Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Spike or Victoria College Review October 1928

Cousin Kate

page 48

Cousin Kate

From the one-star companies of the philanthropic Williamsons we have come to expect very little, and we are seldom disappointed, but from the Victoria University College Dramatic Club, we expect the best there is in the wonderful field of drama. Even the highest ideals of the English and Irish repertory movements should not be beyond it, and it is a great pity indeed that for this year's production the Club meddled with a trifle. One would have thought that the committee would have left H. H. Davies's "Cousin Kate" to Muriel Starr or Nelly Bramley, and in fact either of these people might with good grounds accuse it of poaching on their preserves. The stage to-day is attracting many of the most brilliant writers of the present generation, and why such names as John Galsworthy, Bernard Shaw, Lady Gregory, J. M. Barrie, Lord Dunsany, Laurence Houseman, John Masefield, W. B. Yeats, St. John Irvine, Sean O'Casey, Lennox Robinson, or even Granville Barker, Stanley Haughton, and A. W. Pinero, were passed over for a work that for a university dramatic society, should be a waste of time, even in an idle hour, is beyond comprehension. "Cousin Kate" was billed as a comedy, but in the words of Doctor Johnson, "there was not wit enough to keep it sweet." The plot and the characters who carried it along exceeded the limits of even stage possibility, and the only scene that could be given any merit was that at Heath Desmond's country house when the owner took the intruder, Kate Curtis, by surprise, but even this was artificial. The scene contained one or two delightful shafts, but from then on the story limped along to an unconvincing ending. Miss Mary Cooley as Cousin Kate, made the most of her lines. Her fine voice and personality made her presence on the stage always interesting, but her "business" was not well thought out. Miss Dorothy Martyn-Roberts made a fair Mrs. Spencer. As Amy Spencer, her impossible daughter, Miss Freda Line acted unsympathetically, but it is difficult to conceive anyone becoming enthusiastic over this peculiar figment of the author's imagination. D. Edwards was the bright spark of the cast, and infused into Bobby Spencer all the exuberance of youth. A. E. Campbell played the Rev. James Bartlett in a style more befitting the humorous" recitations of the vaudeville stage. D. Priestley's acrobatic feats spoke well for his athletic prowess, but he had an unfortunate habit of keeping his lines to himself. Mrs. John Hannah had little scope, but a lack of knowledge of stage technique was oft times in evidence. The make-up seemed to have been laid on with a trowel.

—H.I.F.

We understand that K—en Z—er, who so royally entertained the touring cricketers in Wanganui last year, has been urged, by the local police, to exercise her influence upon the skipper in the direction of altering this year s itinerary.