BROADCASTING SERVICE FORECASTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 33, 9 February 1939, Page 23

BROADCASTING SERVICE FORECASTS

PLAYS

It is a coincidence that Noel Coward's brilliant comedy "Hay Fever" is to be broadcast from 4YA Dunedin on Sunday evening next, for the play owes its origin to many an enjoyable Sunday night which the author spent at the house of a friend while he was in America. Coward and his friends used to amuse themselves playing games which often became rather acrimonious and frequently ended with them all leaving the room and retiring upstairs, only to be found later amicably drinking tea in the kitchen. As Coward says himself, "It was inevitable that someone should eventually utilise portions of this eccentricity in a play." But it was not until he was settled in England again that he began "Hay Fever" and finished it in three days. He ■ confesses, however, that he was not impressed with it and neither was Marie Tempest, to whom he read it. But after it had been left to moulder in a drawer for some months it did "eventually reach ' the stage, and it was put on at the Ambassadors Theatre in June, 1925. The play was variously received and ran for over a year to good business. It is a typical Coward play, which, like most of his work, is rather slight, but abounding in brittle dialogue and good comedy situations. The play is to be produced in the studio by Anita Winkel.

"Hester Siding" is the title of a splendid little drama which will be heard from 4YA Dunedin on Wednesday night next at 9.8 p.m. This play, written by an Australian author, Alexander Turner, tells of the struggle of two immigrants to make their home in the Australian bush. It is excellently written and suggests rather than depicts the hardships which the young couple had to face. Listeners will find that the atmosphere of this play is arresting. It is an N.B.S. production.