Curtain Theatre, Rochdale

‘It is pleasure to report that the Rochdale Curtain Theatre has commenced another stimulating season. The pleasure of seeing the Curtain Theatre players lies in that they can be conscientiously judged for what they are, that is serious and discerning students of drama. The galling trouble to-day is that so many people appear not to have the intelligence to realise that the art of the theatre amounts to something more than the act of strutting a stage. True, it is a very elementary distinction, but none the less important for that. On this occasion the Curtain Theatre present us with two plays of strongly contrasting character. It would be difficult to select more violent opposites than “Riders to the Sea” by J. M. Synge, and the “ Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet” by George Bernard Shaw … our opinion is that “The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet” is unquestionably the better of the two plays. Melodrama it may be, but that does not prevent its author from putting into it more solid intellectual entertainment than is found in the majority of plays that are thrice as long. It is always so easy dismiss Shaw as a clever contortionist; it saves the often painful recognition that Shaw is a great master at the art of piercing our social armour. For instance a most appropriate text for “The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet” would be “Let he that is without sin cast the first stone.” That even the worst of us has a sound streak is shrewdly demonstrated in a manner that is typically Shavian. There is unerring purpose behind Mr. Shaw’s Wild Western melodrama. Those who act according to the letter and not the spirit get short shrift, as indeed they deserve to do. The play is put across with commendable verve and compelling effect. There is special interest for Todmorden people in the fact that Mr. William Taylor, whose abilities are well known locally, plays very ably the important part of Sheriff Kemp. Mr. Alfred Wolstencroft gave a lively rendering of Blanco; Mr. Ernest Phillips was most convincing as the sanctimonious, hypocritical humbug. Elder Daniels’ while Miss Lillian A. Blomley gave the part of Feemy Evans, the emotional vivacity that forcibly helped to drive the moral of the play well home. The jurors, cowboys. and women (among whom was another Todmordian, Mrs. Elsie Hollows) adequately filled the minor roles’. Todmorden & District News, Friday 28 October 1932.