29 MAY 1959, Page 8

AN UNUSUAL and courageous theatrical experiment is due at the

Scala Theatre next week. This is The Borderline, a 'play in music,' after the American style, by Wilfrid Mellers and David Holbrook. The story, which explores childhood through the medium of pantomime based on traditional chil- dren's games, is set in a present-day seaside town, and the music weaves together modes drawn from folk song, jazz, rock 'n' roll and opera. The authors claim that the future of both poetry and music may lie in making musical drama truly popular as it was in Elizabethan times. This is at least a challenging idea, and I hope that they will get attendances to make their boldness (which has very little money behind it) pay.

PHAROS