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LETTERS IN CANADA, 1938 313 III. DRAMA W. S. M'LN'E As has been remarked before in these pages, the printed play is at best an incomplete realization of the dramatist's intention, and our survey includes not only such Canadian plays as were published in 1938, but such as have received their first production du.ring the year. The number of plays published is, as usual, smalL It is gratifying to note among them at least one that received successful production in 1937 (see last year's survey): Relief, by Minnie Evans Bicknell. This very fine one-act play of conditions on the prairies stands the test of re-reading. It should have .an honoured place in any anthology of Canadian onecact plays. The only full-length play published during 1938 was Brian Doherty's adaptation of Bruce MarshaU's novel, Father Malachy's Miracle, which had some success on the New York stage a year ago. It is difficult to say how far a translation from novel to play form should be considered original creative work, but Mr Doherty's play is a competent, stage"worthy piece of craftsmanship, which shows him capable of saying something in the dramatic idiom. Two other adaptations received production. Herman Voaden arranged excerpts from Louis Hernon's Maria Chapdelaine as material for "Symphonic Theatre" treatment, with narrators, spiri t voices, and dancers, in addition to the "real" characters, the whole staged against a changing background of colour and music. Although the work is possessed of great dignity and, as staged by the adapter-producer, has moments of beauty, yet one cannot help perceiving that the simple strength and pathos of Hernon's story is diluted by the four-fold attack on the consciousness of the spectator. I feel rather strongly that a work of art can only Jose by being translated into a medium different from that in which its origi~al creator realized it. H ilda M. Smith's "Here Will I Nest" is no second-hand creation. This is a real contribution to our native drama. It uses authentic Canadian material, from a field hitherto unharvested. It is a full-length play on the settling of Western Ontario by Colonel Thomas Talbot, dramatically presented, substantial without being heavy or mock-heroic. It is alive, and can stand on its merits as a pJay in spite of its historical authenticity. Among the ten full-length plays, first produced during the - year, are three excellent mildly insane comedies. Wynn Rutty's 314 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY "Merry-Go-Round" is a broadly funny domestic farce which with more expert handling may have the makings of a popular success. "Down the Rain Pipe, Darling," by Allen Noblston, a far cry from his pretentious "poetic" drama of last year, is another of the same sort. Its plot, the old one of the substitute husband, is thin and not very expertly constructed, but it is funny, and it could be rewritten into a first-rate farce. Third and best of this trio is "Come Round on Tuesday" by J. Munro MacLennan, a slap-stick comedy about a fairy-tale royal family, in which social and political comment is concealed in custard pie. There is a dash of George Kaufman and a suggestion of W. S. Gilbert in this mad and rather pleasant concoction. "Judas Incorporated," by Margot Osborn, is the only long play with a serious theme. It presents an armament magnate versus a Socialist chauffeur who marries the A.M.'s daughter. It has considerable punch, but its "timeliness" will date it badly. "Chapter Ten," by Mary Wallace Brooks, is a lurid thriller, in which a slinky and sinuous authoress is killed with a knife from Singapore. It has more atmosphere than anything else, but might be acceptable to an audience that liked its thrills thick and slab. "Time Brings Tomorrow," by Marjorie Lucas, is a melodrama with some comedy, that promises better things from its author when she has broken away from the influence of the films. Coming next to the published orie-acters, one finds only four Canadian periodicals giving space to plays: Echoes, the organ of the I.O...

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