®

CONTRADICTIONS APPARENT AT AVON

American play, director, star --

Is Everyman Canadian theatre?

EVERYMAN Theatre +has ar-
rived at the point where it must
resolve the contradictions which

. threaten its continued existence.
The current production of Syd-
.ney Howard’s The Late Chris-
topher Bean is the case in point.
This production is a step in cor-
rupting a group threatre into
an out and out commercial
theatre.

The first contradiction is read-
ily apparent when one opens
the program. Page one of the
program. states that the group is
all for Canadian theatre for the
Canadian people. Page two
features the producer-director,
Dean Goodman, noted American
theatrical figure. It also fea-
tures Zasu Pitts, famed Ameri-
ean stage and screen star. One
is forced to ask, “Is this Can-
adian theatre, with an American
play, an American producer-di-
rector, and American stars?”
Well?

Production of the play pres-
ents further contradictions. Miss
Pitts is paid a salary running
into four figures for the week.
The young Canadians who have
built the Everyman reputation
are paid a somewhat modest $10
to $20 a week. Surely the top
people in the theatre should
have some pangs of conscience
regarding their treatment of
these talented young beginners.

As for the play itself, it pur-
ports. to represent the victory of
the simple and innocent over
the dark malignant money-mak-
ers who prey on the naivete of
their victims. And it will not
go down well with generally pro-
gressive Vancouver
that the production follows the
script in the anti-Semitic por-
trayal of the chief money-maker
by James Onley.

Miss Pitts is given complete
liberty to ‘wander about the
stage stealing scene after scene
to her own advantage. No ef-
forts are spared to give Miss
Pitts an opportunity to show off
the bag of tricks she has been
aecumulating for 30 years of
playing this stock figure of a
bewildered, almost pathetic,
addle-pated spinster type.

A

audiences’

~

“Professor Mamlock”

Point Grey Junior High School —

38th and West Broadway

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12
8:15 p.m.

FOR TICKETS PHONE

CE. 6348

Admission $1.00

The play has been made-into
a vehicle for Zasu Pitts with a
supporting cast held discreetly
in the background and it is
tragic that the genuine talents
of Bill Buckingham and Georgia
Nelson should have to be sub-
ordinated to the undeniable box
office. attractions of an Ameri-
can actress whose understanding
of art and politics leads one to
question how much of her stage
portrayal is genuine acting. *

The other players in the cast
seemed to be in awe of the fame

of Miss Pitts and were handi-
eapped to the extent that they
could make.no contribution to
the fullness of the play. Bill
(Buckingham and Georgia Nelson
nonetheless contrived to shine
through the facade of fame sur-
rounding the star and were at
all times quite able to hold their
own within the framework of
their parts.

Production of The Late Chris-

topher Bean marks a new depar-
ture for the Avon-Everyman
group, a departure that if con-
tinued will .mean the inevitable
failure of what is a promising
venture. Attendance figures
might for the time being give
the lie to this. statement but if
attendance is built on imported
stars, the home-grown product
will be shuffled right out of the
picture. Eventually too, the peo-
ple are bound to tire of the nov-
elty of imported names and it

wil] then be far more difficult ”

to develop the local talent which
must provide the foundation for
any lasting theatre. If Dean
Goodman and Sydney Risk have
_their art as their primary inter-
est they will discard these show-
pieces for the talents of aging
stars and concentrate on the
development of local people in
plays of substance and worth.
—C. FRANK. f

FIRST PRODUCTION OF SEASON

GUIDE TO GOOD READING

Stirring new
of struggle

“NOTHING IN this world is
too good for our people. Do not
give way to despair. You must
fight back. We will all help
you. ... if we all stand together
we, are like rock!”’

These are the words of milit-
ant fighter Ben Le Maltre in
Ralph de Boissiere’s first novel,
Crown Jewel, recently published
as the first choice of the Aus-
tralasian Book Society.

De Boissiere was born in Tri-
nidad,-was influenced by the big
struggles there round about
1937, lost his job in 1939, has
lived since in the United States
and Australia.

Full of action, with vivid char-
acterisation based on social real-
ities, the novel should win a big
circle of readers in this country
as it is doing in Australia,

The people of Trinidad’ that
it describes are clearly drawn ’—
real characters who grow and

UJPO Drama Workshop gives
‘Professor Mamlock’ Nov. 12_

THE DRAMA Workshop of
the United Jewish People’s Or-
der is following up its success-
ful productions of the past two
seasons, The Biggest Thief In
Town and The Journey of Simon
McKeever, with a production of
Frederich Wolfe’s world-famous
play, Professor Mamlock, at
Point Grey Junior High School
here on November 12.

In ‘the three years since it
was formed, the UJPO Drama

Workshop has acquired a great

deal of experience and develop-
ed some fine actors and actresses,
among them Harry (Hash) Gof-
sky, Ann Cohen, Oscar Osipov,
Sylvia and Searle Friedman, and
Nate Wiseman. A talented new-
comer to the group for this pro-
duction is Sheilagh Norman-
Martin, who has already earned

=o omoe———o m0 ————I0F1

—UJPO Drama Workshop

presents

=050 ODIO

pC) (4) — () (5

a high place in amateur drama
in this city.

The play itself is not unknown
to Viancouver audiences, the film
version having been shown here
in the years immediately pre-
ceding the outbreak of the Sec-
ond World War. And its mes-
sage, the need to combat fascism

ON THE SCREEN
British film
Scott novel

AS INTERPRETED on film
by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer-British
Ivanhoe is a highly colored but
rather flavorless ‘hodge-podge.
The screen writers have left
little of Sir Walter Scott’s rich
novel of the struggles of the Nor-
mans and the Saxons, the res-
cue of Richard Coeur-de-Lion,
and the persecution and looting
of the Jews, except the names
and the bare bones of the plot.

Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe is
almost indistinguishable from
Robert Taylor as Robin Hood

and only a little handsomer and
nobler than George Sanders as_
Scott’s arro-—

De Bois-Guilbert.
gant Templar “stained with...
cruelty and voluptuousness”’ has
become a kindily avuncular fig-
ure, —

As for Rebecca, Scott’s proud
daughter of, Israel, and the high-
born Saxon) Lady Rowena, they
are distinguishable only by Eliz-
abeth Taylor’s black plaits and
Joan Fontaine’s yellow ones, and
do nothing but hug each other
and whisper, ‘‘Are you jealous?”

in its beginnings, is no less urg-
ent in this country today.

Professor Mamiock, which is
being directed by Frank V. Cvit-
anovich, is the most ambitious
production the UJPO Drama
Workshop has yet undertaken,
and it promises to be the most
successful.

version of
lvan - hooey —

But they have no reason to be. -

* x x
THE TROUBLE with This
Woman Is Dangerous is that
she’s not in the least exciting.

It’s not the fault of Joan
Crawford who works hard at
being a gangster’s moll going
blind ‘and being saved—and re-
formed—by an eye-doctor, Den-
nis ‘Morgan. ;

JOAN CRAWFORD
Not. her fault

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 31, 1952 —

in Trinidad

novel tells

develop as they come up against
racial. discrimination, as they
face corruption or fall in love o
join in the workers’ struggles:
Le Maitre, strong and cout
ageous, is the leader of the mili
tant party. Popito Luna, one of
the most human characters 1
the book, is drawn towards him, —
and takes part in the workers
fight. ae
Andre de Coudray, a youns in- 5
tellectual, faces conflicts as b®
has to choose between the hollow
shams of the upper set and the
simplicity of the shy colored itl
Elena. : :
Joe Elias is an individualist
who wants the support of the
workers, but whose personality
is dominated by the ambition 1
become a big political figure.
There is a strike of baker’,
but the strike ends in disastet
Unrest continues as the worket®
live in poverty and oppressioo:
On the oilfields of Fyzaba®
workers turn from the reactio™
ary ‘Workers’ Party” to the
militant Workers’ Welfare !
by Le Maitre,
And, as the movement’ of th?
people develops, so does

character of Cassie, A timid 8°

vant girl when the book begit®
Cassie learns from bitter expert
ence at the hands of the polit,
cal police that the only road

the road of mass struggle. -

She conquers her fear, becomes
“a blade of steel.’

When Le Maitre holds bac
from calling a strike, Cassie 0P”
poses him and wins the meet ns
‘to her side. :

The struggle develops o@ the
Fyzahad oilfields, The worker!
strike, march, strike again.
police fire on the crowd, killin’ —
a number of workers, The wots
ers answer violence with vio y
ence. ‘ ;

The strike, is crushed. But the
Trinidad workers have ™#
their first big step forward.

_ * * i

DE BOISSIERE is to be COP
gratulated on the large ™®
ure of success achieved. — Y

The aspect of the book ee
may be criticised is its stress °,
the weaknesses of the worker
leaders —— their lack of t os
work and_ theoretical unde
standing, their tendency t®
individual attitude.

This seems to take away
full dramatic impact of the
strike at the end of the 20
and the character of Le
does not seem to develop 9° —
might have, J ;

The author would probably 2
reply that he has painted k
struggle as it actually occurtel”
It will be interesting to hear
cussion on these points.

In any case, Crown Jé
be a popular and valuabl

This novel and Frank Hav

the

Journey Into The Futu

two fine first choices f0
Australasian Book Society.

ee
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339 West Pender
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_ page 9