COMMUNITY DRAMA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18651, 21 August 1930, Page 10

COMMUNITY DRAMA.

THIRD NIGHT OF FOURTH ANNUAL FESTIVAL.

Sustained interest in community drama was evidenced last night in the generous patronage accorded the South Canterbury Drama League on the third night ol the fourth annual festival. The programme provided for the production of four one-act plays, the presentation of which revealed no small measure of histrionic ability. Having its cultural home in the Little Playhouse, the South Canterbury Drama League has a trinity of objectives—the study and the production of drama, and play-writing. The annual festival of the League opens up a field for the production of plays, and the one-act play writing competition offers an inducement to writers to furnish the League with a number of original plays. Already a dozen entries have been received. It is regrettable that the winning play of the competition could not have been presented at this year’s festival. The League ought to provide a generous leavening of original plays in ■ the programme of the annual festival. It should be the incentive to all players to aim at doing fresh and original work. An original play, even if not quite so good as a well-known play, might be chosen by the more experienced players, for by doing original works, amateurs can contribute some- ! thing original to drama in playing, ] staging, and in the plays themselves. Nevertheless the variety of plays presented during the festival has carried considerable educational value, and ought to assist prospective play-writers in no small measure to see the essential qualities which make for success in one-act plays; particularly in the case of budding dramatists who begin their plays (as most do) with a pen and without any more stage experience than may be gleaned from an enthusiastic life in the auditorium. The lessons learned from the festival enforce the conviction that one act plays should be short; that is almost the I only essential condition. Half an hour or so is all the time the dramatist has in which to say whatever he has to say. In such short time he must make a definite choice. There is hardly ! time to develop both story and character. The work of the players during the festival has demonstrated that the choice has to be made at the outset, between a play of action and a play of ideas, and leading professional dramatists have no hesitation in saying that in a play of half an hour or so, there is no time to develop a plot or action. The action has barely time to get going when it is forced to come to a conclusion. One act plays, therefore (so say the players who are also playwrights), ought rather to aim at expressing one idea well —presenting character —and should never attempt | to fix the main interest on action. The | budding playwright may have a smooth well-written dialogue, a theme that inspires the writer and is worth while in the play, a fine cast and a fine audience, but yet the play may fail. "People will forget one act plays,” said ] Mr Cedric Hardwicke of “Applesauce” ! fame, recently, “unless they are made 1 to start with a bang and finish with a bang, as in a race, the sprint at the 1 end is more important than any ] thing else.” One of the general defects I of the work of the players at the festival Is the slow-moving action, and the tendency to drag which marks nearly every production. The infer- ! ence is, of course, irresistible. At the ’ beginning of one act plays, there Is 1 no time for a slow opening up of the | . .sme; the audience must be thrown at once into the full action of the play. 1 Moreover, in the judgment of many leading producers, comedy Is more acceptable than tragedy. Experience has shown during the festival the soundness of the advice of the critics who say that any amount of thought ought to be given to the last curtain — it may make or spoil a good play; and not more than three or four is the most acceptable number of characters. The plays presented last night afforded a rare study in contrasts, revealing at once the wide range open to amateur players. “Gentian" by M. Pierrepoint, is the title of the play having for its theme a rather thin story presented by the St. Andrews Dramatic Club. The scene represent the kitchen of a cottage in a country village. Alfred Toilet, an aged man, is in ill-health, and his indisposition causes his wife and friends much anxiety as he refuses to see a doctor. However, he is treated surreptitiously by his wife at the instigation of her sister, Hannah, with gentian, an extra bitter herb. Although there was a lack of pace in the presentation of this play, the players created suitable atmosphere, and there was a distinctly rural flavour pervading the humble kitchen. The sick farmer and his tremulous wife, though somewhat too youthful looking In their make-up, presented a very creditable interpretation of the play, and there were one or two very bright spots in the production. The friendly neighbours did well in the minor parts. The Young Women’s Christian Association Business Girls’ Club presented "Brother Juniper” from “The Little Plays of St. Francis” by Laurence Housman. These plays contair a dramatic cycle of the life and legenc of St. Francis of Assisi and his fol-

lowers. In this particular one the scene is the room used as the Chapter House of the Monastery of the Order of the “Little Poor Folk.” Brother Juniper, the fool with the loving heart, deals with a situation not generally the lot of the Brothers to meet, and Father Francis by his wise understanding, finds comfort for the troubled hearts that await him on his return to the Monastery. When the Community had grown to house several hundreds of Brothers, St. Francis, feeling that he lacked the necessary gifts, gave up the leadership and in the second scene we see Brother Juniper arraigned before the Prior at a Chapter meeting.

He is called upon to answer for the effects his “foolishness" has had on the life of the Community. Again Father Francis brings healing, and in a most original way sets Brother Juniper at rights with himself. It is not easy for girls to play male parts, but as the good Brothers of a noble Order, the players in this little fragment of

the play of St. Francis, made a wonderfully good impression. All the players caught the spirit of the play. Brother Juniper surging in a whirlpool of conflicting emotions, gave a studied interpretation of an exacting role. The Prior of the Chapter was at once kind-hearted and yet judicial when occasion demanded, while the good Father Francis administered, not good advice, but the healing balm of 1 kind words. The little Sister of Charity emblematical of the Order played a ■ minor part effectively, while the community of Brothers, spoke their lines distinctly and moved In well-arranged groups with quiet dignity. It was a * very creditable presentation of a theme with a message. Under the title of “The Last Man ( In” by W. B. Maxwell, the Pleasant Point W.E.A. “A" team presented yet ; another version of the Return of the Prodigal Son. The scene of the play is laid in the sitting room behind the , bar of Judd’s Inn. In this play, so full of dramatic incidents leading up to the climax, the outstanding feature was the finished acting of the Last Man In. The opening stages of the play, set in the every day atmosphere of the little drinking shop, provided a sharp contrast to the moments heavy with tragedy that were speeding on. The innkeeper and his wife made a typical pair of homely provincials, who dreaded any semblance of a scene, and they played their parts very well. The Last Man In, who had some difficulty persuading the incredulous pair that he was really their long lost son, instantly brought into the peaceful atmosphere suggestions lowering of a tragedy. His future movements, his piercing restless eyes and gestures of dispair, were but the fitful flashes of the violent storm of vengeance and murderous passion that was the rack the deranged mind is—a sleep that was to reveal to the distraught mother the secret that was so soon to be hidden in death. It was a masterly piece of dramatic work, that at the final curtain earned the sustained applause of the audience. I In the comedy “How He Lied to Her Husband,” presented by the Catholic Dramatic Club “B” team, Mr George Bernard Shaw gives a sample of what can be done with even the most hackneyed stage framework by filling it in with an observed touch of actual humanity, instead of doctrinaire romanticism. One of the chief motives of the work of Mr Shaw is the desire to ridicule romanticism, which makes the playlet—which would otherwise be a bright dramatic joke—a kind of symbol of Mr Shaw's aims and purpose. The romantic convention is that a poet should be pale and anaemic but in this case the young poet Henry is a burly prize fighter. The romantic convention is that husbands should be jealous of admirers of their wives, but , Mr r ipas, on the contrary, gets really moyed when Henry pretends that he has no real affection for Mrs Bompas. The whole play shows the theme of the romantic triangle topsyturvy. The scene is in the drawing room of Mrs Bompas’s flat in Cromwell Road, Kensington, at 8 o’clock in the ■ evening. This was one of the most finished presentations that has so far come before the people attending the festival. The play was artistically and ; tastefully mounted, and well dressed. Save only for minor deficiencies of i stagecraft, which might, after all, be j a matter of opinion, the players set a : very high standard indeed. There i was no tendency to drag, on the contrary, there were moments when the eloquence of pausation might have . been most effectively used. The lines ; were spoken with delightful distinctI ness, and there was little evidence that ■ artificiality which sometimes comes i with too brightly polished elocution. . Henry Apjohn was rather mature in L his Ideas for a youth of 18 years, but . that is the playwright’s doings. The ' role was well-sustained, with a quiet t confidence that made for effect. Mrs . Bompas, the charming Aurora, who , appealed so mightily to the poet was portrayed with gace and polish. No ; dialogue reached a high plane, the ; play at times upon the lower register ; of the voice adding wonderfully to the 3 quality of the presentation. The part , of Bompas was somewhat stodgily i played, but after all, that was probably the idea of the author, who desired 5 him to be a marked contrast to his - brilliant rival. s The orchestra under Mr Donald Part kin presented the following numbers L In the intervals between the plays:— - Overture, De Jaune (Parkin); “The e Cingalese” (Monckton); "Melodious 3 i Memories” (Finck); and other lighter c 1 numbers. - ] After the last play, the adjudicator, k Miss Kiore King offered some useful h I comment on the plays that had been v presented. e The festival will be concluded to■e night, when four plays will be presentn ed: “A Corner in Dreams," by Vera I. - Arlett, the Pleasant Point W.E.A. “B” team; “The Master of the House" by j- Stanley Houghton, the Timaru W.E.A., !- “The Patchwork Quilt,” by Rachel ie Lyman Field, the Timaru High School > Old Girls’ Dramatic Club; “Half an n Hour,” by Sir James Barrie, the Wald lingford Players. 1- The adjudicator, Miss Kiore King,

will announce her decision at the close of the performance, and comment on the work of the players who have taken part during the festival.