DAY BY DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17745, 24 June 1929, Page 6

DAY BY DAY.

Another phase in the development of Hamilton has been Hamilton reached by the form-

and ■ ation of the Little The Drama. Theatre Society, which will make Its first public appearance to-night. This is a movement which deserves support not only from playgoers, but from the public generally, for it lias greater potentialities than perhaps appear on the surface. Primarily, of course, it caters for lovers of the drama, by the presentation of plays which otherwise might not be given public performance. Then, again, it plays an important part in the development of talent, giving opportunities to those who would otherwise be denied them. It is surprising what talent lies buried in a town waiting for some such movement to bring it to light. A Little Theatre Society helps to create civic pride, and adds to the social amenities, besides fostering those artistic aspirations and achievements which are just as Important to a community as tire material ones. The Little Theatre movement has strong ramifications in other parts of the world. In England it lias developed wonderfully during (ho past few years, while in America there is hardly a town without such a society. Nearer home we have Hie Auckland and Wellington societies, which have been eminently successful, It is to be hoped that the Hamilton Little Theatre Society will receive the support it deserves. It is the duty—and should be the pleasure—of every resident to support it.

‘All Quiet on the Western Front” is surely the greatest of ’’Greatest of all war books, says the

all Manchester Guardian. War Eooks.” The author, Erich Maria Remarque, is otherwise quite unknown. Perhaps it was necessary for someone innocent of fine writing, of style, of the s ‘‘mot juste” to convey this immediacy of experience in trenches, dug-outs, No Man's Land, and field hospitals. Words are made to serve trutii, not truth words. And yet the book is not formless, but plastic and architectural. What makes it all the more impressive is the simplicity, the integrity, and the strength of character that are its foundation. There is horror and suffering greater than > Poe or Dostoievskl felt or imagined. ' Yet there is no morbidity, no sentiment, no hysteria. Perhaps no one who went through the war came out of it completely sane, but Remarque lost very little of his sanity and can look back into that inferno with unevaslve eyes. _ And yet, for all the gloom and tragic horror, there is humour, good-fellowship, and delicious vengeance on brutal superiors in his book. But beneath it all Is the sense o'f ultimate pity and the complete, incurable pessimism of those who have either been proletarians or common soldiers.