Reporter’s diary

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Getting carried away TIS the squash-picking season, and with it comes a travelling band of pickers (pluckers? reapers? hunters and gatherers?) who move from farm to farm complete with machinery, caravan and even that essential piece of twenti-eth-century equipment, a portable 100. Our sympathies lie with the picker working on a Canterbury farm who was already enthroned when the port-a-100 was scooped up by a front-end loader and whisked off to the next paddock. It is not known if the loader driver or the blushing woman who emerged after her short journey got the bigger surprise. One thing is certain — the inventors of the port-a-100 never intended their creation to be taken quite that literally.

Dramasoc ties EVA and Tom Joel have been specially invited to the University of Canterbury Dramasoc’s production of Brecht’s “The Good Person of Szechwan” on Saturday evening. The Joels married after they met each other during the 1973 Repertory production of the same play. Eva played the Good Woman and Tom was a god, and 16 years later they are both still involved in the theatre. Eva will play in the Repertory production “Pack of Lies,” and Tom directed the university production of “The Crucible.” Dramasoc’s producer, June Harvest, said that Don McAra, who directed the play when the Joels met (and whom they have not seen since), has also been invited to the final performance on Saturday. The guests will find that some things have definitely changed in 16

years. The title of Dramasoc’s play in the unenlightened times of 1973 was translated as “The Good Woman of Szechwan.” Aptitude test A READER writes to say how pleased he is that Mr Soma should be a director of the Odyssey House drug and rehabilitation programme; that Messrs Penn and Chase (Christchurch representatives going to Namibia) should be in the police; that there should be a scuffle in Manners Street; and that, also according to “The Press,” the “Mirage Trust Disappears” (a recent headline). Exceeding appropriate, indeed. Infiltration GOOD grief — what’s this? An Australian palate joining the Institute of Masters of Wine, that august body which has

been so solidly British since its inception in 1953? Ah, yes, times and rules are changing. Michael Hill-Smith, M.W., was awarded the Madame Bollinger Champagne Medal recently as best taster in last year’s Master of Wine exam. He claims, however, that much of his success is due to his wife, Stacey, who every dinner time for two years has tested him on a different bottle from the local supermarkets. The institute first opened its doors to foreigners last year after finding that its stringent entrance exam admitted fewer members than old age killed off. Relatively complicated LOOKING through cards in a Christchurch stationery shop, Kath Sutton found the following peculiarity: “To my sister, on Mother’s Day.” — Jenny Setchell