WHAT I WANT TO SEE AT THE THEATRE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19824, 16 December 1919, Page 7

WHAT I WANT TO SEE AT THE THEATRE.

1 do not appreciate soppy sentiment on tho stage, but 1 do like a good piny with love- Hie principal theme. I want it to be a well-dressed play, showing mo smart frocks of the latest vogue, an) I want a young hero and a heroine still younger. Put me into n comfortable scat (stalls for preference), ply me with a box of chocolates large enough to last the afternoon, let there be sweet music for me between tho acts and a dainty tea. after tho second, and the spectacle I shall present under those conditions will bo that of n thoroughly happy middle-aged femininity.

Until this moment nothing would have induced mo to remark that during the war I have had some difficulty in finding what I want to sec at’tho theatres. Abounding musical comedy was just what the hoys needed then, and I enjoyed their pleasure in it, revelling in their fleeting smiles and darling laughter. But if tho truth may now be told, it left me rather cold.

I am by no means a superior person, bur. I do want to see and bear something more when I go to a theatre than row after row of pretty young things, albeit eliannindv garbed', singing indillerontly well indifferent music m a play that never seems to tell a coherent story but is a vague hotchpotch of topical allusions strung together to provide a couple of hours’ amusement.

Nor do 1. want the exact opposite of This kind of show, tho problem play which used to plunge us into a state of dmo perplexity and leave us there rarely exhibiting pretty clothes or condescending to music, oven between the act,!. During the war we were pgrforcc deserted by the accustomed hero of romance, young, gallant and dashing. So wo learned to appreciate sincerely the middle-aged man and to sympathise with Iris predicaments as they were portrayed in charming plays like The Law Divine.” For _my own part, I never want to lose sight of him again, this person whom ono grew to know and love for his thoroughly human foibles and bis amiable conduct. He has been placed in my estimation almost on a par with the returned heroes on wlio.se behalf ho will no doubt now abdicate bis former position. For I scarcely think that even I, who dearly love a lover, will want finite the kind of love lie used to portrav. There must be nothing mawkish in it. He must be. the hero who grips, not the one who languishes. For this rea-i-oii T want to see him grafted upon another kind of play in which 1 find a special and very particular kind of enjoymont—the “crook” plav. I like to witness love’s voim* dream because mine is over ; T 'want' to see lovely frocks because I ean'r huv (hem. I yearn to go to “crook” plays because they sharpen my wits and have plenty of incident in iliem. , 3X!!? 1 . 1 T remember such successes as TTnhm the Law” and “On Trial" T pauo for repetitions of excitement- as enthralling. -The “ Daily Mail.”