Air-conditioned Drama

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 427, 29 August 1947, Page 9

Air-conditioned Drama

KNOW little of Mabel Constanduros as a playwright and less of her as an actress, but I suspect that she fills the latter role rather better than she does the former. Her play, Breaking Point, broadcast the other evening from 3YA, was not, I think, worth the time and talent the NZBS put into it. It is the story of a successful music-hall star who begins to feel the strain of her dual role as darling-of-the-public and devoted mother, Revolving around her in their accustomed orbits are her True Lover, her Devoted Son, and the Scheming Woman who tries to make mischief between him and his mother. There is a melodramatic scene involving an overdose of sleeping tablets, and the opporyf tune arrival of Lover, Son, and Family > Doctor. All is thereypon straightened ut. It was, frankly, a silly: play. But it had one redeeming feature in Tuppy, the star’s sharp-tongued and outspoken personal maid ("That’s not laughter, Miss, That’s high-strikes"); she was a spot of colour in the otherwise drab mediocrity of character and situation. The NZBS is doing excellent work in its dramatic productions. But there seem to be too few plays available which are eally suitable for radio broadcasting;

the ideal radio play should actually gain from the invisibility of its actors-not lose as is so often the case with the average play.