THE STAGE IN LONDON.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17218, 8 December 1923, Page 10 (Supplement)

THE STAGE IN LONDON.

MANY* PLAY'S FAIL. More plays have died. It is the worst of seasons. “ Rosalind, ’ the Young Person in Pink,” “ What Every Woman Knows.” “ The Merry Widow,” and “ The Carnival ” all have vanished (writes the London correspondent of an American paper). “ Success ” has failed and been withdrawn.

Various reasons are advanced, among which, curiously, is the craze for lawn tennis. Another is the general demand for elaborate and expensive productions, which make it impossible to keep a play alive unless it is doing almost zenith business. The best reasons of all are the heat wave and the summer holidays which take natives out of town during a season when the American tourists seem averse to going to see and hear spoken plays, being frequenters, if they go to the theater at all, rather of the picture shows. There are 420 motion picture houses open as against forty-two regular theatres.

But more out-of-door attractions are scheduled now than ever. Sixteen parks have open-air concerts, six of these offering places for dancing. Every athletic ground where games are possible is crowded every pleasant afternoon. Motor-bus excursions, some of them delightful and all surprisingly cheap, are perfectly organised. Of the 20,000 people who come to London every day as visitors- at this time of year, few seem to care, this year, to see plays. The shops are crowded and the cinemas do good business, while the theatres of the spoken play are empty. Another reason given for the bad

summer season it the new enthusiasm of girls and women for out-of-door sports, which the new freedom of their dress encourages. They tramp in knickers; they swim in skin-tight ” onepieces ”; they motor far away from town, and are so accustomed to the open air they don’t care for indoors on a hot night. “ Even the music halls are helpless,” one manager said. “ Not even girl shows attract.” “ The Likes of Her ” is the one new thing at the theatre which seems likely to live long. Unfortunately it is too short—so short, indeed, that it really requires a cur-tain-raiser. It tells a story of the demobilisation period after the war, starting with an interesting bit of realism—a picture of life in the part of London inhabited by the curious, halfgypsy folk immortalised by Albert Chevalier. It deals with the devotion of Sally Winch, who every morning goes to the railway station, hoping against all predictions to meet her beloved soldier boy, although he has been reported “ missing.” And sure enough he comes home—comes crippled, but a hero and an officer.

The many complications following have to do with his temptations away from his old love. But is triumphs. The play probably would not be fully understood in America. There the characters might seem overdrawn, although they are not. Here it is recognised as a true bit of artistry. That it still holds interest, although the curtain-raiser is the compelling and wonderful Barrie playet, “ The Will,” one of the most perfect one-act plays ever written, is proof of its unusual merit.