THE STAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16573, 4 November 1921, Page 6

THE STAGE.

NEWS AND MOTES. (By “THE LIMELIGHT MAN.”) During her New* Zealand tour Annette Kellerman will present a very wide I range of features, her own act embracing singing, story teliyig. wire : walking, and diving. Her amazing aquatic act takes place iq, a gigantic crystal tank. This entertainment, which concluded her performance, created furores in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. Accompanying Miss Kellerman is a strong company, including Stuart Barnes (monologuist). Speaking of Mr Wilkie Bard, th© famous English comedian, who will shortly open a season in Christchurch with his specially selected vaudeville company, the Sydney “ Daily Telegraph ” says:-—He is delightful, compelling, unique. His work endears by its honesty and sweetness and truth. Every word and gesture holds some seed of honest laughter- Every song is a tale told perfectly and driven right home. There is never a dull moment when Mr Bard is oia the stage, and his maguetism is remarkable although his I humour is natural and spontaneous as sunlight. Ho is one of the few comedians of genius now alive. He is in a class by himself. Mr John Wallace, who can claim to be the oldest comedian on the active list, and who is to he given a benefit in Sydney on November 9, is not known to the present generation of playgoers. He was born in 1841, and playgoers of the 80’s-will remember him as Bambini in “ La. Filie du Tambour Major,” and as Lotterinehi the drunken cooper in “ Bocaccio.” For many years he was associated with Williamson and Musgrove productions. Leonard Nelson, the popular Fuller comedian, tells a good one against himself. One evening after lie had sung his fifth song the audience was calling for him to sing “ Mr Booze,” and Leonard, feeling flattered at his big reception, made a little speech, in which he said: “Ladies and Gentlemen, —T thank you for this very flattering reception, and I would like to say that I am only too pleased at all times to do anything the audience want me to.” Then a shrill voice from the back shouted: “Well, get off!” And, of course, Leonard had to. Mr Frank Rigo has not abandoned his belief that permanent opergi in Australia and in New Zealand may be made a payable proposition. “The talent,” he tells the Sydney “ Daily Telegraph,” *’*' with the exception of a few principals. is here at your very doors, as I have proved during my highly successful experience in association with the J. C. Williamson firm. finch a company as I would organise would play around Australasia nine months in the year, leaving three months for reorganisations and proper rehearsals for rtew productions.” Mr Rigo submits financial details, based upon his own Australian enterprise. His scheme does not entail a big call on capital, and if a few leading people are prepared to endorse th© enterprise he has no doubt that a start can be made in the near future. At the first night production of “ The Sign on the Door ’’ at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, a. girl in the gallery, carried away by the thrilling realism of tile big seen© in the play, shrieked. Far from raising a laugh, the shriek added still more to the effect, and made even more exciting what has been described as one of the most enthralling situations any drama has ever shown in Australia. Strange to say, a similar incident occurred at the first night production of the drama in London recently. Tri its notice of the production .of this piece the London “Standard” said:—“ln ‘ The Sign on the Door ’ last night we saw a play as technically faultless as anything that Sardou made. It was written in good, r.ervous English, with many a line of shrewd wit- Not for a long time have we seen so convincing a play of its kind. It gripped all the wav through, and came to an end amidst tremendous •pplause from an audience worked up tc tbe highest pitch of excitement.” Australia seems to make ru strong appeal to theatrical people who visit that country. Minnie Everett, the J. C. Williamson, Ltd. ballet mistress, who has been gathering material for the firm’s “ Babes in the Wood” pantomime in England, America, and on the Continent, writes from New York “ Whichever way I turn, I meet artists wfio have been with us in Australia and who want to come back. They have the happiest recollections of their stay m Australia, and as regards working conditions, pay, and social standing, they consider that Australia is the best country of all. Theatrical artists archaving a very bad time in England and America at present, and the terrible depression looks as if it is o-oino- to last. Incidentally, I might* mention that the people who are coming out for the firm’s pantomime are fine The principal boy, Norah Dclany (Lady Maxwell) is n dream of loveliness. Australians will love her. The Dame, Jack Williams, too, is great. I saw him in a comedy sketch and laughed so much that I waq nearly put out of th© theatre.” An open air drama, theatre for Sydney is on the road to realisation (says a Sydney paper). For many months past Brisbane has had its open air theatre, where mixed entertainments have been provided, and where Mr J. N. M’Callum. the enterprising proprietor, w 11 shortly produce a selection of light comedies under the stag© direction^of Mr Robert Greig. The well-known melodrama manager. Mr William Andcrfon. is busy seeking a. suitable location in Sydney at which to run an open air dramatic season during the summer months. The experiment will no doubt prove a success. If audiences can be i induced—as they ce-tninlv are to i crowd into the old-fashioned playhouses I during the hottest/ months of the year ' —and overseas visitors never cease to wonder at the fact—it should ’>ot b© difficult to coax them into a cool, open am auditor turn. Tn this connection it is most interesting to note that even London during its recent hot season had its al fresco plays, which, by all accounts, were very greatly enjoyed. The performances were organised by a go ahead socictv called the League of Arts, and included standard operas and dramatic pieces in Hyde Park, the most frequented of open spaces in the metropolis. Hie movement was such a. success that it is to be continued in other directions. Barrie’s comedy. 11 Quality Street,” which has been revived in London, had a run of 459 performances on its first production some twenty years-ago. and there are indications that it will again clo well. After enduring a number of bad new plays, many theatregoers have recently shown a preference for good old ones. There is an amusing animal nc& in the United States called “The C<&Jno

Bricklayers,” a troupe of ten dogsThe dogs work without any human being on the stage with them. On on© side of the stage is a pile of bricks, on th© other sand, cement, etc- Nine of them troop in, in overalls. One produces a blue chart, and after studying it. sets the others building, and presently a. miniature house, the size of a. large dining table, is built. The comedy element is introduced by the tenth dog, a laie comer, seeking a job. He turns out to ho a good workman, but s non-unionist, and the other nine demand of tho foreman his dismissal. Tho foreman doclines, and the work proceeds, but every time a unionist dog passes the “blackleg” he “puts the boot in.” It’s the most comical little travesty you can imagine. The income tax assessor, observing the steady display of posters bearing the inscription “ The Beggar’s Opera, by Mr Gay,” which has been running for over two years at the Lyric Theatre. London, and not observing anybody by that name on his lists, sent a respectful observation to th© theatre i stating that thej’ had better make a return for that- gentleman, who "an- j doubtedly was a millionaire by this time. The theatre management sent back a copy of a letter from John Gav to Dean Swift, dated February 15, 1728, describing the first production of “The Beggar’s Opera” as follows: “It was acted at the playhouse at Lincoln’s Inn Fields with such success that, the playhouse was crowded every night. To-night is the fifteenth time of the acting, and it is thought that it will run a fortnight longer.” For long English opera—or indeed any opera of a permanent nature in London—has been the baffling enigma of British music (says a London paper). Is it to be solved at last? There Beems / a likelihood. If it is done it will come not as the restalt of State aid and subbidies, such as other countries have enjoyed and English enthusiasts sighed for in vain, but as the result of sound co-operation and sturdy self-help. This is so consonant with the Anglo-Saxon way of doing things that it- inspires one to believe from tbe outset in the scheme for a British National Opera Company which lias just been placed before the public- Its basis is co-oper-ation in management, profits, liability and endeavour. It has been incorporated as a limited company; the original share capital was £IO,OOO, and this is to be increased to £50,000 by the creation of 40,000 6 per cent cumulative participating preference shares of £1 each, of which no performing member will be allowed to hold more than 150. A board of directors has been elected by ballot,, consisting of fotar representatives from the stage, three from tho orchestra and one from the musical staff. The London correspondent of the “Star” writes as follows, under date September 20:—Great interest is being taken in the forthcoming new Oscar Asche production, and New Zealanders will be interested to hear that Mr Shayle Gardner is to plav the juvenile lead in a caste which besides the musical side will contain about a score of speaking parts. Mr Gardner, tired after four hundred and six appearances in “ Tho "VVandermg Jew,” has had a thorough “ New Zealand holiday” as he calls it. spent chieflv in Dorset, where he stayed with an old King’s College pal, Mr Kenneth M. H’utton, now a leading Dorset pastoralist. farming 3000 acres. Somewhat big acreage for England. Mr Hutton married Miss Joan Debenhnm of the world famed Debenham and Freebody firm. Mr Hutton is another of the New Zealand agriculturists trained in Canterbury who have made good in England. Mr Gardner and he went over to Guernsey to buy pedigree stock during the former's holiday. The rest of th© time Mr Gardner spent tramping along tho South Coast bathing frequently, and through the New Forest. Mr Gardner only came back last week to begin rehearsals for his part of Th© Sultan, and he recalls the fact that it is only tour years sine© lie began work in this very theatre under Sir Herbert Tree at twenty-eight shillings. He is now playing for more pounds a week than that. WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS WHO KNOWS? (“ Australasian.”) That Miss Marie Tempest should fee* justified in complaining, as she did recently in Sydney, of want of public appreciation. is a matter for regret, both for her sake and our own. For, while Miss Tempest’s plays have not in all cases interested us deeply, there can be no question at all as to the high merit of her acting, which, in th© perfection of its finish, its incomparable ease, far surpasses anything we have had from a visiting actress for many years past. Smarting under a sense of neglect, Miss Tempest said that white many people praised her acting, few came to see it. There is a double sting in that reproach, the second one being the inference that people affect an assumed pose in regard to high-class comedy which they don't feel, are hypocritical rather than critical. On the perennial question as to what tho public wants, as well as what it needs, there is only one indicator, patronage, which costs money rather than praise, which may be very cheap. One point is certain, viz., that unless th© public intimates pretty clearly what it does prefer it has little chance of getting it —unless, as may be the case, it is getting it now. As a fact, the public—taking the term in its broadest sense and as indicating the great bulk of people who maintain theatrical pioductions—rarely, if ever indicates what it wants, though it may show its appreciation toy it when it happens to get it. Tt is content, in tho main, to take what is given to it—if it be up t-o the old world standard in its particular line. And t-ho Australian manager is content to follow* London or Now York successes without trying to find out what Australian theatre-goers want or prefer. The demand for any particular form of drama usually comes from a few enthusiasts of an advanced school or section, who, however sound their critical standpoint, are never strong enough to make a commercial success of the particular thing they desire, and which in itself seldom carries the reproach of popularity. So the question as to what the public wants has in a practical way no answer, and whnt the public wants is only indicated in what tho public is content to accept and make profitable. Actors themselves are notoriously bad judges of tho value of plays, and for proof of that one need not- go past the experience of MiSs Tempest’s last season in Melbourne. Two new plays, which, presumably. Miss Tempest and Mr Browne considered their best, were produced and somewhat coldly received, when—almost as a despairing experiment, it seemed—a. third was put on I for a few nights at the close of the season, which was an immediate success. This was not due to any effort to atone at the eleventh hour for neglect, but just because it- happened to be the thing which the public really wanted. Such puzzles, problems, a-ud occasional delightful surprises, will occur as long as theatrical entertainment lasts, without anyone being quite able to explain the why or wherefore.