Swan Stuff
AVING a literary programme to fill up at short notice, 3YA seems to have brought together all the Shakespeare recordings available; so that, expecting Mr. Simmance, we got instead the late John Barrymore with Hamlet’s "rogue and peasant slave" speech and a soliloquy of peculiar malevolence by Richard III (who sounds like Dickson Carr’s Man in Black really letting himself go); and Otis Skinner and Cornelia Otis Skinner doing their stuff with Portia, Juliet, Mark Antony, and the Seven Ages of Man. It is noticeable that, while all three actors are American only the Skinners show it in their accents; and that they have not quite the acting excellence which would make us forget this. As a result, they are happiest with Portia-there is something in the American tradition not incompatible with sententious barristers who are heiresses in disguise-but less so with Mark Antony and his funeral oration, which remind one merely of a peculiar dishonest Senator engaged in blackening the hero’s good name. The penetration and fire of Barrymore’s acting, on the other hand, override these rather silly national differences and compel one to admire or criticise on an altogether different plane.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19460308.2.24.5
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 350, 8 March 1946, Page 12
Word count
Tapeke kupu
195Swan Stuff New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 350, 8 March 1946, Page 12
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in