Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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it reality. Although his plays are very fanciful, they are yet so human in their characters that the audience falls into a state of easy belief and interest at once, and is then whisked off into a series of adventures drawn purely from the imagination. In spite of this obvious fact, one feels that it is perfectly natural because Barrie makes use of the most ordinary, accustomed emotions. By these means, for instance, he takes us ofif to the Never Never Land with Peter Pan and Wendy, John and Michael. The latter, who is just four years old and has only recently learned to fly, keeps falling asleep and dropping down through space to the sea — and Peter teases Wendy by keeping her in suspense until the last min- ute, when he swoops down and catches Michael just as his toes are getting wet, and wakens him. Then in the Never Never Land they have the most amazing adventures, which keep going around in circles; as for instance, Captain Hook is after Peter, the crocodile is after the Pirate (having eaten one of his hands he wants to follow it up with a whole meal), and the Indians are after the crocodile, and so on until it comes back to Peter again. So they live in a continuous round of thrills and excitement. Again in a Kiss for Cinderella we are carried off on the wings of Barrie ' s imagination, and this time also it is to a land of child ' s fancy. It is really the fancy of a little sick slavey of London who in her delirium thinks that she is Cinderella, and we are permitted to go with her to the ball, where they serve ices and cones which the Queen devours as greedily as any small boy. Here we see the ex- travagant splendour of colour and costume that a child would picture, and as one event follows another helter-skelter as in a dream, Cinderella rollicks feverishly through the gaieties to find, when she comes out of her delirium, that the Prince is hovering over her in the form of her heroic Policeman! As the curtain falls he presents her with a tiny glass slipper, and his heart at the same time. We feel that it has been a glimpse into dreamland. In the play, Dear Brutus , founded on Shakespeare ' s lines, The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings, we see the characters go into the Mystic Wood which springs up over night,, and as all these people feel that at some time in their lives they took the wrong turning, there they live for a few hours the life they might have had. Although this play is of a more serious type than most written by Barrie, it has its comedy too. The young man who was in love with one woman and married to another, went into the Wood for a second chance and found that if, when he had come to this turning, he had mar- ried the girl he thought he loved, he would still be passionately making love to someone else, in fact, to his real wife! The most aristf)cratic woman in the party, who had never married, found in the Wood that she would have been married to the butler of her host. As everyone remembered his or her experiences in the Wood even after they came out of it and ba( k to real life, it led to many complica- 17

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IMPRESSIONS OF BARRIE ' S PLAYS The stage is the best medium of interpreting the ideas of the author. It reaches a larger audience and does so in a more im- pressive way then any other means. As a rule comedy is much more appreciated than more serious drama, but comedy must be tempered with something worth while to make it at all lasting. On the other hand, drama without humour to lighten it is un- balanced. It takes a master playwright to combine the two so that his comedies have an underlying meaning, and his dramas are full of that whimsical humour which makes Barrie so famous. Barrie has an eye for the ridiculous and sees the absurd in every situation. He cannot leave a solemn state of affairs alone, but slips in a little comedy to remind us of the brighter side of life. Apart from his sense of humour however Barrie has a great faculty for stirring one ' s imagination. He has a very vivid imagin- ation himself, which only needs his ability as a playwright to give 16

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tions. The funny, little, fairy-like man called Lob, who asked these people to his home in the country just in order to play with them, to send them into the Wood and see the results, brings about a happy re-union through his efforts between a husband and wife who have become almost hopelessly estranged. The play furnishes food for thought, and though it is very fanciful it has a double meaning and is quite unlike such light comedies as Peter Pan or a ' ' Kiss for Cinderella . Dear Brutus shows us a great truth more vividly than many a drama which confines itself solely to situations that are possible. It works out a familiar domestic problem in a charming manner, having nothing sordid or bitter about it. In it Barrie draws many appealing characters, particularly that of the artist ' s little daughter who might have been. She is a rather wistful little thing and we feel all along that a vague sadness hangs over her. This is given reality when the artist goes out of the Wood again — he has to leave the daughter there, where his glimpse into the life he might have had gave her life for a few hours. E.B.— VI. AD ITALIAM The editor requests of me, Since I have sailed across the sea, An article on Italy. Not being known as authoress. This wish affects with great distre ss One whom the gods in no way bless. Well, one sails o ' er the azure sea, (There ' s very little else to see) And lands in sunny Napoli. The beggars swarm in multitude: The customs officers are rude. And wildly gesturing guides intrude. After a hot and noisy night Disturbed by many an insect bite, The traveller welcomes back the light. Vesuvius is near Pompeii, We board the train and ride away After at least an hour ' s delay. Next we must visit ancient Rome, Climb St. Peter ' s lofty dome, And shiver through a catacomb. 18