Welsh Journals

The Future of the Drama in Wales. By Ifan Kyrle Fletcher. IT is a matter for regret that the Blue Book issued by His Majesty's Stationery Office on Drama in Adult Education was published in the spring, the end of the amateur dramatic year, and therefore escaped the attention which it deserved from all inter- ested in the modern amateur movement. For the benefit of those who have not heard of the publication, it will suffice to say that the Blue Book is the official report of the Adult Education Committee which met from 1921 to 1925 under the chairmanship of the Rev. R. St. John Parry. The Committee's report is the most exhaustive account that has yet been published of the amateur dramatic movement in the United Kingdom. I would like to consider some of the findings of the Committee in relation to the Drama of Wales. One's first feeling is of amazement that so much energy is being poured into this activity, which has until recently been considered the province of the professional. But the second and predominant feeling is one of joy that this energy is, in most places, being directed towards the production of plays of artistic merit. There has always been a fluctuating interest in amateur theatricals, but as Mr. Harley Granville Barker has pointed out, there is a marked difference of outlook and aim between the spasmodic out- bursts of imitative amateur theatricals and the present movement. The fact," he said, that an increasing number of grown-up people find distraction for the winter evenings in amateur theatricals would be little more worth worrying about than the prevalence of Bridge or Mah Jongg. But the striking thing about the present movement of the revival of interest in drama is the liking of plays for their own sake and therefore, more often than not, the liking of good plays." A reading of reports from various towns makes it amply manifest that this liking of plays must have deep roots when it will lead people to give up so much of their spare time and to work so hard at a hobby in- dulged in after business hours. Mr. Nugent Monck, the director of the Maddermarket Theatre at Norwich, demands the most implicit obedience from his players, who are all amateurs. While rehearsing or acting, they are pledged to forego any other social life which they were in the habit of enjoying, and, as the theatre pro- duces a play every month, they are not left with much time for other relaxations. In the North of England, where the amateur dramatic movement is very strong, the same sacrifices for the attainment of an ideal are to be seen. Such societies as the Sheffield Playgoers, the York Everyman Theatre Company, and the Leeds Art Theatre Company are working nearly all the year round. To the credit of the Sheffield Playgoers stands a remarkable production of Bernard Shaw's cycle, Back to Methuselah." The interest in drama has not taken such a keen hold in the South and West of England. As a result of public demand for good plays, professional Repertory Theatres have been founded at Oxford, Bristol, and Bath, but there are no amateur societies with the records of the Unnamed Society of Manchester or the Stockport Garrick Club. No town in Wales, with the possible exception of Swansea, has a reputation for frequent and competent amateur productions Certainly no town in Wales holds such a variety of dramatic enthusiasms as does Bristol. In addition to the Little Theatre, founded by the fine-spirited action of the Bristol Rotary Club, there is a large and flourishing Playgoers' Society; a vigorous educational settlement with its headquarters at Folk House; and the more private and studious Clifton Arts Club. All these societies are as one in their insistence upon plays of artistic merit. The Playgoers' Society gives frequent readings of plays covering a wide field of inspiration; the Folk House players have given a very noteworthy perform- ance of Andromache"; and the Arts Club have staged Tchehov's The Cherry Orchard and Glaspell's Bernice," besides making experiments in the production of ballets. The noteable feature of these societies scattered over the country is the spirit of adventure which animates them. It is that care-free, vigorous spirit which I find lacking in the Welsh dramatic movement. Let it not be thought that I have loaded the dice against our Welsh efforts; I have been only too lenient. For I have not mentioned the astounding achievements of Citizen House, Bath or the Saint Pancras People's Theatre. Nor can the dramatic societies of Welsh villages show a standard of performances to compare with those given by the Stoneland Players or the Shoreham Village Players. The first-named have given more than forty performances of Greek plays translated by Gilbert Murray, in addition to many of Shakespeare's comedies. The report on Welsh drama was contributed to the Adult Education Committee by the Rev. R. G. Berry, of Gwaelodygarth, who gave an admirable summary of what little there was to tell. The only Welsh society considered by the Committee to be worthy of individual notice was the Portmadoc Players. It is a joy to find among their aims this: To encourage the serious study of the technique of play-writing, acting and play-producing, and of all those crafts which help towards artistic stage representation." Performances by Welsh societies are, as a rule, scrappy and ill-considered. The plays are put on the stage, they are not produced. The