"THE TROJAN WOMEN"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 430, 19 September 1947, Page 18

"THE TROJAN WOMEN"

_ Listeners’ Impressions of First World Theatre Broadcast

Euripides’ play "The Trojan Women" from 2YA the other evening, a large number of those who might have been expected to listen to the broadcast did not, in fact, do so. Nevertheless, by ordinary standards of computation, the ‘proportion was ptobably satisfactoryabout one in every four. We found this out when, in order to get the reaction of New Zealand listeners to this BBC presentation-the most ambitious of its kind yet heard in this country--we rang a representative selection of people. However, all those who told us that they did listen seem to have found the experience interesting — IN spite of the advance publicity given to the radio presentation of | | and, in most cases, moving. Here is what some of them had to says

FOR ALL AGES

CAN best describe my feelings about The Trojan Women by , quoting these remarks by | Henry James about entertainment: "The success of a work of | art. to my mind, may be measured

by the degree to which it produces a certain illusion; that illusion makes it ap-

| pear to us, for the time, that we have lived another life-that we have had a miraculous enlargement. of experience. The greater the art, the greater the | miracle, and the more certain the fact that we have been entertained-in the best meaning of that word, at least, which that we ,have been living at the expense of someone else." For me The Trojan Women was this illusion, this enlargement of experience, this kind of entertainment, and nothing I have heard on the air previously has moved and satisfied me more. It gave fresh meaning to the critics’ term, "universality"; for this ancient tragedy of a defeated and dispossessed people was made to seem the tragedy of our modern world also. The lack of tautness and ‘strength in Gilbert Murray's verse showed through sometimes; Sybil Thorndike as Hecuba was a trifle patchy; the player speaking the part of Helen did hot get it at all successfully. But the parts of Andromache, Menelaus and Talthybius were splendidly taken, and the flaws were not obtrusive enough to mar seriously a memorable performance.

W. J.

Scott

THREE VIRTUES

bs "HREE aspects of the broadcast made the deepest impression on me. First, the perfection of the language of the translator, Gilbert Murray, language which conveyed with the force and | freshness of an original creative work

the emotional content of the Greek play. Secondly, the real cleverness with

which the actresses (and actors) held the attention of the listener-indeed, com- | pelled it, from sheer dramatic weight of words. Thirdly, the magnificent freshness of the play itself, the validity of its ideas, after 2,300 years. I think it is a testimony to the play and its presentation to say that, sitting by my own fireside, I was deeply moved by its poignancy. 2

Margaret

RADIO'S ADVANTAGE

Be a a ; : ALTHOUGH the BBC production of The Trojan Women lasted for about an hour and a-half it did not seem at all

too long to me. In fact, -I was. very pleased that the New Zealand authorities should put on.such a long work in full. As a radio listener I felt that

it acted as a sort of tonic to be able to sustain my interest for that length

of time. A play well cut to that length seems to be more complete than if presented in a condensed vergion or as at serial. You get the total impact of thi ~ play as a whole, it is carried on step" by step and your eaterest is automatically sustained. Previously when I had read Gilbert Murray’s verse it had seemed to me, in print, to be rather dreary, but listening to the radio version on Friday night I was continually’ astonished by the power of the verse. In connection with this’ aspect of the production I would say that although I haven’t seen it on the stage I should think that this particular play would in fact have a greater effect when heard only (as in this case) than if it was heard and seen as well, This applies particularly to drama in verse, and especially to Greek drama, which is sq temote in time. We have lost touch with the conventions of the Greek drama (it is more than 2,000 years old) and hence a radio version has the advantage that a stage production would be so much more difficult to-day. Of vas production in general I would vga that to hear it so well-spoken was a very great pleasure indeed. One particular point that*impressed me was the way in which the incidental music (which consisted only of trumpets and drum) carried on thé mood from stage to stage of the drama. On the whole the production was first-rate, and I thought it the best BBC dramatic production

I have yet heard. _ Zz =

Sam

Williams

HOPE UNFULFILLED

ALTHOUGH I was very glad to hear that the series was on, and had looked forward to hearing The Trojan Women in particular, I must say that I was .disappointed in it. I find it hard to pin down exactly what it was that

roused this feeling in sme, but I we " ered why it was. \, hard for me to en-

dure such a long period of tragedy over the radio, when compared with the theatre. For this reason I felt the play did not move me in the same way as it does to read it or see it on the stage.

Irene

Wilson

KNOW the play very well, and I think it is not only one of the greatest plays ever written, but also one of

WELL CUT

the greatest of human documents. If tragedy is meant to purge our souls with pity and terror, then this play certainly succeeds in doing so. The production was on the whole a_ great achievemeént and the voices were beautifully blendéd. although it took some

time to get used to the medium. Considering that this was a radio adapta-

tion, the play was very well cut, and the interest well sustained. I first Saw The Trojan Women performed on the stage when I was only 16. This was mary years ago, and I feé] I was much more moved by the tadio version, because the poignancy of ‘the drama and its vision of human suffering means more to me now. On the ther hand, I do not think’ that the . ‘radio play can replace the stage verzion of such a work. _

Maria

Dronke

UNITY PRESERVED

. {THE first thing that impressed mé |" after heating the BBC version of The Trojan Women was thé way in which the complete unity of the play was preserved. One felt that no essentials were missing, that the whole thing was there, that one did not get merely roe féw scrappy ideas, as might possibly octut in a shoftetied radio version, but went away with the total impression of

the play intact in one’s mind. I feel that Euripides, more than any

other Greek poet, lends hitnself to radio, and the modern stage also, becatise the human intérest in his plays is so outstafiding. It is really extraordinary the amount of human ihterést théte is in that little family of WHector, Andromache, and Astyonax; they seétn to epitomise evety small family in the world to-day. The many homiely touches that Eutipides sticceeds in bringing out inh the play maké the drama seem all the mote poigfiafit to us who hear it now, while the great beauty, and yet simplicity of the drama all combine to make it the outstanding work it is. In parts the agony of the words was almost unbearable, and the lament of Hecuba over the murdered child was one of the most moving dfamatic moments I have heard. But despite this, the great art of Euripides saved the scéné from bécoming either morbid or hysterical, and preserved the complete integtity of the ethotions displayed. The production I thought was excellent. My only criticism is that I thought I detected a trace of an English dialect in the speech of the péfson portraying Menelaus. Pe One of the advantages of a radio presentation is that one has more titne to concénttaté 6h the beauty of the lines" themsélves, atid in this case one felt that the crystallisation of emotion into the lines was such as to produce a temafkably powerful effect on the listener. One did not feel that this was merely a story about two barbaric tribes living hundreds of years ago, in a mythical » qwalled city, but that these events could : gyoe taking placé at any time or any lacé in the world to-day. |

Ailsa

Thompson

bead Ld ] WAS introduced to The Trojan Women | more than 30 years ago. Whether I read it before I saw Dorothea Spinney’s able single-handed presentation, I am not sure, but certainly Miss Spinney’s voice and gestures\ did. more than the printed word to make me realise that the play is the most terrible indictment (continued at foot of page 20)

"THE TROJAN WOMEN"

TOO TRAGIC

(continued from previous page) of war and especially conquest ever written. And it was written centuries

before Christianity came with its ideal and obligation of pity. There must

have been other listeners to the BBC production who remembered Miss Spinney’s recital. That was during the first world -war. The modern spirit of the play was apparent then, but it took a second world war, with its piled-up deliberate cruelties, to make us appreciate Poseidon’s denunciation: How are ye blind, Ye treaders down of cities; ye that cast Temples to desolation and lay waste Tombs, the untrodden sanctuaries where lie The ancient dead, yourselves so soon to die! -. I found the BBC’s Trojan Women in keeping with the nobility of the verse ‘and the tragedy of the situations-so far as I listened. It was an experience one won’t forget, to have these terrible from the remote past so charged

with poetry and character, coming with the beauty and power of the human voice into the quiet of the fireside. What a full stage performance must be like I can only imagine. I would not choose to see it. I switched off the play early. Not having my book, I didn’t know when the murder of Hector’s child came in, and I wasn’t going to listen to that. Frankly I couldn’t face the scene, radio or stage. To me this is the most tragic of all plays. The tragedy, of Hamlet and Lear is individual, but here is death or . slavery for a whole community. And in © this year 1947 we know that similar things happened in Christian Europe only the other day. To Gilbert Murray, the translator, the scene of the Herald’s message about the child, with the parting between mother and child which follows, seems "perhaps the most absolutely heartrending in all the tragic literature of the world." I would leave out the "perhaps." This is the most unbearable of all things. -Alan Mulgan