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Blowing the Gaff

"There is no luxury in self-dispraise."—Wordsworth.

"KYD" has at least one thing in common with earlier Extravaganzas. Its Producer (let us term him Entrepreneur, to discredit him completely) describes it as a "Dud Show"—"the worst that V.U.C. has had the audacity to foist on an unsuspecting public." A Low Show—badly constructed, insufficiently rehearsed, over-advertised, and untimely staged! The poor authors laboured like mountains to bring forth this ridiculous mouse and, like all people who do very small things, they have a tremendous conceit of themselves; consequently they are peeved that another, and he a brutally-disposed individual with a tongue of triple brass, should confirm their worst fears as to the character and quality of "Kyd." The only decent thing that they can do now is to blow the gaff—give the show away properly.

The Producer (or Entrepreneur), had he known the first thing about anything at all, would have assailed "KYD" not for what it was, but for what it ought to be and is not. V.U.C. has a fairly well-defined tradition in the matter of the annual Capping entertainment. The fellows who took part in the first toddles of this infant College were in a peculiarly advantageous position to measure the incapacities of the student mind. Their finding was that the form of entertainment best calculated to express the genius of the student and beyond which the student could not comfortably go, was the Topical Burlesque—a Gilbert and Sullivan affair with (but not necessarily) an "underlying philosophy" or a "deeper meaning." This sort of thing fitted the College like a small boy's first pair of pants; and the small boy in this instance was correspondingly proud of the fit. It was quite normal that the Extravaganza should, in course of time, develop into something less simple than it has been: it is not unusual for a small boy to affect Oxford bags. But the Extravaganza went further than this when it suddenly began to emulate the crazy rag-shows of professional companies. The result was that it suffocated itself with its sartorial sillinesses; and for some years V.U.C. was without an Extravaganza.

The revival of last year ("G.G.") was accompanied by some sort of resolve to work back into the paths of the old tradition. "KYD", however, has the misfortune to be born in bad times page 4 and slips back into a degeneracy aggravated now by the influence of the Talkies—cacophonies issuing from the Screaming Eagle in glorification of that other American fowl, the Plucked Chicken—choruses obviously deriving their prime inspiration from the nude ranks that decorate poulterers' shops at Christmas-time. The further degeneracy awaiting the Extravaganza we find awkward to discuss in terms of clothing. Let us consider the rags that are left to it.

"KYD" tried hard to be a topical burlesque. Poverty of ideas, however, caused the inclusion of conventional situations of the kind that Williamson and Fuller can do much better, and the topicality and the burlesque are merely incidental thereto. A show of the older kind that made use of fairies and pirates would have exploited these characters for their symbolic value. The fairies would have meant politicians and the pirates would have meant business men. The fairies would have been shown weaving quaint spells in shady places with the object of bemusing poor mortals. The pirates would have ceremoniously cut throats in sacrifice on the altar of Mammon. With the help of a preface (of more reasonable length than this) the audience might have realised the presence of an "underlying Philosophy" or a "Deeper Meaning."

The parsonical affectation of the bumptious ballyhoos of the Ibsen-Shaw school have made the "underlying philosophy" so obnoxious that we cannot bewail the passing of this occasional element in the V.U.C. tradition. The normal function of the theatre is to provide an evening's escape from the oppressive character of modern life; we cannot share the priggishness that would degrade the stage into that weird phenomenon, "a modern substitute for religion." But we do lament the failure of "KYD" to attain to the full dignity of a topical burlesque, and we hope that our piteous howls will reach the ears of the writers of future Extravaganzas—that is, if our Producer prophesises falsely when he asserts that He and We are the Last of the Mugs.

It will be observed that we make no pretensions in respect of "KYD." At its best it is a compost of all the things that democracy is presumed to delight in—fairy tales, blood and thunder, detectives, and old jokes. Its topical allusions are not intended to express preferences or dislikes but are dragged in partly because of the tradition referred to and partly because topical allusions are the last resort of deficient skill. No special profundity, therefore, is asserted in their regard. They are mere superficialities gleaned from the conversations of the Man in the Street and the Woman in the Tramcar, and we dish them up again in the hope that these estimable people will enjoy listening to them as much as they appeared to enjoy saying them.

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For the rest, "KYD" is merely the customary Capping revel. Once in every year (and this is beginning to appear too often) V.U.C. students enjoy a period of Unreason by way of relief from the discipline of study. Some of them dress themselves in cap and gown and make determined efforts to look important. Others assume wigs and wings and try hard to be funny. If the former are funnier than the latter it simply goes to show what the University student (of all people) has no excuse for not knowing—that the most diverting sight on earth is a human creature taking himself seriously.

"KYD" does not take itself seriously. If anyone be so simple-minded as to wish to take it seriously, let him ponder deeply the title "KYD." If, in his simple-mindedness, he wonder why University students think fit to put work into the production of such foolishness as "KYD," let him look around him, rack his memory, examine his conscience, read history, study civilization. What, let him ask, does Man occupy himself with most? Is it Wisdom?

At a pinch, this deeper meaning may he discovered in "KYD": the difference between "KYD" and the ordinary concerns of Mankind is that "KYD" acknowledges its absurdities.

Gulbert and Sillivan.