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CARL T. SMITH
The opportunity to give a world premiere came about in this fashion. Early in the year Mr. Sinclair directed students at the University of Hong Kong in two Dunsany plays. They did not attract much public attention, but Sinclair sent photographs of the production along with some newspaper notices to Lord Dunsany. As a result, he wrote a play about the Gold Isles and sent the manuscript to Mr. Sinclair with the intention that it also should be performed by the students. Unfortunately, they were not able to do so, so Sinclair, as one of the popular A.D.C. directors, decided to have a Dunsany evening and include "The Compromise of the King of the Golden Isles". It was full of colour, filled with pomp and ceremony. It is interesting to note that the late Noel Croucher served as a bodyguard in one of the crowd scenes and that Sinclair had consulted Sir Robert Kotewall and Mr. Fung Yuk-shum to get authenticity for the Chinese costumes and other details.
In 1926 the A.D.C. performed Dunsany's most successful play "If." His plays have been described as "decorative drama". Many of them had settings in the Near and Far East.
W. Sinclair was both an innovator and a man of cosmopolitan tastes. During the years he produced plays for the A.D.C., the repertoire ranged from Shakespeare to the future and from fantasy to realism.
The Hong Kong Mummers presented "Twelfth Night" in 1913. It was directed by Mr. Siegler, a name assumed by Mr. Sinclair for some of his early productions in Hong Kong. He later abandoned this pseudonym. "Twelfth Night" was billed as the first amateur production of Shakespeare in the Far East. This claim was corrected by the Tokyo A.D.C., which had presented "As You Like It" in 1906, "Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1911, and "The Merchant of Venice" in 1912. The Hong Kong A.D.C. had assisted Miss Janet Waldorf and her small company of professionals in "As You Like It" in 1899. It was scheduled for an outdoor performance on the Parade Ground, but this was rained out and it was held in the Theatre Royal. Weather did permit a second performance on the Parade Ground. In 1922, the A.D.C. under Sinclair produced "The Tempest".
"The Blue Bird" by Maeterlinck was given in 1914. It was