"KING'S CROSS FLATS"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 50, 7 June 1940, Page 47

"KING'S CROSS FLATS"

Some Notes On The Play And The Players

T is probable that no more brilliant company of players has ever been gathered on the air in Australia than the cast which made " King’s Cross Flats." Among them are Lou Vernon, Arundel Nixon, Jack Lumsdaine, Iris Moore, and Lyndall Barbour, " King’s Cross Flats," which is now being presented from ZB stations at 7.15 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings, is a story of human tragedy and loye-laughter, hopes, and fears. It is not only the story of " King’s Cross," that glamorous, cosmopolitan section of Sydney, but is a story which might be true of many cities in many countries. People of all walks of life, of every circumstance, move through it; and they are real people. Strangers to one another, they share a common interest in the block of flats in which they live; and into the pattern of their lives everyday happenings weave strange threads of romance and drama. There is much vivid characterisation in this story, which is more than a little reminiscent of "Grand Hotel." Ten characters move through the opening episodes. First of all there are the Nevilles who own the flats. Empty flats, and tenants who do not pay their rents, are worrying the Nevilles. Collins, almost perpetually drunk, has paid no rent for many weeks; Jack Churchill is being driven to desperation by the demands of his wife for luxury; and only Vineberg, the mysterious foreigner, is regularly paying for his apartment. ;

Jack Churchill arrives home with a luxurious fur coat, and a story of a win at the races, Later, believing he is about to be arrested, he confesses to his wife that he embezzled the money which bought the fur coat. Shocked, but utterly selfish, she leaves him, Vineberg, meanwhile, has been acting very suspiciously, He endeavours to shoot a man, who, he said, was attempting to burgle his flat; but he refuses to give any information to the police, or to lay a charge. Collins arrives home drunk again-but this time drunk with a reason-he has won a lottery, Vineberg is murdered; but tragedy is swept away by the excitement of Collins’s good fortune. Young Churchill escapes from his trouble, and his life changes when a_ wellknown actress nioves into an apartment in King's Cross Flats. Churchill has written a play; Collins pronounces it good. The interest of the actress is awakened, and, backed by Collins’s lottery prize, they decide to stage the play. And so the story goes on. Characters come and go, new faces appear in King’s Cross Flats, each bringing new. threads of romance and comedy, and tragedy, to be woven into the pattern of the drama, The one welcomed visitor is always Trent, the handyman, of whom Jack Lumsdaine has made one of the brightest comedy characters of his career. "King’s Cross Flats" is already. playing, at 1ZB, 2ZB, and 3ZB, and will begin at 4ZB on Friday, June 7, at 7.30 p.m,