Radio Diary

Press, 28 July 1986, Page 23

Radio Diary

Contrasting

plays

Two very different plays, both 8.8. C. productions, feature among this week’s highlights. The' classic comedy, “The School for Scandal,” first performed in 1777 and still going strong, can be heard on the Concert Programme at nine this evening. On Wednesday National puts on “The Infant,” a science fiction drama set in 1991.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, bom in Dublin in 1751, mixed with the rich and powerful, though he did not himself belong to the aristocracy. He wrote four plays in which he lampooned the upper crust mercilessly, fought two duels, eloped with a lady of refinement and later married another.

At the age of 29, he entered Parliament and remained there, a renowned debater, for 25 years. He died in poverty in 1816. “The School for Scandal” is set in high society London and concerns it-

self with the hypocrisy of the members of that class and their preoccupations —marriage, money and position. “The Infant” takes us to the near future. Edmund Gallagher, a scientist, has created a computer with a mind and philosophy of life of its own.

His pregnant wife does what any sane person would. She switches off the computer and wipes its circuits clean. What happens when Edmund starts to rebuild “The Infant?” AU will be revealed on the National Programme at 9.05 pan. on Wednesday. Summer sports continue on the Community Network, with the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games all night, interlaced tonight and tomorrow night with commentaries on the first New Zealand versus England cricket test at Lords.

For rugby fans there will be a commentary on the match between Wairarapa Bush and Australia (at Masterton) on 3YC at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

—John Hickey