Congratulations!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 410, 2 May 1947, Page 9

Congratulations!

UURUON GLOVER'S play, Fare- " well, Captain Jacoby, heard lately from 4YA, was something new and interesting enough to arrest the listener’s attention from its very beginning. The not-so-new idea which formed its theme (the ordinary man presenting a false

front to the world) was, after all, not the most important thing in the play. I should imagine this author is capable of dealing in the same arresting manner with any given plot. What made it different from the ordinary run of radio plays was the style, vivid and typical of radio, in which it was written. Indeed, the whole thing was intrinsically excellent radio, obviously conceived as a play to be heard, unlike many radio plays which seem to have been written with one eye on the stage. This play, done by the NZBS, was very well produced; the voices were just right, the timing of what might be described as "aural montage" was also just right. From the moment when we were introduced to the "gentleman" standing before his mirror, tying that unforgettable bold blue tie, throughout the whole sad unfolding of his pitiful and pretentious tale, to the bitter-sweet ending of the little masquerade, there was scarcely ‘a false note or a jarring accent (save perhaps the playing of the Debussy, which may have been a trifle beyond the appetite of musical Ealing — wouldn’t Chopin have suited the occasion better?). The number of voices, the rapidity with which they followed each other, in the manner of a modern "chorus," all might have resulted in confusion for the listener had not the voices been so carefully selected for timbre, pitch, and accent. Altogether this was a refreshing play to find in the programmes, and the NZBS production unit is to be congratulated on a successful job well done.