WOMAN AND THE THEATRE

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2390, 4 January 1909, Page 2

WOMAN AND THE THEATRE

THE "MATINEE GIRL.”

"If I were asked,” said' a successful actor, "what is,the most pernicious tendency of the.,American playhouse, I should unhesitatingly say the bad influence of the matinee girl.” ■He explains that he does not necessarily mean the young girls who are allowed too much freedom by devoted, hut misguided parents, but ■also the "indolent candy-eating woman, whose idea of ..amusement is found in omnivorous theatre-going.” "Far be it from me to cry down the habit of theatre-going. What I would rather do is to curb its greedy tendency. I should like to open the eyes of the matinee girl to the vital side of the drama, and the part it can take and does take in the lives of the community. I should not take away their ideal, hut I should try to make them appreciate the artist, not the player.” Most moderate theatre-goers will endorse these sentiments, for, while admitting the benefit of amusement and relaxation and very often 'education to be had from the theatre, it cannot be denied that the greedy tendency to rush to every “show” that’s on, irrespective of its merits, is disorganising, to say the least of it. "The American woman”—and it might he added, the Australian woman —will ever be the chief support of the theatre. The average man is too seriously engaged in earning a fortune to care a great deal for the theatre as an art. And to a mother I should say, "Don’t let your daughter become too early ia habitual theatre-goer. Make a play a rare treat—-a reward for good-behaviour. Read to her Lamb’s Tales, from Shakepeare, then take her to see the plays to which she has listened. She will find them quite as fascinating as musical comedy or the trained dogs at the yaudeville.” “The .responsibility for the right path of the- appreciation of the theatre rests with the pai’cnt or guardian. Moral responsibility usually falls on tho woman and so if wo are to have"' drama of the highest typo tho future theatre-goer must

be guarded and directed by her. ■ But above all let this rule influence every another and guardian; take no young people to see a play about which a previous inquiry lias not been made' — even if its name is known throughout two continents.”