Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-01
DRAMA PROSPERS
IN RURAL ENGLAND
Sons of the Soil Appear in
Many Interesting Pro-
auctions.
SC0TLAND'S COUNTRY
DISTRICTS DEPOPULATED
Intolerable Dizziness and Opportuni-
ties in Dominions Are
Causes.
Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.

Foreign Correspondence Of The Star
LONDON, June 20 1913
The theater that has been fitted up In
an Essex barn by Lady Warwick, in con-
nection with Robertson SCOTS non-party
club at Dunmow. Is one Of the latest out
comes of the movement for the encour-
agement Of rural drama, which is at the
present time one Of the most cheering
features of English country life. Several
other theatrical ventures OF the same To-
cal character have fiourished for some
considerable time in various parts Of the
country.
For nearly thirty years the Alvechurch
Village Players. who took part last Au-
gust In the summer festival at Stratfoed.
have given much OF their leisure to the
study and performance of Shakespeare
plays. For about third of that time
the Hildenborough Players. in the depths
Of the county of Kent, have appeared in
plays written by local men and full of To-
cal illusions the company consisting OF
the village blacksmith and schoolmaster,
together with gardeners, dairymen, crick-
ct ball makers and other workingmen be-
longing to the district.
Sons of Soil Are Actors.
In the same way the Dorchester Play
ers, who for some years have given pub
lie performances at Dorchester. and even
in London, Of dramatized versions: Of
Thomas Hardy's novels. are all typical
sons and daughters of the Dorset soil.
and very often the last kind Of people
that might be expected to interest them
selves In the drama and the stage. Yet.
dixie the Norwich Players, or the boys OF
Sawston, in Cambridgeshire, or the vii
lage children Of Winchelsea In Sussex, or
- to- kk7A p0Q fnYp
Mosques, or the Grasmere dialect play.
they have not only made their own intel
ligence brighter and keener by the exer-
else Of the dramatic instinct which all
have sensibly added to the gayety Of other
peoples not too cheerful lives.
Pageants. which were not much more
than a fashionable craze, with the prin-
cipal parts played by fashionable people.
have come and gone. But the village
play and the cult of folk song and dance
which have taken root In every county OF
England are no mere passing fancy.
They have become a permanent and In
creasing part Of rural life.
Leave Rural Scotland.
According to a writer of the Daily Mail
rural Scotland is being depopulated. He
says: The two main causes OF rural de-
population in Scotland are the opportuni-
ties offered by the dominions and the eff
feet on small traders of the big stores.
There is another cause. less definite In its
effects, but brooding over all. the intoler-
able dullness of country life to people
whose minds have been stirred to activity
by some education by reading the papers
and by occasionally acquired direct
knowledge Of the ceaseless diversion
which the rustic conceives to constitute
the life Of the town.
The well-to-do farmers feel this tedium
and they fight II by attending at least
two markets a week-a liberty they can
allow themselves since the management
Of farm on the established lines of cul-
tivation Is far from exacting business.
Their devotion to markets Is familiar
subject Of banter. When they have
something to sell they take six weeks TO
sell It, and persuade themselves. that they
are exercising remarkable shrewdness all
the time and making 1t a dead certainty
that they shall not be done" When
they have nothing to sell they attend the
markets all the same, converse with their
friends animatedly on the price Of prod
uce and stock. and keep themselves In
tellectually in trim for q transaction
when there fg one to be carried out.