CLASSIC RADIO PLAYS TO BE PRESENTED IN GREYMOUTH

Grey River Argus, 17 April 1948, Page 5

CLASSIC RADIO PLAYS TO BE PRESENTED IN GREYMOUTH

Were Well Received in Britain

PREVIEW OF WORLD THEATRE SERIES OF DRAMATIC PLAYS Produced and Recorded bv the B.B=C.

(Presented bv H. C. O’Loughlin)

During the next few weeks {Station 3ZK Greymouth will present to West Coast listeners, a series of BBC plays which have been acclaimed in Britain ov radio listeners. The station manager of 3ZR, Mr H. C. O’Lougnlin, yesterday told the Grey River Argus of the presentations. We have arranged to broadcast this month the first of a series of dramatic plays, produced and recorded by the 8.8. C. Transcription Service. The inception of the “World Theatre Series” was a very natural result of the quite remarkable success (according to evidence provided by the Research Department of the 8.8. C.) of Saturday night Theatre, which, presented weekly in the Home Services programmes, over a period of 30 months, has lifted broadcast plays from the position of being programmes of ‘minority’ interest, to one in which plays rivalled ‘Ttma” and “Saturday Night Musical Hall,” in popularity. The chief of the Home Service, therefore, felt it worthwhile to see whther, the establishment of a regular series of classical, as opposed to merely popular plays, which should be produced monthly, at a regular time, might not find, if not an equally large audience, nevertheless a considerable one. Mr Vai Gielgud, Director of Drama, anxious to implement such a suggestion, chose six plays, which were adapted! and prepared for broadcast. Apart from being given remarkable critical appreciation by the English press, the listener re-action was so surprisingly favourable, that it was decided to continue the series indefinitely, anti plans were laid accordingly. The plays selected from the series were conceived in terms of the highest standard of the 8.8. C. dramatic production, aided by the pick of available casting. The first five to be heard from 3ZR cover a wide field; they range from the classical drama of ancient Greece to the ironic commentary of Bernard Shaw, and display the Elizabethan ‘might line' of Marlowe, side by side with the no less mighty theatricalism of Edmond Rostand. The dramatic productions which will be heard from this station include: —

“HEDDAGABLER” Presented at 3 p.m. Tomorrow.

Most of Ibsen’s plays of social life, deal directly with the shams, hypscracies, and conventions of society. By exposing these, he hopes to effect an improvement in human relationships. “Hedda Babler” is, however, much more of a psychological study than a problem play. In the case of Hedda, as Ibsen himself said, his primary object was to depict human, being, human emotions and human activities upon a groundwork of tne social conditions of his time. “L’AIGLON” On Sunday, May 16, at 3 p.m. we shall present the second of the series. It is called ‘“L’Aiglon” (Edmond Rostand). Rostand’s unrivalled sense of the theatre assures him of a continued place in the dynastv of the great dramatic authors. The play has the advantage, in this instance, of being not only well, but quite brilliantly translated by Miss Clemence Dane. This translation, presverving so faithfullv the romantic and historical spirit of the original, embellished by Richard Addinsell’s specially written music, which he based for the most part on themes searched for,, and brought back from the music library at Schoenbrunn, gives the piece a quality only too often, alas, missing from translations. “L’AIGLON” may not be quite in the first flight of dramatic materpieces, but it is possibly that, which makes it better entertaiment than some plays, whose aesthetics may be entirely above reproach. T . Next follows “The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr Faustus” /(Marlowe). You may hear this at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 13. It is one of the most remarkable plays ever written. It abounds in majestic poetry which even Shakespeare never excelled, particularly in the opening and closing themes. Living in an age of adventure and inquiry, Marlowe was immensely attracted by the idea of a man selling his soul to the devil to obtain knowledge, and by the dramatic possibilities of the hour of reckoning. The music used in this production is taken from the suites and concerti grossi of Handel and played by a string orchestra. It is used rather like stage lighting to set the mood of the different scenes.

“TROJAN WOMEN” The fourth in the series is “The Trojan Women” (Euripides, 484-407 8.C.) and will be broadcast to 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 11. Here vou have the tragedy of classical Hellas, standing not only for itself, but only for the tragedy of the perennial inhumanities of war, with all that, war implies: it stands most notably, at this moment, as a tragedy of the present day and age, the tragedy of all displaced persons. It is impossible to listen to the speeches of Hecuba and Andromache, to visualise the crowded group of captured women under the walls of Troy, to hear the Greek trumpet and the crash of falling towers, without think- - ing of the riven cities and captive peoples who were the victims of Nazism, and now in some cases the victims of a deadlier plague, whose cirus is slowiy but surely destroying the red corpuscles of a system, although it mav be pale and wan, which , has produced great men and great women, masterpieces of art, music, literature, science and pure thought, understanding and tolerance. And finally the “Man of Destiny” (G. B. Shaw) on Sunday, August 8. at 3 p.m. This production was’ a 8.8. C. contribution to the author’s 90th birthday. Shaw’s plays are very good value on the radio. Listeners are not so much interested in the latest, fashions as the paying and publicityfed public—they are also more numerous. It is interest and quality they want, and 'informed ideas —at any rate the more serious of them. Shaw was, and is happy that his plays should be heard, but theer must be no nonsense about adaptations. You must hear it as it is—all or nothing. The consequence is that it was very rarely that anv of his plays could be broadcast unless its natural length is an hour or thereabouts. The “Man of Destiny” is one of these. It is on the playwright's own showing unpretentious, and to radio drama, pretentiousness is anathema. Shaw calls this play a “trifle”—he would, whatever the real intentions of that description. It is in fact a one-act cos- . tume comedy written before the end of the century, to suit the extremely commercial conventions of that period He perhaps supposed that the deeper implications of his dialogue would pass over the heads ot ms audience: they had not come to understand war and. power politics and most of them are dead. The dialogue is precise, brilliant and economical, and fulfills completely the ideal requirement that every speech.should unobtrusively lead you to wait with interest for what is said next. The design is, in fact, perfect for- the job.