"UNDER FIRE."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXI, Issue 16604, 27 April 1916, Page 6

"UNDER FIRE."

A REALISTIC WAR PLAY.

"Under' Fire," to be staged In Wanganui for the first time next Tuesday, is the one war play that has met. with general success in America, Austraia, and more recently in Auckland. Mr. Hugh J. Ward, who bought it in America, states that he saw others that attempted to dramatise incidents of he war. They failed, howeyer, he says, "fora reason that should have been obvious. Everything about war is dramati'r, and its atmosphere, movement, and everything incidental to and of it is dramatic. To try and make it more so is to overdo, and consequently to destroy its values. To me, when I- saw "Under Fire," one of the most dramatic movements of the play was Just an ordinary fact of invasion. The scene is a Belgiau village, the inhabitants of the-countryside were flocking into it, all terrified and panic stricken. Along the road comes a solitary figure on a bicycle—a soldier in.a German uniform. There yon had the fact of invasion. A less discerning playwright would have had booming guns ajid an advancing host. 1> would not have been so dramatically effective as that single' figure. The same discernment is shown right through the play. The human note is never lost. There are comedy and philosophy, and no piling on of horrors. The background is war-^-and has its effect on the imagination of the audience. The play -gains mow , from suggestion than from actual i portrayal of, horrors in its scenes, i "The author has not attempted frightfulness." He has better dra- i rnatic means of impressing -his story on bis audiences.- I met Mr. McGm'e several times in New York. He told me- that he set out in "Under Fir*>" to write i. war drama without noise. He said that he was going to give itidiences the credit ot intelligence and imagination, nnd not do the obvious .thing. I wish more playwright? would adapt themselves to th*s method. It is particularly needed in t'ne case of New Zealand audiences. Audi, ences here are up withanrT ahead of the story, and unl^^s it if mrpt Ingeniously wrapped up they foresee the denouement. No audiences in the world have a ouicker ner^ention of the losne o<* events. I thi^ic they will delisrht in "Under Fire." for the reason tT»at it doesn't strain, at the probabilities or force false notes. Another thins:: it is a roving p*ay. -a dramatic statement of the justice of Britain's-fight andan appreciation of the heroism df her "soldiers." There pro, fAi*^ ppeakim? parts, in "Under Fire." The ulav j<? jn three acts, the last beinrr divided into two '"oies, the first of wTnfh shows the trencTia? in Flankers. T>ie company number - Jr»9T nvpr-Rft. wtll'be hp^prt by that rt^tiDfiriiished actor. Julius Ttni*rhf\ The box nl;»n will be «r=ened at H. T. •Tone*? next Saturday-mom-ing at 9 o'clock.' ' t