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The Spike: or, Victoria College Review, September 1923

Extravaganza

page 33

Extravaganza

In choosing the subject of this year's Extravaganza, the authors, who, by the way, preserved a modest anonymity and invisibility which have not always been conspicuously present in the authors of extravaganzas, hitched their wagon to a star. If the couplings broke before the journey was quite completed, they still attained to considerable heights, and are to be congratulated on their success. Love was their theme, Love gilded the scenes (four of them), Love throughout the ages. This central idea running through all the parts formed a connecting link without which, according to the highest authorities, no Extravaganza is worthy of the name.

A refreshing feature of this Extravaganza was that it did not pretend to be what it was not. No lengthy pseudo-philosophical disquisitions bearing very apparent marks of the cloven hoof of Shaw, no jaded and faded epigrams that Wilde never quite made but very nearly did, several times; just good plain Extravaganza carried through in the highest of spirits and in a manner most pleasing to the eye.

One thing we did miss, and have missed in Extravaganzas for some years past, and that was a College or University atmosphere. Save that behind their disguises we recognised some of the well-known features of the class-room and tennis-court, the Extravaganza might have been written and acted by men and women entirely unconnected with Victoria University College. One College joke, as far as we can remember, reared its shy head. Possibly in these days when, in common with other sports, a College play suffers from the deadly "gate" blight, and the divinities that shape its ends, (and very well-shaped they are too), must keep their eye on the general public, a too academic production might not be considered a safe draw. We still think, however, with that father of Extravaganzas (and of Peter), Mr. P. A. do la Mare, that even a general public, if it comes to a college production, would prefer a few local college jokes that it cannot quite follow, to some of the music-hall "gags," which it can hear equally well just across the street any night of the week.

The first Act, which threw some new light on the loves of the politicians in the Stone Age, went off with a great swing, but the second Act, laid in the Egypt of Tutankhamen and his apparently teetotal queen, was the crowning achievement of the evening. Led up to by an endless chain of incense-bearers, courtiers, warriors, and ladies, impressively and gracefully parading before the drop scene on their way to the Court, with which the scene-shifters were very busy behind, it gave scope for very effective grouping, dancing, and elocution. This Act was carried through on a serious note of high tragedy, though a few jests would not have ruined it entirely. It is true that the incidental choruses contained the jests, but as they were not distinguishable beyond the footlights, They did not affect the result. What a chance was here of bringing together the incongruous, the life-blood of Extravaganza. One unrehearsed incongruity there was when, on the first night, the stately queen, setting forth to fetch a goblet of poisoned wine, returned majestically bearing on high what from the second row of the stalls looked Like a peculiarly small species of medicine-glass. One can imagine the scene in the ante-room when the property master page 34 was asked by Egypt's Queen, a daughter of the Pharoahs, where the blazes he had put that ruddy goblet for the poisoned wine.

After the climax of the second Act, the third was a distinct fall, and easily the poorest of the four. The fooling of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh was very crude and not very funny. The fourth Act, a jazz medley on the Styx, which gathered the main characters of the preceding Acts together, and introduced a few new ones, brightened things up again tremendously and brought them to a joyous and merry end.

Of the actors, Mr. A. J. Mazengarb stood out, and as Queen Sheezastunna bore the heat and burden of the night. He was perfectly at home in the role, gave the audience the impression that he was enjoying himself, and let them hear every word he had to say on the subjects that came under his shrewd observation. In fact he was so good that he could easily have afforded to cut out the rather low, very strained, and entirely un amusing music-hall "gags" referred to earlier herein, in which he and the interpreter of Queen Elizabeth indulged in the last Act. His performance would have lost nothing in merit thereby. Mr. P Martin-Smith as Bill Mushie went down to the scrums well, as usual, while Mr. S. E. Baume, in his flowing beard, looked more like a Chief Rabbi than a Chief Justice. The minor characters, where they could not be heard, looked their lines remarkably well.

Amongst the ladies, where all were so charming, it would be invidious to single out any for special mention, but we cannot help referring to the very finished performance of Miss M. Cooley as the Egyptian Queen.

The singing and dancing, both solo and concerted, and the chorus work generally were very good throughout, while the costumes were as usual an outstanding feature of the performance, on which Misses M. Campbell and E. Madeley and their staff of learned dressmakers are to be congratulated. To be congratulated too are Mr. Theodore Trezise, who directed the whole production and Miss Joyce and her orchestra, who were new to us and of whom we should like to hear more.

Of the songs incidental to the play, no more need perhaps he said than that editors of future editions of "The Old Clay Patch" will not have to linger long over the pages of the book of words. Their task of selection will be a light, if negative, one. The chief objection we had to the book of words, however, was that we had to foik out a bob for the purchase of it. As the old lady sitting behind us, who borrowed our copy, remarked, she now saw the force of our motto "Wisdom is to be desired for more gold."