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y separately published work icon Archway Motif single work   drama  
Issue Details: First known date: 1935... 1935 Archway Motif
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The final play to be staged by Adelaide experimental theatre company Ab-Intra, Archway Motif was inspired by the the white ballroom at St Corantyn, where the work was eventually produced. In Dreamers and Visionaries Thelma Afford recalls:

[Baruch] perceived that the arch had two opposing sides in conflict - 'good and evil, wisdom and folly, etc'. Yet he saw further that 'an Archway is something more than two sides in opposition. It is something of still splendour and poised majesty.' It was with the fuller application of this theme that the play mainly deals. Even in this last production, Baruch made no concession to his audience: 'Half the audience was frankly puzzled as to the meaning of it all, and the other half looked desperately anxious to appear au fait with something they couldn't grasp' (p.71).

The characters included the Old Player (representing the Wisdom of the Ages), Kay (the youthful president of any student movement), Gerda (representing everybody's lost love), The Girl (who 'blazened across each man's path, once like a blazing star'), the Old Gentleman (puzzled and irritated by the youth of the day), and an [unnamed] leader of a conspiracy.


Characters

GERDA

THE OLD PLAYER

KAY

THE OLD GENTLEMAN WITH GOLD-RIMMED GLASSES

THE GIRL

THE PAST-PRESIDENT

THE LAD WITH THE LUTE

THE LEADER OF THE CONSPIRACY

THE CONSPIRACY

THE ARCHWAY VOICES

Exhibitions

Notes

  • Thelma Afford further notes that this final production brought together almost everybody who had ever helped Ab-Intra.
  • The curtain-raiser for the 1935 St Corantyn season was The Curious Herbal, a rhyming fantasy of old Chelsea days from the repertoirs of the Green Leaf Players.

    The season was initially planned for two nights (1-2 March). A third performance was added due to the enthusiastic response of the public.

  • One of the parts in the 1935 Adelaide production was undertaken by the theatrical donkey which had played the role of 'Hepzibah' in The Road to Bethlehem, and which 'Lady Kitty' records 'raised many smiles in the studio' ('Round the Bridge Table,' p.19).
  • Author's note:

    "The following amplifies somewhat the information about "Archway Motif" given in the programme. the ballroom at "St Corantyn, " the residence of Mr. & Mrs. Lavington Bonython (later Sir Lavington and Lady Bonython), was divided at one end by an archway. The latter was a restriction; but at the same time a challenge. A way had to be found to make it visually significant. Moreover, the cast needed to be large enough to provide parts to members and friends who had worked with the Ab-intra Studio in other productions. After all, this was a "Farewell Performance"!

    As preparations, including the writing of the play, had to be done in rather a hurry, I seized the possibility of combing the archway with some elements from the enduring master-piece, "The Snow Queen" by Hans Anderson. This accorded with the Studio's assumption that fairytales and folklore were basic and timeless sources of real theatre material. 

    Those who have treasured "The Snow Queen" from their childhood will remember how the young girl, Gerda, left her humble, sheltered background and wandered out into the world to seek the boy, Kay, her lost playmate. He had been stolen from her by the Snow Queen, and set to work in her frozen, northern palace on mathematical and geometrical problems. 

    After a sequence of adventures, when humans as well as animals either tried to help her onwards or persuade her to stay with them, Gerda at last finds Kay, as we had anxiously hoped she would. But he dies not respond to her – not until her warm tears falling on him thaw the splinter of ice in his heart, and his old love for Gerda surged back to him. 

    What the audiences were able to make of "Archway Motif" I would have greatly liked to know. Some of South Australia's most discerning people were present, as the newspaper reports show. Their applause indicated that what they saw and heard had at least held them. Afterwards, however, when some of them – even those who had attended all three performances – asked me if I could not help them to arrive at an interpretation, I could only answer that I myself could not say exactly, adding that the important thing was not what it meant to me; but to them, for whom it was written. 

    "Archway Motif" had no further performances, thus making it the last play which the Ab-intra studio ever produced in Australia. But later in London it came to the attention of Michael St. Denis of the famous French group, "La Compagnie de Quinz." At that time he was intent on forming an English-speaking company somewhat along the same lines, I understood, as the original French one. It was reported to me by Antonia White (notable for her book "Frost in May") that St. Denis had been highly complimentary about "Archway Motif." Antonia White, who had been looking out for new material for St. Denis, could, of course, have been exaggerating. Anyway, St. Denis subsequently invited Alan Harkness and myself to work with him. Unfortunately, we were not free just then to give him more than some spare time. But that is another story."

    K.B. 

Production Details

  • 1935: White ballroom, St Corantyn, Adelaide; 1-3 March

    • Directors Kester Baruch and Alan Harkness; Producer Ab-Intra Studio Theatre; Stage Managers Lance Brown and Joan Kinmont.
    • Cast incl. Alan Harkness (Old Player), Kester Baruch (Kay), Agnes Dobson (Gerda), Thema Thomas (the Girl), David Dawson (Old Gentleman), Frank Bailey (leader of the conspiracy), John Morgan, Mildred Field, Janet Cleland, Joanna Seith, Shirley Stevens, Marjorie Francis, Ruby Skinner, Lucy Willoughby, Ada Stephens, W. Kennedy, H. Tideman and Max Afford.

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Dreamers and Visionaries : Adelaide's Little Theatres From the 1920s to the early 1940s Thelma Afford , Kerrie Round (editor), Sydney : Currency Press , 2004 Z1451581 2004 single work criticism 'Between the 1920s and 1940s there was a diverse flowering of amateur theatres in Adelaide which were experimental, inventive and ahead of their time, anticipating later theatre movements. Dreamers and Visionaries explores the rise and fall of these little theatres, reviewing their performances and personalities, and celebrating their outstanding legacy of experimentation. Afford shows how such groups greatly enhanced the South Australian theatre scene, forming the basis of Adelaide's reputation as 'the city of culture' and helping to contribute to the development of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.' (Publisher's blurb)
Ab Intra Players Successful : Production of Two Plays 1935 single work
— Appears in: The News [Adelaide] , 2 March 1935; (p. 5)

— Review of Archway Motif Kester Baruch , 1935 single work drama

Review of the opening night performance of the 1935 Adelaide production of Archway Motif (White Ballroom, St. Corantyn, Adelaide; 1 March).

Round the Bridge Table : Interesting Play 'Lady Kitty' , 1935 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 22 February 1935; (p. 15)

— Review of Archway Motif Kester Baruch , 1935 single work drama

A preview of the forthcoming Ab-Intra farewell production, Archway Motif (White Ballroom, St. Coranyn, Adelaide; 1-3 March 1935).

Farewell Performance at St. Corantyn 1935 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 2 March 1935; (p. 19)

— Review of Archway Motif Kester Baruch , 1935 single work drama

Review of the opening night performance of the 1935 Adelaide production of Archway Motif (White Ballroom, St. Corantyn, Adelaide; 1 March).

Farewell Performance at St. Corantyn 1935 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 2 March 1935; (p. 19)

— Review of Archway Motif Kester Baruch , 1935 single work drama

Review of the opening night performance of the 1935 Adelaide production of Archway Motif (White Ballroom, St. Corantyn, Adelaide; 1 March).

Round the Bridge Table : Interesting Play 'Lady Kitty' , 1935 single work column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 22 February 1935; (p. 15)

— Review of Archway Motif Kester Baruch , 1935 single work drama

A preview of the forthcoming Ab-Intra farewell production, Archway Motif (White Ballroom, St. Coranyn, Adelaide; 1-3 March 1935).

Ab Intra Players Successful : Production of Two Plays 1935 single work
— Appears in: The News [Adelaide] , 2 March 1935; (p. 5)

— Review of Archway Motif Kester Baruch , 1935 single work drama

Review of the opening night performance of the 1935 Adelaide production of Archway Motif (White Ballroom, St. Corantyn, Adelaide; 1 March).

y separately published work icon Dreamers and Visionaries : Adelaide's Little Theatres From the 1920s to the early 1940s Thelma Afford , Kerrie Round (editor), Sydney : Currency Press , 2004 Z1451581 2004 single work criticism 'Between the 1920s and 1940s there was a diverse flowering of amateur theatres in Adelaide which were experimental, inventive and ahead of their time, anticipating later theatre movements. Dreamers and Visionaries explores the rise and fall of these little theatres, reviewing their performances and personalities, and celebrating their outstanding legacy of experimentation. Afford shows how such groups greatly enhanced the South Australian theatre scene, forming the basis of Adelaide's reputation as 'the city of culture' and helping to contribute to the development of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.' (Publisher's blurb)
Last amended 27 Jun 2018 21:27:49
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