HAMILTON AMATEURS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21035, 10 February 1940, Page 13 (Supplement)

HAMILTON AMATEURS

Hamilton Performers’ Club There was a good attendance of members at the annual meeting of the club last Saturday night. The club reviewed a most successful 12 months, with particular reference to the special evenings such as the “Bohemian,” “Wild West” and “Nautical” nights, etc. This year the club is going to give earnest consideration to the entertainment of

soldiers passing through training at Hopu Hopu and to any patriotic fund whose aim it is to benefit the boys going overseas. The healthy bank balance and the enthusiasm of members augurs well for the coming performers’ year. Hamilton Operatic Society Rehearsals are progressing very favourably for the Hamilton Amateur Operatic Society’s play, “The Black Eye,” the large cast handling its individual parts with understanding. James Bridie’s plays are recognised as being always worth seeing, and in this, probably his most successful, his philosophic and humorous pen has full scope. When “The Black Eye” was presented in London it met with outstanding success, the author’s unusual method of presenting the plot, or rather, his revival of an old one in a new setting, appealing to the public’s love of novelty. The play, in which the central character comes forward and speaks to the audience man to man, as it were, and tells them what he has done or is going to do, introduces a new note in presentation, a note that has been used previously only in drama, and then very rarely. The author also showed his brilliance by foreseeing that the discussion which the play aroused among the critics only brought more publicity and as a consequence more public support. A successful presentation by Hamilton’s talented amateurs is assured. Australian Author-Producer The young Australian play-pro-ducer, Kathleen Robinson, presented the first new play of 1940, “The Golden Cuckoo,” by Denis Johnstone, at the Duchess Theatre, London. Well known as a West End manager, Miss Robinson has taken two companies for extended tours of Scandinavian countries.