THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 463, 7 May 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

Misunderstood AVE you ever been mistaken for a ) shoplifter? Have you ever been | fingering that lovely, lingerie at some department store when the shopwalker came stealthily up behind you and muttered menacingly in your ear, "Whose, might I ask, is that silk slip hanging out of your bag?" Well, something like that happened to poor dear Miss .Foxley, sister of Archdeacon Foxley from the rustic parish of Dawdleton, while visiting London on ea kind-hearted parish task. Of course, Miss Foxley would never dream of committing such a crime as stealing, but she had a hard job to prove her innocence in this case, and her amusingly-portrayed struggle forms the main theme of the NZBS play, The Bargain, to be broadcast from 3YA at 8.0 p.m. on Thursday, May 13. Miss Foxley was in London to buy a presentation clock for the retiring village organist, Mr. Boffin, and after all her trials with those suspicious city folk she does succeed in making her pur-chase-and et what a bargain! _ This is a delightful and well-acted comedy. of misunderstanding that shoukl be enjoyed by all those with an unspoiled English sense of humour. The Art of Arts N a world in which the fair sex have taken to tram-conducting, van-driving, and farm Jabouring, we may begin to wonder whether the ancient art of simply being feminine-as Cleopatra was-isn’t becoming a lost one. Is it in fact more womanly to scrub floors than to sit at an office desk dictating letters? Is it better to be dandling or slapping infants of various sizes than to be smacking a typewriter, serving behind a counter, or canning peas in a factgry? The role of womanhood seems to get more complex with every year that passes, and perhaps that is why Amabel Wil-liams-Ellis (author of Women in War Factories, and Learn to Love First) is coming out with a timely reminder of what a woman really should be in the series of talks called The Art of Being a Woman. There are six talks all told, starting from 2YA at 10.25 am. on Tuesday, May 11. And what is the true and final product of a wéman’s art, Mrs. Williams-Ellis asks? Why, of course, the Happy Home. Music in China HOSE of*us interested in Chinese culture think of music in China in | terms of those long, somewhat artificial,

Chinese operas with their resounding percussion accompaniment and the falsetto voices of the actors who play the female roles. But in thinking thus we are inclined to forget the. cosmopolitan nature of some of China’s

--e--main cities, and the fact that to many Europeans who have been resident*there music in China is simply Western music played in a Chinese setting. This will be realised when we hear the talk prepared by Elsie Rubens, now resident in Auckland,

from 1YA on Wednesday, May 12, at 10.40 a.m. Mrs. Rubens studied singing in Milan and Berlin and gave recitals on the Continent before she went to China about nine years ago and became .a teacher at the Chinese Academy of Music which had then just been founded. Most of those years were spent in Shanghai or Tientsin and her pupils included Russian, German, American, French, Belgian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and English students, and it is her life in this international society that she will describe in the talk from 1YA. Big hearted HE history of comic broadcasting in Britain took a new turn with the advent of Arthur Askey. He was engaged out of the blue to play in a series of programmes to be called Band Waggon. Askey had a parochial, concertparty reputation; to the public at large he was unknown. Band Waggon was booked to run 12 weeks-such a thing had never happened on British airwaves before. The experiment was a wise one; Band "Waggon became the grandfather of all the BBC comedy series and Askey was a star born of radio. His career showed how the broadcasting triumph of a comparatively unknown actor could lead to immense personal success in films and in the theatre. His foil, Richard Murdoch, later made the same pleasant discovery. For a long time in the U.S. radio people had pinned their faith to the series system and Band Waggon was almost the first important manifestation of American influence. Askey himself broke new ground by exploiting "situation comedy" in the Benny style. Listeners really believed that he and "Stinker"’ shared a flat on top of the BBC. And their fantastic adventures were underlined by the skilful use of effects. Since those days we have heard Askey proclaiming himself musically to be a seagull, a woolly little lamb, a death-watch beetle and taking on sundry other guises, with his "Proposal" (plus Murdoch) capping the lot for broad comedy. Arthur Askey will be the subject of the Morning Star talk from 2YA at 9.32 a.m. on Thursday, May 13. Listeners will hear about and from him. Angel or Devil? DMUND KEAN was one of the greatest actors who ever trod the English stage, and also one of its most extraordinary personalities. When he made his first triumphant appearance at London’s Drury Lane Theatre in 1814, years of frustration and near-starvation as an actor in obscure provincial theatres had already warped a character that was never quite balanced. THere were in fact two Keans-the inspired artist of whom Hazlitt wrote, "He is flesh and blood, living fibre, instinct with fire and spirit," and as another writer described him, "This ugly, mis-shapen, crowvoiced, drink-sodden, disease-racked wonder of a man, half angel, half devil, whose curse it was to crave what he despised and betray all he held sacred." The BBC have produced a most revealing portrait of Kean in the programme Dream of Passion, which will be heard from 4YA at 2.1 p.m. on Friday, May 14, and it does more than bring Kean to

life-it paints also a vivid picture of the English theatre in the early years of the 19th Century. Film FestivalRAMATIC excerpts and musical numbers from some notable British pictures of the war years will be heard from 2YA at 8.0 p.m. on Saturday, May 15, in the programme From the British Film Festival of 1946. The films chosen and the players taking part are The Way Ahead (Stanley Holloway), The Way to the Stars (Michael Redgrave, John Mills, Rosamund John), Get Cracking

(George Formby), The Man in Grey (Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert), 49th Parallel (Eric Portman, Anton Walbrook), and The Young Mr. Pitt (Robert Donat). With the original stars taking part in some of the high spots of these films-the moments of emotion, laughter and sincerity which will be best remembered by those who saw themthis programme should be well worth listening to by all those young mothers and others who for some obscure reason had (and have) to spend their Saturday nights at home.