THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 174, 23 October 1942, Page 2

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

ITH American literature being dissected at 2YA it is perhaps only right that English literature should be the subject of the new winter course series from 1YA. At any rate, The English Spirit in Literature is the general title chosen by the speaker, Professor W. A. Sewell, of Auckland University College. His first talk is to be on "The English Countryside" (October 29), to which Chesterton’s remark, "When I find a country seat, I sit in it", may or may not be a pointer. Drama at 1YA Not for a long time has a_ studio dramatic performance been broadcast from 1YA_but on the evening of Sunday week, November 1, listeners to the

Auckland station will be entertained with a "flesh-and-blood " presentation of The Toy Cart, by members of the Auckland Repertory Theatre Society. Like -Tagore’s The Post Office, The Toy Cart . (which was written by Arthur Symons and adapted for radio by C. T. A. Tyndall) has an Indian setting, and the plot turns on the love of a dancer for a Brahmin poet. Again, as in The Post Office, one of the principal characters in The Toy Cart is a juvenile, the Brahmin’s little son who, with his toy cart of clay, plays a major part in unravelling the threads of circumstantial evidence when his father is charged with the dancer’s murder. Big Subject "The Alps From End to End" is the far-reaching title of a talk by Professor Arnold Wall from 3YA at 4 o’clock next Sunday afternoon. Whether he intends to begin at the bottom and work his way up to the top or whether he merely means to put the Alps end to end and see how far they reach is a question we are not in a position to answer. We shall content ourselves with remarking that the topic appears to have never-ending possibilities, and since we know Professor Wall’s skill both as lecturer and mountaineer, we are confident that he will not over-reach himself. Mozart’s Mass Listeners to 2YA will have the rare pleasure of hearing Mozart’s Requiem Mass if they: tune in on Sunday, November 1, at 9.27 p.m. The Mass is sung by the University of Pennsylvania Choral Society and accompanied by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Har] McDonald. There is a legend linking the composi-

tion of the Requiem with Mozart’s death, which took place before the work was finished. Mozart is said to have regarded the messenger who came to him with the commission for the Requiem as the herald of his own death, and to have realised that the Requiem would be for his own soul. The story of the curious circumstances surrounding this work will be told on the afternoon of Sunday, November 1, from 2YA _ at 2.43 p.m. In Person There is a tendency these days for film producers to seek, not for an actress to play cook, office girl, or South Sea Maiden, but for a Zasu Pitts, a Ginger Rogers, or a Dorothy Lamour. So when casting for the new radio serial The Career of Alice Blair, the producers sent word to the talent agencies that it was a/"Martha Scott" role. They drew lucky: among the many Martha Scott. types who arrived for audition was Martha Scott, the film star, herself. As Alice Blair, she pcrtrays a young girl who leaves her home in Middletown to make good in New York. The first instalment will be heard from 2ZB on October 26, from 1ZB on November 2, from 3ZB on November 9, and from on November 16.