Play pictorial vol. LXX no 415 Feb 1937
Witch of Edmonton
2 photos (including one in her "boy" disguise
Actually appeared after the production had ended
Wild Decembers
Play Pictorial
Plays of the month, no. 376 vol. LXIII
It is necessary to bring one's own knowledge of the Brontes and one's own interest in the to Miss Dane's play, for she had not given to her work the form that might enable it, as a work of art, to stand alone Determined to leave none of the ground altogether unexplored, determined likewise to make a tragic heroine of Charlotte by laying the greatest possible emphasis on the episode of Monsieru Heger, she has given three scenes to Brussels, one to Smith, Elder's publishing office, and no fewer than ten, spanning a period of 13 years, to the parsonanage of Haworth. This is episodic treatment carried to an extreme. its result is that no scene can be more than a note on teh subject... Times
Miss Dane seems to have understood the Brontes intellectually, but emotionally they have escaped her. We are informed, and we believe, that we are in the presence of tragedy, but we do not fee it. There is something cold and detached in the author's manner' and her deliberate avoidance (or so it seems) of theatricality has the unfortunate result of giving the actors very little to work on. To put the case with a phrase, Wild Decembers is a play which I would rather read than see. For Miss Dane can write - Daily Telegraph
Clemence Dane and Diana Wynyard have made Charlotte Bronte into a fascinating and human figure.
The actress has really to act, and not compose a character for the eye alone, It was in achieving this difficult talks that Diana Wynyard's performance was so fine in its sensitiveness and imagination.
She brought tears to the eyes in many a scene and nothing could have been more delicate in its restrained emotion than the scene in which she at first repels the love of Arthur Bell Nichols, her father's curate, whom she laughed at in one of her novels. It was a beautifully acted scenes, not only by Diana Wynyard but by Ralph Richardson as well.
Wild Decembers is a triumph for our modern stage - news chronicle.
no. 391 vol lxv Nov 1934
Eden end by j B Priestley
produced at the duchess theatre, Sept 13th
Photos
Description of the play
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