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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 22, No. 10. September 14, 1959

Decadent Drama — Modern Language Plays

Decadent Drama

Modern Language Plays

Victoria with a French play and Otago with a German play were the only two participants in the Modern Languages section of the Arts Festival. A large audience watched the double performance in Allen Hall on Monday, 17th August.

Victoria's production was Armand Salacrou's La Marguerite. A modern play, it is not regarded as one of Salacrou's important works and is not particularly rich in dramatic content.

The production of the play was technically inadequate and unimaginative and it was clear that more preparation could have gone into the production on the part of both the cast and the producer (Tom Goddard). The only member of the cast who played with conviction was Eve Bohmer in the title role.

She succeeded in changing her mood from laughter to tears and was impressive as the tragic woman torn by the conflict of past and present love. When the curtain fell she left the audience with an impression of optimism and it is this impression that Salacrou intended to convey.

"A Mail Comes to Germany"

Otago were much more audacious in the choice of their production Draussen vor der Tur by Wolfgan Borchert, a modern play and very characteristic of the bitter despondent theatre which the decadence of Europe has been producing since the war.

It is the story of the misfit in modern society—the repatriated soldier who feels lost in the ungrateful world of peace which rejects him as so much war surplus.

This is not an original theme, but Borchert's treatment of it is and it is noteworthy that the play was written in 1947 at which time the ideas it contains were strikingly new.

The play revolves around the central figure of Beckmann, and the success of the production was due in a large measure to the acting of Rudolf Hehenberger. Unfortunately, his tendency to speak too quickly detracted from some passages where a more ponderous delivery would have been effective.

On the whole, Draussen vor der Tur, although scarcely an entertainment, was presented in a manner stimulating to the intellect and Otago are to be congratulated on their daring in choosing so difficult a play and in attaining a production of a generally high standard which reproduced faithfully the heightened dramatic and emotional content of the play and the author's anger at society.