham. Joseph Brennau, BeriYam Watson. John Campbell, Ida Newton, and .Marshal! Lawrence. Mr Leo. I). Chateau will be the business manage:-.

('•. M. Anderson, the popular Broncho Hilly of the lilms, has resigned from the Ei.sanay firm after being connected with that well-known organisation since its inception in 190 C. '•Richard III." is being produced by .Mr. George Marlow at the Sydney Adelphia Theatre. It was last" produced in Sydney at the old Royal Standard Theatre (now the. Tattle Theatre) by the late Ceorgc Milne, i.bout 'J 7 yea;-- :vyo.