St. George’s Hall played host to a first for New Zealand, one
summer evening in 1897. The hall had been exquisitely decorated with flowers
and ferns for a night of entertainment by the Girls’ Lotus Circle, one of New
Zealand’s first theosophical Sunday School groups.
The Thames Advertiser described Lotus Circle as ‘a kind of
Unsectarian Sunday School, but is generally held on a week night... intended to
train children in unselfishness, in self-control, and in doing good for the
sake of good.’ Lotus Circles had originated in New York as a way to teach
Theosophical ideas to children, and the Thames branch appears to be New
Zealand’s earliest. Over the next two
years, the Thames group regularly attracted about thirty girls, who worked together
to sew clothing for children in need and raise money through social events and
concerts.
This first public performance by the group in Thames also brought
with it another new piece of theatre – the ‘Rainbow Play.’ The Thames
Advertiser picks up the narrative: ‘A rainbow appeared over a forest scene, and
a little boy came forward and recited some verses about a pot of gold being at
the end of the rainbow, and ran off expressing his intention of finding it, but
reappeared almost immediately as a Lotus blossom. The other little “Lotus
blossoms” came forward and explained to the boy that it was his desire to find
the secret of the rainbow that had made him a Lotus blossom, and that if he
watched the colours he would understand their meaning, whereupon seven fairies,
each dressed to represent one of the colours of the rainbow, come forward and
sang a verse explaining the meaning of the colour she represented.’ The Thames
Advertiser concluded, ‘this is only one
specimen of the “ Nature teaching ’’ which was given, and the play would have
to be seen many times before all its deeper meaning, its revelation of the
secrets of nature could be fully understood.’
As far as can be surmised from the local newspapers’
advertisements and social pages, the Lotus Circle remained active in Thames
until about 1899, after which it is no longer mentioned. Other Lotus Circles
cropped up around the country, however, well into the twentieth century.
Comments
Post a Comment