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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 9. August 10th 1949

The Old Man of the Mountains

The Old Man of the Mountains

Training College deviated from its presentation of Shaw or near-Shavian plays by turning to a religious theme in Norman Nicholson's play, "The Old Man of the Mountains".

It is difficult to assess the qualities of this play. There are lines of almost exquisite poetic beauty in it, especially in some passages of the Raven, who serves not only, as in the Biblical story, as the messenger of God, but also as the interpreter of the underlying thought to the audience. But there are also scenes of almost incredible crudity, when no poetic imagery could cover up the dramatic poverty of the action. Mr. Nicholson had to endeavour to wed the Biblical story (I Kings, 17/18) to everyday action; also, to modernise the story in order to make it more "palatable".

Theory

But was this really necessary? True, the two worlds of ordinary, banal life and the realm of faith may require different media of expression. But it is quite sufficient to recall the sublime solution of this difficult problem in Eliot's "Family Reunion" to see how far short the present play fails. One wonders how a playwright could make Obadiah speak—in colloquial English, mind you!—of a "compromise" between God's word and what appears to be a completely secular and purely financial proposal of an irrigation scheme, while what is actually at stake is of course the drought brought about by the wrath of God. We would even go further and ask whether the force of Faith, the real glory of redemption after conversion, is anywhere in the play well brought out. We find that there the play follows too closely on the Biblical lines, whereas elsewhere it takes liberties of interpretation which serve its purpose less well. To believe in God only after Elijah has restored the child's life, provided Ruth with plenty amidst want, and given rain to the dying land, may be the story as told—but it is also infinitely more, and it would have been the task of the play—so we believe—to bring out the real struggle for faith, more than the outward symptoms alone. One cannot help feeling that Ahab has not experienced any conversion at all; his cynical remarks that Elijah has "won the first round" is just another example of what looks like Mr. Nicholson's bad taste, which he can link to moments of superb understanding. Why Elijah should give the Squire his inspired fiat for the completion of an irrigation scheme, without the laser's conversion, remains an open question. What we were told at the outset was that the Squire and his followers were bent on making money rather than listening to the voice of God. Somehow we feel that they have not really, fundamentally changed at all.

What has left us so dissatisfied is presumably that Mr. Nicholson did not succeed in either re-creating a Biblical theme with all the force of a medieval mystery [unclear: play] (like Everyman), or in presenting the eternal problem of faith in a modern and yet deeply dramatic form (like [unclear: Elliot).] We may grant that the play was interesting; but that it is forceful or convincing or even beautiful is a claim to which we cannot subscribe.

Neuberg Trials

In Mr. Frank Dean, Training College has a competent stage designer, who has created a convincing setting for his story. Somehow one would wish for more space for this type of play, especially in the first two acts, when the stage is divided in two, but Mr. Dean has made good use of whatever space was at his disposal. A serious omission on the programme was, in our opinion, an acknowledgement of thanks to the actor of the main role. As it is, we were told—quite by accident—that Mr. Neuberg undertook to play Elijah at very short notice, and although no longer a student at Training College. This is the stranger, as no one can doubt his deep understanding of a difficult part, and the apparent ease in handling it. If this production was a success—irrespective of our opinion about the play itself—surely some special merit in this success should have gone to Klaus Neuberg.

That is, of course, not to say that Mr. Neuberg "made" the play. The sincerity of acting, especially shown by May Schreiber, Sue Thompson and Cynthia Coleman, added much to the force of the presentation. We thought that Annette Durey as Rebecca sometimes failed to remain within a certain "nuance" of acting, well maintained by the above-mentioned members of the cast. We were less enthusiastic still about the casting of Obadiah and Ahab—neither of them sounded convincing in their parts, both admittedly difficult enough. It is a pity that Mr. Davies lacks the necessary self-assurance and command of his lines that are so essential for convincing acting. Colleena Dalma as the boy Ben acted convincingly and oharmingly—the part in itself is a bit too "sugary" to be altogether acceptable, but Colleena made good use of whatever lines there were, especially in the third act, where she and Mr. Neuberg had the best-written and thought-out part of the play to themselves. Alex Kettles was very good in the few lines he had to say—at least he could be sure to which world he belonged . . . The Voices of the Beck were well rehearsed, but what they said was strangely uninspired compared to some of the finely spoken and often convincing lines of Sue Thompson (Raven).

The production rested in the experienced hands of Pat Lowe, and as we have come to expect of her by now, the play came off smoothly and very well indeed. Our compliments also to those back-stagers who have helped to contribute to a play which [unclear: previously]—qua play—satisfied others more than us, while, on the whole, all parties seemed to agree on the high standard of this TC production.