Great War Theatre

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

This revue consists almost entirely of a number of entirely disconnected one act plays. I take them separately, noting the passages which seem to be more or less dubious, in the order of which the mass of material has been sent in. Being topical they make something more than usual. We begin with an ordinary revue scene. A revue is to be produced and the manger is without a chorus or comedia. A countryman arrives with sixteen daughter’s then we have (1) furniture shop, with a Frenchwoman and an engaged couple trying to buy furniture. It consists chiefly of misunderstandings of French. There is some vague double extent but nothing definite to censor. (2) ‘Lysistrata’ a Modern Greek lady invites vicarious other ladies from Salonika to get them to stop the war after the fashion of the ancient original. This is indicated, but not coarsely. Some jibes at Greece for not joining are fair comment, I suppose. I have marked on pp4 and 5, a passage of the Russian representative being so dressed as to provoke a pub about the ‘great Bare’, not as improper but as possibly offensive to Russians. (3) 'in the tube’, a tube scene with various drool people - harmless. (4) Turkish bath scene. In the cooling room of a ladies’ Turkish bath, with a more or less funny episode of a cinema actress unable to express herself except in gesture. P.2 girls in a ‘diaphanous bathing costume’. This deserves a caution. P.3 a joke about the ‘censor’ - not worth noting, I think. There is also - p.4 - a rather coarse dialogue of masseuses - but hardly to be cut. A song they sing (slip: the songs are given separately at the end) is also rather coarse. (5) Government racing. Mr Asquith, Lloyd George, etc., engage farcically in laying odds, hiring a jockey - who is called ‘Wilson Woodgrow’ but does not otherwise suggest the president- and ends in a rough and tumble ‘rally’. There are so many precedents of this sort of thing that it can hardly be censored now, I suppose. I think it is undesirable, but it is not malicious. (6) The minesweeper. This is a sort of ‘spoof’ play: a mine sweeper and his wife complain of various ailments and are cured by a sham advertised quack medicine. After all this we get back to the something. Act 1, scene 11. The sixteen girls are engaged and so is their father. The business of showing their legs on p.2 may need a caution, but I don’t suppose there is any harm in it. As will have been seen I do not definitely advise any cutting in this revue, much of which is fairly amusing, but some of the points I have mentioned may deserve some consideration form a political point of view. Recommended for license. G. S. Street

Licensed On: 19 Apr 1916

License Number: 203

Genre(s):

British Library Reference: LCP1916/9

British Library Classmark: Add MS 66130 Q

Performances

Date Theatre Type
27 Apr 1916 Comedy Theatre, London Unknown Licensed Performance