“DAWN OF LOVE.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3411, 30 December 1911, Page 4

“DAWN OF LOVE.”

MUSIC HALL FANTASY MODIFIED AFTER L.C.C. INTERVENES.

MR MEYER’S COMPLAINT

“The Dawn of Love,” a dance fantasy produced at the Palladium Music Hall, was immediately withdrawn at the behest of the London County Council, which moved on the complaint of the Rev. F. B. Meyer. A modified version of the dance was given on Wednesday night, this having received the sanction of a special committee of the L.C.C., consisting of the chairman, Mr E. White, Colonel Probyn, Messrs Greenwood, Smallwood, Lloyd Taylor, and the Rev. Stewart Headlam.' This committee saw a private performance in the afternoon, first of the modified dance, then of the original, and gave the management permission to present the former. Mr Meyer was asked to go and see the dance, which had been much advertised, and came to the conclusion that it was based on the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, and that the costumes of the dancers approximated too nearly to that associated with the Old Testament episode to. be consonant with present-aay propriety. Mile. Nydia Nerigne and Ivan Petroff were ' the performers. As they wandered in a garden there was thunder, and a voice was heard warning them as to the Tree of Knowledge. This prompted the woman to pluck the apple, and a “Dance of Passion” followed. The producers deny that they had any intention of representing Adam ancl Eve, but Mr Meyer’s visit was followed by a visit from a London County Council official. As a result the licensee of the hall was summoned to Spring Gardens, and agreed to withdraw the fantasy. In the course of an interview the manager of the Palladium said: “We cannot consult the private prejudice of every very occasional visitor, still less of those who come merely to look for something objectionable. Till it was suggested by such people, neither we nor, we think, the majority of our clients found anything objectionable in the turn.” He added the management .would naturally give way to any manifestation of pulnic dislike, and to authority, but they did not think the fantasy in any worse taste than other peifoimances which had escaped censure.