NEW TESTAMENT ON THE AIR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 256, 19 May 1944, Page 6

NEW TESTAMENT ON THE AIR

Opinions on "The Man Born To Be King" Are Mostly Favourable OW that six of the 12 plays in "The Man Born to be King" have been broadcast, it is interesting to ask who is listening to them and what is being said about them. No exact information is available, of course, either of numbers or of reactions, but the answers to some inquiries we have made perhaps indicate roughly what the effect on listeners has been so far. It has not been easy to decide what proportion of listeners have been tuning in. Although we have been surprised by the number of people who have not even heard of the broadcasts, the number who have heard and who are listening is also large, and we cannot pretend to have discovered anything more definite than that. A So far as reactions go, we have been surprised that so few people have complained. For obvious enough reasons, we expected a fairly big volume of violent protests. But we were wrong. A few have protested, some of them a little vigorously, .but an overwhelming proportion of those we have spoken to have been not only favourable but enthusiastic. Here are some indications-not exactly collected at random, but taken from a wide enough field to be representative of that section of the listening public likely to be interested in the subject.

OCTOGENARIAN:-A man of 88 came to see us, and we took the opportunity to ask if he had heard any of the plays. He had heard all so far broadcast, and he had quite definite opinions about them. He did not like them. "Dorothy Sayers may have worn out a Greek Testament studying the story but she’ does not know it. I have worn out two Testaments, and I say that she has not yet seen the Man of Nazareth. "Jesus was not born to be King, even in the Dorothy Sayers sense. He was born to be our brother, our friend, our guide. But I shall not go into these mysteries. I shali just say plainly that the plays do not move me. In places I find. them tawdry. In general-I am speaking of those only that I have so far héard-I find them lacking in majesty. I almost agree with a Plymouth Brother who answered when I asked him how the first play struck him, that it did not strike him at all; it was an insult: to Jesus Christ. I live’ worlds away from the Brethren, but for once: found myself speaking almost the same language.’’. UNIVERSITY WOMAN:-‘For one thing, the time is inconvenient for married women-but those plays that I

have managed to hear have seemed very good, particularly the first play, which held my attention all the way, though the story was so familiar. I think the writing shows a good sense of words -not exactly poetry, but words well used, and that is very important in radio. At times I have felt the voices were unsuitable. I would say the voice of Mary has a touch of the typical heroine of current popular films, and it seems ‘wrong to me to make Matthew, who is, after all, the author of one of the most scholarly books of the New Testament, sound like an uneducated Cockney." SCOTS CARPENTER:-yYes, he had listened once. He had not been shocked and he-had not been pleased. The whole thing was plainly impossible. "Some things are better not attempted." OTHER OF FOUR:-"The only people entitled to criticise The Man Born to be King from a religious standpoint are the regular churchgoers — the’ conseientious Christians. The others can only criticise it from an entertainment point of view. I am not a good church-goer, but I enjoyed listening to the programme; after all, if

Christ came back, he would speak just like ourselves. My children listened, too, but they weren’t interested." (CARTOONIST:- "Frankly, I don’t like it. It seems quite wrong, like the modern version of the Bible. The life of Christ is so important that only the rich, beautiful language of the Bible can do it justice. Thé programme jarred me so much that I turned it off half way through." OTHER OF ONE:- "What a dreadful programme! Blasphemy, that’s what it is. Why, one man actually said ‘Shut up!’ in Jesus’ presence. I wouldn’t let my daughter listen to that kind of stuff. They’ve got no business to broadcast it in the children’s session at all. My husband said he wasn’t going to have it on in his house." OFFICE WORKER:-‘T thought it was an inspiration. There is a great spirit behind that writing which is. very necessary to-day to bring. the life of Christ home to people. We need more programmes like that. I am going to listen to every episode. There is only one thing. I don’t like the voice of Christ. It seems too hard. I had always imagined His voice would be soft and gentle. ANOTHER OFFICE WORKER.- "Oh, I never listen to the wireless." VARSITY STUDENT .-. "What is it?" ° (COLLEGE BOY:-‘I thought it was too uninteresting to listen to. I’ve got a much more vivid picture in my own mind of those times." SCHOOLGIRL:-"It was too embarrassing hearing Biblical characters speak, and in any old voices as well." A GROUP of Men and Women Met to Discuss Post-War Construction:"A most interesting and instructive (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) programme. It brings the Bible down to human level. For tco long now the Bible has been something floating ethereally out of reach." SCHOOL TEACHER:-"It was a shock to me to hear that programme on the Children’s Hour. It is not the least bit suitable for children, indeed, it might have a very bad effect on backblocks children who can’t go to Sunday School. They will always connect Christ with that particular voice. It puts the Bible stories in the same class as Jimmy Allen and Coast Patrol, and in their minds they will probably be an inferior serial as far as excitement and interest goes, at least." HOUSEWIFE:-*l believe I did hear it one night, but I was so busy getting tea that I couldn’t stop to listen. What a bad time to put on a programme like that." AW YER:-"Sorry, haven’t heard it. Our radio’s too big to move, and it’s in a! room with a coal fire, so in these days of coal shortage we're sitting in a room with a gas fire and no radio." A TOBACCONIST:-"Yes, I’ve heard a few, and think them ail excellent. But I’ve asked several friends what they think-and none of them seems to be listening." ETECTIVE:-"I've been on duty and unable to hear it, except once, and then I liked it. But my son of 12 has heard them all-his teacher first drew attention to the programmes in class-and he has been absorbed and impressed. No, they haven’t been above his head at all-but then I really think he is mentally a bit above the average for his age. All the same, I think most children, if they listened, would take much more from these plays than from reading the same passages in the New Testament. After all, if you come across, say, the mention of leprosy in the Bible it is pretty hard to explain to a youngster just what that disease meant in Biblical times without first explaining all the surrounding circum-stances-the lack of hospitals and medical knowledge, the superstitious beliefs of the day, and so on. But Dorothy Sayers translates things like that into our own times. And why not? Is the 17th century language of the

Authorised Version. any more intrinsically sacred than the language of a modern translation?" NOTHER MOTHER:-One woman put forward a rather curious view. She said that if Christ were to be represented on the stage or the screen, that would be all right, because children would know it was only an actor, but to have the voice on t_» radio, where children are inclined to imagine it is the real voice of Christ Himself, is "a wicked thing." JEW:-He raised the question himself. Unfortunately, he raised it in a crowded cafe, where conversation was difficult. But the discussion went something like this: He: Have you listened to these religious plays by Dorothy Sayers? We: Yes. He: What do you think of them? We: We find them interesting. He: But the*woman’s crazy. We: Why? He: Writing plays round such a subject! We: Why not? He: Who wants them? We: The thousands who listen, He: But they don’t want that. We: What do they want? He: History. That’s neither fact nor decent fiction. We: A lot of people think it’s both. He: They’ve never been to Palestine. We: Dorothy Sayers has. He: I don’t believe it. We: Why not? He: There’s not a real Jew in her book. We: There’s a Whitechapel Jew. He: No. Her people are all out of books. Not a real one among them. We: Do the plays offend you? He: No. Well, yes, but not because I am a Jew. We: Why, then? He: Because they are false to history and to life. We: But clever? He: Not even clever. Dull and deadlike stuffed birds. We: But they have provoked you? He: Not at all. None of that nonsense gets near me. RETIRED MINISTER:-"It is very good history, very good art. The dialogue is excellent, the background admirably filled in. So far as I am concerned I remain a spectator. I am not moved; and the reason I think, is because all the chief characters but oneMatthew, who is almost a figure of fun -speak and act like English Public School boys. I can’t help. wondering what will happen when the servant girl tells Peter that his speech betrays him. Will she say, ‘You are Charterhouse, aren’t you, or is it Rugby?’" SCHOOLBOYS AND SCHOOL-GIRLS:-A somewhat extensive series of questions among boys and girls of primary school age brought one almost general answer-‘They talk just the way we do." And the point is, that was disturbing to most of them. METHODIST MINISTER:-‘T think they are excellent, both in the writing and in the presentation, for the way they make the story come to life," said a Methodist minister, who believed that his opinion would represent the views of the younger generation of Methodist clergy. (continued on next page) a

«continued from previous page) "The only adverse comment I have heard came from people I would have expected it from anyway, but for my part I must say I have been gripped by the plays, and one evening when I had to leave early, I had the greatest difficulty in tearing myself away. "The voices-or some of them-are strange to us at first, perhaps, but I, myself, think the voice of Christ in particular is powerful and convincing. In fact, I can’t speak highly enough of the whole idea. The plays are obviously arresting the mind of the person who thought the story of Christ belonged to the past. Of my people, some were doubtful of the first couple of plays, but by the third they were gripped and convinced after getting over the shock of encountering the very reality of the story. "Most of our Wellington ministers are among the younger lot, and they have all been looking forward to the broadcasts ever since they read the book." HURCH OF ENGLAND;-*I can’t speak too highly of it; I think it’s excellent," said an archdeacon of the Church of England. "The story lives, and I think Dorothy Sayers has made an excellent job of it. The production amazes me, too-the voices all seem to fit so perfectly."

"Then you like the voice of Christ?" "Yes, I do. It reminds me of Epstein’s figure of Christ; it imports a kind of austere, or should I say stern, note into the character of the man, without making Him unkindly. And Mary, I like. It’s a human voice." "Have you found yourself troubled at all by the transitions from quoted Biblical language to the modern English?" "Never-because the modern stuff’s so true. And it’s true to the Greek, too, you know." "You say all that as one who was thoroughly familiar with the story before you heard The Man Born to be King. What do you think its value would be to someone hearing the story virtualiy for the first-a- child, for instance?" "I still think it’s excellent, because as I say, it makes the story live: Miss Sayers knows that dullness is a real literary crime, and her version is never dull." R OMAN CATHOLIC:- Catholic opinion, in general, is favourable, according to a priest whom we interviewed by telephone. "The plays themselves had been so widely and freely discussed that I took their own worth for granted, and only waited to see how they were produced," he said. "I was very pleased when I heard the result. I think this opinion is shared by my associates, and I would go so far as to say that most of them are probably recommending our people to listen in, "I was particularly pleased to notice the skill with which Miss Sayers has represented sacred characters without any semblance of disrespect. References to Jesus-bar-Joseph and even references to the Mother of Christ are handled in such a way as to put them beyond the criticism of the devout. And I would say that the voices are excellent, and the actors very well picked for their parts. "I think it is important that every-one-everyone who calls himself a Christian, at any rate-should be thoroughly familiar with the story, and I think that to the ordinary person, a lot of the significance of the Gospels is lost at the present day when they are merely read, but the living characters in plays like these bring to the ordinary person’s mind the things that are really in the Gospels, and inclined to be missed in the ordinary way. After all, it is nothing very new to do this. The Catholic Church for centuries employed a similar technique in its mystery plays-Everyman, is one that is widely known-in order to bring the Gospels to the people before printing had made it possible for everyone to read them; now, the radio bring them even closer." PRESBYTERIAN.-‘Frankly, I think the plays read better than they sound," was the first comment of a Presbyterian minister. "I agree that the production is excellent, but I think there is more to be had by reading the book. My Church in general is all in favour, and my own congregation even put on a reading of the first play after church one Sunday, long before the broadcasts were begun. I did speak to one old elder who said: ‘We’re too old-fashioned for that sort of thing,’ but on the whole, I have heard no serious criticism." The seventh play in the series, "The Bread of Heaven Has As Its Core," will be broadcast at 5.5 p.m this Sunday, May 21.