Approaches to the drama

By EVE MacADAM
THERE is a feeling of expectancy whenever a play by a Catholic writer is presented. and this anticipation is aroused not only in Catholics, hut in other people also. Is this because the examination of human problems by the average non-Catholic writer is apt to be shallow, confined, as it usually is. to the secular? "My play's full of suspense and [chuckling herel — you'll be glad to hear —no message." This is typical of the comments made by non-C:athohe playWrigMe
DIVINE AID DIVINE AID
THE Catholic writer, on the other hand, is inclined to speak like this: "Basically the Catholic cannot help but demonstrate that no man can solve a problem without the help of the third party who is present in all human relationships -and that. as Bishop Fulton Sheen said in referring to man and wife. is God." These are the words of the rising Catholic dramatist, Bruce Stewart, who has scored a success with another television drama. "The Devil Makes Sunday." His last one. "Shadow Of A Pale Horse," presented first on radio and then on television. is now being filmed.
What has struck me most about Stewart's popularity with critics and audiences is that he pleases not only because of a strong story and good craftsmanship, but because in both plays he sets out boldly to examine man's failure to find secular justice and man's need, in the end, to turn to a higher power for solution.
SAVAGES
IN "The Devil Makes Sunday" he portrays two savage men, the governor of a convict colony and a convict, Clay. The parts were played with strength and conviction by Andre Morsel and Alfred Burke. Governor and convict are skilfully juxtaposed in their cruelty to one another, and yet so sure is the writer's touch that at no point does the audience lose sympathy for either man.
The period is 1840 and the first scenes show the governor's persecution of the convicts carried out in the name of discipline. When. in turn. the governor finds himself at the mercy of the convicts, Clay. his captor, shows himself to be less cruel. Unless the governor allows Clay to escape from the island. three hostages will be shot — the doctor. the chaplain, and the governor's daughter. The governor refuses to give in and Clay kills the doctor and then the padre. Before the clergyman dies he tells Clay: "Ifs a question of right and where right lies between you and the governor, Only God can
settle that for you. Otherwise it will be the devil in both your hearts telling the righteous man to excuse evil in the name of duty. and the evil man to believe good things are achieved by force and murder"
UNFORESEEN
IN the last moments of the play both men humble themselves. but an unforeseen incident destroys their new-found equilibrium
story. I prefer a subject in which the problem offers treatment on a wider scale and where it can be teen plainly that human beings must refer to a higher power.
"If you believe in a power beyond, then there must be another standard of reference. This is not necessarily a 'spiritual' one in the sense of prayer. but in the idea that God is part of the human family and all human problems must be referred to Him."
PORTLAND
ANOTHER convict settlement, that of Portland during the eighteen-seventies, came to life last week through the eyes of Johnny Morris in the Home Service programme, "Coast and Country," Morris' talent for factual observation is as good as Stewart's for dramatisation.
Interviews with local inhabitants c ere adroitly selected and created an effect that was sinister, but not without a touch of comedy too. I particularly liked the one with the man who would not utter a certain word — a word that was taboo on Portland. and refused to say it even when Morris offered him £5. The word was "rabbits."
INDECENCY
yET another piece about poor old Oscar Wilde, this time a mediocre one from Granada in their "Trial" series. Why this sudden upsurge of interest in this particular aspect of Oscar Wilde's life? If it is. as one suspects, beeatise of the interest aroused in homosexuality by the Wolfenden Report, then one can only deplore it.
One cannot but deplore. too, the evidence Granada deliberately selected from the trial. The two current films about Oscar Wilde Robert Morley and Peter Finch in the title roles — chose. properly, to imply its nature and leave it at that.
This was the evidence from the youths who implicated Wilde, evidence which could only pander to unhealthy curiosity. What persuaded Granada to feed into our living rooms these verbatim reports about gross indecency?
and both revert to type.
Why did Stewart choose the theme of justice in both plays? find that if I examine a particular problem, divorce, for incIance. I tend to end tip with a sectional