THE PRINCE OF WALES.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17365, 29 March 1928, Page 5

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

ON FIRST-NIGHTERS. COLD, WHITE QUEUERS. A London paper says— The Prince of Wales was the guest of honour at the Three Arts dinner of the O.P. Club, held at the Hotel Cecil. Sir Charles Higham, the president of the club, proposing (he toast “Our Royal Guest," referred to the Prince as "a democratic playgoer,” and said: “This club of players has arisen from the enthusiastic love of the drama by those ardent pitites who -14 years ago were the. backbone of the theatre. These stalwart first-nighters who waited and struggled to get into the pit (there was no queue in those days) included enthusiasts like Clement Scott, Sir .lames Barrie, Jerome K. Jerome, Henry Arthur Jones, Sir Arthur Pinero, Bernard Partridge, and many others who have made their mark in drama and literature. The object of the club is to assist in maintaining the high standard of plays and acting of all grades—tragedy, comedy, farce, and musical—in fact, to appeal to the best, instincts of all classes having one object in view—namely, to keep the stage clean and wholesonje so that it can be supported by all classes." The Prince, replying, said that all the world and his wife, and especially their sons and daughters, were playgoers at heart. He continued — “But can you tell me what exactly constitutes an old playgoer? Can you tell me how many years must the old playgoer go to plays? Can you tell me how many years must the playgoer be in bottle before he or she has ripened into old and crusted material? As 1 look around this room I have not the slightest doubt that" you are a very fine vintage of playgoers. What puzzles me is that you are all a very young-looking bunch. First Nights ”a Craze.” Referring to “first nights,” the Prince asked—“ls it not becoming somewhat of a craze lately? 1 am inclined to wonder whether a section of our first-nighters ever really give themselves a proper chance of appreciating the atmosphere of the first, night of a new play. We have all of us been driving home from the theatre—or possibly a little later — and seen a long line of the very sad, cold, white people queueing up for the first performance of a new play which is not even going to open for another 20 hours. “You and I who have seen that sight cannot help admiring the courage and tenacity of our people; and it entirely disproves the idea that we are a C 3 nation. But docs it, make for At critics? Does the fatigue involved put those very ardent followers of the theatre whom we call first-nighters into a right state of mind to appreciate and really to get the best out of a new play? Has that not perhaps something to do with a play having * very short run and getting a very bad newspaper editorial ? “Plays are very good in the United States. I believe the practice there is that when a play is considered not so good there is no noise from the audience—they just fade away. There was a very bad four-aot drama which lasted only three acts— -and the actors

struck after the third act. In another plav. after the third act, so great was the. rush to fade away that a man stood up and shouted: "Women and children first." I need hardly tell you he was a rival dramatist. "Mavbe the American method is better than ours, but the O.P. Club may be able to hit the golden mean between the ideas they have in the United States and the ideas we have in London. If they do, they will render a great service to the stage."