"BUNNYFIELD'S" CREATOR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 20, 10 November 1939, Page 33

"BUNNYFIELD'S" CREATOR

air from 2YA last Monday evening was the first of a‘new series of plays, " Bunnyfield Diversions," by Grace Janisch. The show has all the hallmarks of good entertainment-bright dialogue and humorous situations — and should already have become popular with listeners. The second in the series will be heard at 9.25 p.m. on Monday, November 13, from 2YA. The theme of "Bunnyfield Diversions " is not entirely new, but the conception is. Bunnyfield is a small New Zealand town with big civic pridg. It is one of those delightful little places whose inhabitants are intensely loyal-and intensely parochial. When, for example, royalty: visited Bunnyfield, although the preparations for this .momentous event’ were disrupted somewhat by various and hilarious mishaps, everybody was on tip-toe to be worthy of the little town. What further adventures befall the good citizens of Bunnyfield will be revealed in the next four plays in the series. | AUNCHED over the New Zealand Many people try writing something sometime in their life. Most of them write tragedies, sombre affairs which are occasionally successful but almost always failures. Very few people even attempt to write comedy, however, and even: fewer succeed. But it seems that Grace Janisch is one who can and does write amusing things, She is Frank About It The author of "Bunnyfield Diversions" is medium height, dark and quietly spoken, with twinkling eyes. One would say that she is one of the happy people who know how to enjoy life, who can see its humorous side and can laugh at its strange pranks. That is why her plays about Bunnyfield are good.

Yet Miss Janisch is frank to a degree. She admitted to The Listener that the old business of one per cent. inspiration and ninety-nine per cent. perspiration was quite true. "How do you find writing?" we asked. "It’s hard work," she replied. The first play in the " Bunnyfield" series won a prize in the 1937-38 radio play competition. The drama department of the National Broadcasting Service heaved a happy sigh. Here was a play with the elements of real comedy, and it suggested others on the same theme. Thus the whole picture of the little town came to be built up, bit by bit. Centennial Scenes Every writer makes a start sometimes, but it’s often difficult to remember just when that was. Miss Janisch couldn’t tell us, but she mentioned that she writes poetry ("for my own amusement," she remarked, modestly), edits an_ office magazine in the insurance office where she is employed as a secretary, and has written a novel. "It hasn’t been published yet,’ she admitted with a grin. As a feature for the Centennial, Miss Janisch has written a survey of women’s part in the colonisation of this country, from: the time when plans to sail acrosg the globe were discussed in English parlours, to the setting up of the first homesteads in New Zealand, and after. A Real " Thrill " She had a real "thrill" recently when she watched the recording of one of her plays. It was really fascinating, she said, to. see everything being put on to the dises, to see the play constructed scene by scene under the care of the‘ producer. And just before she said good-bye, she made a very charming remark which perhaps sums up her character: "I suppose I ought to be blasé ... but I’m not!"