The Trezise Benefit

If the controversies which have rippled around this year's Extravaganza have not given the College furiously to think, at least the financial results of "Pep" should do so. These have not yet been disclosed, but the poor "houses" which attended "Pep" arouse little optimism. "When the annual Extravaganza was primarily an expression of the Capping spirit and the fun of the thing was the chief consideration, the credit balance was as substantial as it was incidental. The fact that the Stud. Ass. came to regard the Extravaganza as the chief source of its revenue did not alter the position, for the College followed its own sweet will in the selection and treatment of its themes. Traditions were followed, but the traditions were those of the College.

With "Luv" and "Pep" a new order arose. "Luv" failed to appear at Capping time, and when it did appear owed its character to the "paid professional producer" called in at the last moment. By means of spectacles copied from the garish displays of Oscar Asche and J. C. Williamson a thin show was padded out until the traditional idea was smothered under a mass of pomp and pageantry. Dazzling colours begat dazzling dreams. The moment it was discovered that College amateurs could creditably imitate hyper-successful professional shows, at that moment an ambition was born to obtain the monetary results of such shows. The means was simple. Give the public what it wanted, and the public would pay, pay, pay! "What the public wanted" was considered to be the things it was accustomed to obtain from professional companies. Let the Extravaganza follow the traditions of these professional companies and money would roll in.

The "easy money" brought in by the compulsory levy simply excited the appetite for more. Visions of a residential college, new tennis courts, and what not arose—noble objects to be achieved at no greater cost than the jettisoning of a few College traditions. A Spartan stand on the ground of the College motto resulted in the loss of some of the finest executive officers the College has had the good fortune to possess, and the "Please the Public—We want Money!" party took charge.

They forgot two little things: one, that what the public wanted was novelty; and the other, that each Extravaganza advertised the one that came after it. The result of the first was that the public would not waste time over a College show that merely imitated what professionals satisfactorily provided all the year round. The result of the second was that "Luv" owed its success, not to its page 42 own merits, but to the expectations raised by its predecessor, and that "Pep" failed for the same reason. Even had "Luv" succeeded by its own merit, the success of a similar show twelve long months afterwards was not a reasonable anticipation. It is a question whether the traditional idea is out of date and behind the times; there is no question whatever but that "Pep" is out of date and behind the times by exactly twelve months.

The title itself was based on an out-of-date notion. "Struth" was a strikingly successful title; the word was an advertisement in itself. "Luv" equally simplified the efforts of chalking parties, but lacked in the quality of arresting the attention. "Pep" was as feeble as "Struth" was striking, and came, more" over, when the novelty of the short and snappy title had been exhausted. It is good business for Wood's Great Peppermint Cure to stick to the one advertising idea year in and year out. A University Extravaganza that not only deserts its traditional character but also deserts its traditional advertisement can no more succeed by a change over to a hackneyed method of advertisement than it can succeed by a reconstruction upon hackneyed lines.

The traditional advertisement of the Extravaganza is the Capping procession. The traditional character of the Extravaganza is the Capping burlesque. Divorce the Extravaganza from Capping and it loses at one and the same time both its reason for existence and its most effective means of advertisement. Divorce it still further by changing it from a burlesque into a second-rate spectacular revue and it fails also in its money-making purpose. The cry of "We want Money!" stands or falls by "Pep." It was to satisfy that cry that an outside dancing master, without the faintest understanding of or sympathy with College ideas and ideals, was brought in and given complete control of the Extravaganza, its production, and its policy. It was to satisfy this cry that College originality, College intellect, the College joke, the College Song, the College burlesque, and other things of a non-commercial character were carefully excluded and the lines of an assumed public taste as care-fully catered for. And an ungrateful public, accustomed to attending Extravaganzas for something that it could not obtain elsewhere, namely the College flavour, simply stayed away.

If the present tendency is followed, the Extravaganza will be lost to the College for all purposes. A producer to produce what the College wants may or may not be a necessity; a producer to decide what the College should have is a calamity. The thin end of the professional wedge has already entered; the completion of the process will be the handing of the Extravaganza over to professionals entirely. It was surrendered first to a commercial purpose, next to the dictation of a "paid professional producer "; the remaining degeneration is only a matter of time.

It is difficult for a new body of students unacquainted with the past of V.U.C. to realise the character and worth of College traditions. In the matter of Capping, some light may be obtained by a perusal of Mr. De la Mare's article in the Jubilee "Spike." Mr. De la Mare's opinions are valuable in that he is the "Father of the Extravaganza" at V.U.C. On the top of his statement of the position, the experience of "Pep" proves that the following changes are necessary:—

(1)	The reinstatement of the Extravaganza as a Capping entertainment;page 43
(2)	A return to burlesque as its dominant note;
(3)	The restoration of the ideal of literary merit; and
(4)	The treatment of the money-making object as of secondary importance.

The reappearance of the Capping procession (in a chastened form) will, it is to be hoped, provide an occasion upon which to undo the work commenced by the difficulties in hiring the Grand Opera House in 1923 and completed by the hunt after strange gods in 1924.

P.J.S.