On and Off the Stage

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20639, 30 January 1937, Page 14

On and Off the Stage

News About Plays and Players

A clever, sophisticated comedy, with an abundance of cynically brilliant dialogue, this first production on the part of a plucky young management won the heartiest possible reception at the Duke of York’s Theatre, wrote a critic of Archie N. Menzies’ “The Astonished Ostrich,” recently. It is not merely an affair of gay effrontery. It enshrines a character so tenderly drawn and acted with such truth and sympathy that one doubts if the rest of the play is not rather put to shame by it. This is evidently the author’s own intention—but the effect is sometimes a little dangerously like that of sweetened champagne.

The latest farce at the St. James’ Theatre, London, “O Mistress Mine,” was withdrawn after a run of nine nights (and 11 performances, including matinees). The cast was headed by the two celebrated Parisian stars, Mdlle. Yvonne Printemps (formerly the wife of M. Sacha Guitry) and M. Pierre Fresnay. It adds one more chapter to M. Fresnay’s already stormy life. During the war he went to the front and had a distinguished war record. After the war he became the youngest societaire that the Comedie Francaise had ever had. Later he quarrelled with the famous French National Theatre, broke his contract with it—and in return had to pay a record number of hundreds of thousands of francs as a fine.

Queen Victoria will certainly be seen on the West End stage in 1937, now that the ban on plays dealing with her life will be lifted after June 20, says the Western Mail, Cardiff. That will be the 100th anniversary of her accession to the throne. Two firms with the Queen as their heroine are already scheduled for production, and their release dates announced in Warbour Street. It is believed that a leading West End manager is about to take Hector Bolitho’s advice and invite Marie Tempest to appear on his stage as Queen Victoria, the journal adds In his recent biography of the great actress Bolitho declared that Marie Tempest had much in common with the Queen. Miss Tempest declared that fakes were the thing she most hated

in the world. “The Queen hated fakes, too,” says Mr Bolitho, “and she was like Marie Tempest, incapable of lying in word or thought. They were both strongly devoted to work, self assured where decisions and judgments were needed; yet behind this, as women, they were surprisingly humble.” Only once did they meet, and that was when Miss Tempest, the idolised star of Daly’s, used to drive in the park, to quote Bolitho, “with selfassurance at which one must smile. She once drove out into the road at Hyde Park Corner through the central arch, which was reserved for the Sovereign. Marie Tempest drove recklessly on under the forbidden arch. At that moment the Queen herself drove through from the other side. Miss Tempest drew in her reins and her horses rose on their hind legs. She stood in the carriage and made her curtsey. The Queen bowed, and the two carriages passed.”

When the time arrives to replace J. C. Williamson’s spectacular musical show “Wild Violets” at His Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, the Firm will produce for the first time in that city “Princess Charming,” a romance with music by Arthur Wimperis and Lauri Wylie. This play was produced in 1928 in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide but owing to various obstacles its production in Melbourne was postponed until now. In the original cast were Miss Kathryn Reece, an American actress; Olive Sloane, the well-known English actress who achieved such a success in “The Cradle Snatchers;” Reginald Dandy who afterwards became famous on the films as John Garrick; Cecil Kellaway, Peter Gawthome and Leslie Holland.

Very great difficulties were experienced in finding a cast for “Elektra,” which Dr Richard Strauss, the composer, and Sir Thomas Beecham considered to be adequate for the winter season of opera which opened at Covent Garden on Boxing night, December 26. It was decided, therefore, . i abandon the Strauss festival performance on January 11, at which both “Elektra” and “Salome” were to have been given. “Salome'’ was, however, presented that evening in German, precedented by Puccini’s "Gianni Schicchi.” The latter, which was given in Italian, was first produced at Covent Garden in 1924,' and revived in 1931 The title role of “Salome” brought to London for the first time Hildegarde Ranczak, a brilliant Czech singer from the Munich State Opera, who is also a dancer.

Of several outstanding personalities in Colonel de Basil’s Monte Carlo Russian Ballet, one that will attract a lot of attention when the company appears in New Zealand is 17-year-old Tamara Tchinarova, with her sleek black hair, her brown, pointed face, and flashing black eyes. She is an original member of the de Basil company of which she was the "baby” for several years. She is a pupil of the great Olga Preobrajonska. Another youthful dancer, Nina Youchkevitch, is the daughter of a well-known writer. She was “discovered” by Nijinski. One of the most note-worthy of the “babies” of the company is Sonia Woizlkowska, the daughter of the maltre de ballet, the leading male dancer, Leon Woizikowsky. With deeply tanned face, tawny eyes, and fair hair, she makes a striking figure.

Miss Winifred Lawson of the J. C. Williamson Ltd., Gilbert and Sullivan Company remained behind in Australia when the company sailed for New Zealand. She intends to do some sight-seeing in that country, and then to return to England. Her place in the company will be taken by Miss Strella Wilson. The firm has recently been discussing whether it will disband the Gilbert and Sullivan players after a time, or whether it will keep them going indefinitely Mr E. J. Tait favours the latter plan. He points out that the Savoy operas did more than anything else to pull the Williamson management through the financial depression; and that they continue to be a sure draw at the boxoffice. If the company is kept in existence after New Zealand, it may even be sent on a tour of India.

After a highly successful provincial tour, the Williamson company of Savoyards is now at Wellington, in a premiere performance of “The Gondoliers.” It is in this piece of Gilbertian wit that Strella Wilson returns in her original role of Casilda; Ivan Menzies has his old role of the Duke of Plaza Toro, and the Duchess on this present tour is played by Evelyn Hall, an Australian song bird who was last in New Zealand with the

J. C. W. Grand Opera Company. As well as the old favourites, the company is presenting “Ruddigore,” a not so well known Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration; the 50-year old comic opera “Paul Jones”; and “Lilac Time,” a musical romance with Franz Schubert as its motif. After Wellington, where the season ends on February 4. the company comes to Timaru on February 15 and 16.

A new dramatic group called the Vogue Theatre in Sydney has been formed. It will give a monthly season of three nights at the Australian Hall. The first production will be an Australian play called “Desire Brings Welcome,” by Kenn Brodziak. This month the theatre will present “Thia Thing Called Love;’’ in February, Barrie’s “Mary Rose,” with Miss Anne Gordon in the title role; and in March, “Petticoat Fever,” which was seen recently on the screen. Later on, an old melodrama called "The Drunkard,” which has successfully courted the laughter of contemporary audiences in New York, will be staged in all its rhetorical luxuriance. The Vogue Theatre will limit the number of its acting members. The directors hope that, when it becomes established, it will be able to play its actors on a repertory basis That is, everyone will receive the same salary, whether they have five lines or five thousand to say.

The beautiful Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, which was built in the Avenue Montaigne by the Perret brothers shortly before the war, is now being occupied for a few months by the Opera, which has moved on there from the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt until the alterations are completed in its own home. One could wish, says a London writer, that the occupation were to be permanent, for the house is certainly more graceful and distinguished than Garnier’s florid and ponderous Second Empire building. The chaste simplicity of its architectural merits were far from being generally appreciated, however, when the theatre was first opened in March, 1913. It was contemptuously described as “grecomunichois,” and the only merit that could be found for it was that everyone in the audience could be seen by everyone else. Nevertheless, after having been relatively a failure as a privately managed opera house, it passed through a brilliant period of success later in the same year, when Diaghiley’s Russian ballet first burst upon Western Strope from its ; stage.