REPERTORY SOCIETY STAGES SUCCESSFUL THREE-ACT COMEDY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18937, 6 December 1929, Page 7

REPERTORY SOCIETY STAGES SUCCESSFUL THREE-ACT COMEDY.

A creditable performance of J. H. Turner’s three-act comedy, “The Lilies of the Field,” was given by the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society in the Radiant Hall last night. The attendance was fair and the audience ve O' appreciative of the players’ efforts. The cast was as follows: Rev John H.ead .. Dr Robinson E. Hall Ann (his wife) - . . Miss Ngare Hooper Violet (maid at the vicarage) ~ Miss Jessie Walker Mrs Rooke-Walter (Ann’s mother) .. Mrs H. Spence Clark Catherine and Elizabeth (the vicar’s twin daughters) Miss Valerie Tennent and „, Miss Gladys Ferguson Barnaby Haddon .. Mr Walter B. Harris Bryan Ropes Mr Claude Davies Hon Monica Flane Miss Magdalen Hall The Lady Susan Rocker „ . Miss Florence Nicholls Mrs A. Hartshorn and Mrs W. B. Harris were joint producers. Perhaps too much room for sentimentality has been made in the play, in spite of the fact that it is largely a skit on mid-Victorianism, but it is, nevertheless, an entertaining story flavoured with a good deal of real humour. The twin twenty-year-old daughters of an English vicar in a small country village are the central figures of the plot. A young and eligible man, who is an authority on an-' Uques, comes to lunch at thte vicarage, and the sisters have arranged to do their best to see who can “make a hit" with him. The twins are distinctly modern girls, who have rebelled against the gentle reproofs of their parents,, but, in order to impress the visitor, one of them pretends to be old-fashioned and demure and dresses in crinolintes accordingly. Her plan works, but she finds it rather difficult to return to her normal self again. During a holiday in London with her grandmother she has to retain her crinolines in order not to give herself away to Barnaby* Haddon, the young antiquarian. The masquerade is carried on until Barnaby proposes to Elizabeth, who finds out she has .really fallen in love with him. When at last she is forced into confessing her dteceit she discovers that Barnaby has known of it all along. The vicar is the most important figure in the play, and Dr Hall portrayed him excellently. His facial expression and general, deportment could not have been in better keeping with the part. Miss Gladys Ferguson had a difficult character to portray as Elizabeth. She managed it with ease, as did Miss Valerie Tennent as Catherine. Mr Claudte Davies, as the foppish Bryan Ropes, a young man, with strong Victorian leanings, helped out by mutton-chop whiskers, was splendid. His affected manner of speech and action were clever comedy ih themselves. Mr Harris gave a good representation of Barnaby the antiquary; and showed distinct improvement as the. play proceeded. This waa also so with Mrs. Clark, who played Mrs Rooke-Walter, the sprightly but imperious grandmother, whose headaches were remembered with a shudder- by all" her relations. 4Phe other members of the ca,st carried out their respective tasks very satisfactorily and all deserved the sustained applause that was given at the final curtain. The “William Tell” overture and excerpts from “Maritana” were amongst the interim music played by the society’s orchestra. The play will be staged again tornight, to-morrow night and Monday. '