Vol. 2 No. 1 - Modernist Magazines Project

79 PLAYS FOR THE COUNTRY THEATRE
Placing then this information beside the general principles
set forth in the December number, I stood hamstrung
upon a peak in Darien. Darien is half-way between the
aforesaid principles and Circulation. And how placate
the said Circulation ? For in the list which has finally
emerged, there is, for example, no melodrama. One
thriller—but no melodrama. And only one farce. The
fact is that the Irish country actors have done all the gDod
melodramas until they and everyone else are weary of them
and although I have plunged through many of those not
overdone, I have not yet found one which is not either
technically beyond the means of the Country Theatre,
or unbearably ineffective. And among good modern
melodramas there is scarcely one which would not lead
an Irish country group into trouble of a sort only too
ready to show itself. This difficulty arises again with good
(theatrically) modern farces. And it is again true of
' modern plays not about Ireland,' not to mention some
of the best of the plays which are about Ireland. However,
* We're not bet yet' is a country saying, and here is
a second list of plays.
IN THE TRAIN by FRANK O'CONNOR and HUGH HUNT
(Ada-piedfrom the story in Frank O'Connor's second
volume of short stories> ' Bones of Contention*
Macmillan : 75. 6d. )
O fons Bandusiae—a gush upward, with a billowing
undersurge of passion, laughter and tears. A fine theatre
rendering of one of this generation's gifts to immortality.
One act. They are going back to Farrandore from the
city—the young woman acquitted that day of murdering
the husband that her family and the way of things had
given to her ; the Civic Guards ; the villagers whose
evidence had made sure that one of their own place and
humanity would not be named guilty of murder. She is
alone in one compartment ; Guards and people in other