Odd, but Appealing
ISTENING to a new BBC play, one " has always a sense of delightful anticipation; the listener doesn’t know whether it is going to be light comedy or full-blooded drama; but he can be certain, with few exceptions, that it will be well done, whatever the type of play. Under what heading to place A Princess in Tartary, frankly, I don’t know. Listeners could scarcely fail to enjoy it, provided they had, read carefully the brief description, "a fantasy with music," and were thereby prepared for someth:ng particularly odd but particularly appealing. This fantasy has China as its scene, but a China represented nowhere in the mundane world save perhaps in such a porcelain place as the willow-pattern. Although its cast includes Emperor, Empress, Princess, Marco Polo, and a: remarkable Talking Parrot, among other notabilities, these are such people as only oriental dreams are made on. The music wisely refrained from attempting orientalism, contenting itself with being appealingly bizarre. | imagine that a flesh-and-blood performance of this play, if sufficiently stylised, could be spectacularly successful.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19470221.2.15.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 400, 21 February 1947, Page 12
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176Odd, but Appealing New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 400, 21 February 1947, Page 12
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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.
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