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The Spike or Victoria University College Review Silver Jubilee 1924

Drama at College

page 89

Drama at College

The play's the thing

In these short notes I do not want to speak of Capping plays or extravaganzas but of our attempts while students to study plays and to produce them.

My first recollection of a College play is that of "Horace at Athens" given in the old Sydney Street Schoolroom, and as they kept to the Elizabethan drama-tradition and had no women in the play, there was great amusement when Bob Watson appeared warmly-rouged, as the graceful Lydia. I remember mirrors at the back of the stage to magnify the numbers of the scanty cohorts, and in my mind's eye, can still see Rawdon as Great Caesar's Ghost, pirouetting coyly down the stage.

A year later, in 1903, came the production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" with "the Frog" as the gloomy Dane, and Miss F. G. Roberts as a shy Ophelia. It is interesting to note that "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern" was played again at College in 1917 in the." Gym "and was made memorable by the collapse of the rabbit-skin "arras" hanging at the back of the stage. The promptress was suddenly exposed to the public view and made a hurried exit, and on the hasty fall of the curtain Hamlet (Eufryn Evans) was left standing alone at the edge of the stage.

But the plays in these instances that I have cited were only substitutes for original work, and I want rather to speak of plays of College read "for themselves alone." It was in 1909 that a reading circle was first mooted (one of the promoters being W. J. McEldowney) and it met fortnightly in the Chemistry Laboratory during vacation, and later, in the Gym. The ardent devotees were very serious-minded at first and began with "Heroes and Hero Worship" but soon turned their attention to plays. So fascinating did plays prove, that the reading for the next two years went on through term-time, only ceasing when examinations imposed their demands, and continuing again as soon as vacation commenced. Among the women enthusiasts were Misses Fell, Thornton, Nicholls, Tennent, Davies and Crawford, and among the men were C. H. Taylor, A. E. Caddick, G. H. Nicholls, P. B. Broad, K. Munro, A. Fair, L. P. Leary, G. M. Cleghorn and W. F. Hogg. At first, plays were just read round the Circle, but later on were cast, and readings given in public. Plays of Shakespeare, Shaw, Arnold Bennett, A. H. Jones, Pinero, Yeats, Synge. etc., were read and discussed with great gusto, and from reading we passed gladly to acting. It seemed a most delightful way of raising funds for deserving College Clubs. In 1911 the Debating Society benefited from three plays put on in St. Peter's Schoolroom, and for the next three years it became an understood thing that some plays would be put on early in the first term by a band of enthusiasts. From these informal beginnings, there has now arisen a Dramatic Club, and (to quote from the June "Spike," 1923) "it can show a record of good performances, sound finances, and 'magis auro desideranda' an enthusiastic personnel."

In a country isolated as ours is, the study of modern plays gives us an insight into contemporary life in the Old World, brings us into touch with the spirit of the age, enlarges our horizon, stimulates our imagination and our intellect, and to those page 90 histrionically gifted, gives an opportunity to "escape" from the confines imposed on them by their own individuality.

In conclusion, may I give some words of appreciation to Mr. A. W. Newton and his sister, and to Mr. H. E. Nicholls—amateurs all of unusually great histrionic ability, true students and lovers of drama, who have often in times past given their services, their help and advice to the actors of V.U.C.