[Tue Ancurrocrere or Purascas. Moony Titearias ano Cixeas—By Morton Shand, B, 7. Batsford Lé
This beautifully illustrated work will be read by laymen and_architects with great interest, By the latter it should be appreciated because Mr. Shand lays. special em-Phasis on the importance of obtain-Ing the assistance of architectural experts when dealing with the problems of theatre construction. The layman will be faseincted by the amount of study which Mr. Shand has given to a very important side of theatrical production. The traditions of the Greek drama impelled close attention to the setting of plays, and it is a matter of re-Broach to the modern age that so little attention has been paid to this vital factor in play production. "It may be remembered that when Dr. Gray "electrified the "educational world by inaugurating the Greel Play at Bradfield, no little of the success of that enterprise was derived from the reproduction, faithfully as resources permitted, of the classical open-air auditorium. The theatre in England architect turally has. advanced little beyond the idea of the booth at the country fair. With the introduction of the cinema theatre into the field, this dea has been retained too rigidly. Mr. Shand is particularly severe on the lack of imagination displayed by' the big cinema. syndicates" in England, and he turns to Germany for most of his illustrations of the Way in which theatre architecture should be tackled. In fact, with the exception of the new Savoy Theatre, the Kensington Cinema (with. reservations). the new Twickenham Theatre and the even newer Victoria Cinema in Westminster the English modern theatres are vigorously condemned. That gorgeous atrocity near Marble Arch is dismissed by Mr. Shand as "a pathetic example of strident bedizenment and. com Parable only with the parodics of Savile Row. sobriety. exhibited. in Strand shop windows labelled latest West End cut.'" The Regal, in Mr, Shand's view, "looks as if it had been dressed for its part as a flash Bigolo by some Alexander the Great of the Edgware Road." The New Empire in Leicester Square comes in for severe treatment als the monstrous {fue of' an "Anglo ire" in London. the. Paris interior "ree possessing genuine decorative charm, and that, unhappily, was devsroyed by' fire, and the reconditioners—appalling word—elected to ruin the reincarnation by developing it-"on regal lines."
The secret of this failure in London isin part explained by Mr, Shand: planned." the manager of a leading Gotten, when a cinema I, beng Brm'of, decorators rote Ina trade Paper, "ihe question of-decoration Srerisoked" (overlooked is goad!) Until the building fa an advanced Stage of conatvuttion?" "Thin fare ort evidence of something which anyone who has taken the trouble analyze "the scheme of decorations?
the average, Engin cinema arose along have secretly suspected. what other country would. such" a eke of alf nile; "where fiser such a" roniantle passion for 'Stree competition and equality of opt portunity," be found among the Besiness" community'? The orme. dee orator addy that he. was once asked produce" a" Tutor effect Dorit building." Bot this triumph of hiybridlam hes now been cei red the Modernist interior of ths"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.