Nice Little Tight Little Play

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 471, 2 July 1948, Page 10

Nice Little Tight Little Play

ALOON BAR was longer than most of the NZBS plays, but retained interest throughout its length, being one of those "nice little, tight little’ plays where the plot’s the thing. It was a plot, indeed, which thickened throughout, but the outcome was never in doubt. Virtue triumphed, evil was overcome, wrong set right at the last hour, in the fashion approved by the would-be reformers of radio thrillers, serials, and plays. The whole action of this play takes place in a saloon bar, the habitues of which foregather to down a pint or two, and discuss a local murder. The innocent accused is a friend of all present, and who should come in while they are talking but his girl-friend. During the evening, by a series of coincidences unlikely to happen just so conveniently in any medium ther than the radio play, the facts of the boyfriend’s innocence are proven and the real murderer is likewise unmaskedmuch to the satisfaction of the bar-fre-quenters, who have been having a whale of a good time playing amateur detective. The continued impetus of the plot carries along in fine style, but in between the following of clues and the revelations of virtue and villainy there is time for some character-drawing which the members of the NZBS cast managed well. It was a much better «production than most of the thriller plays we get from various stations and it is obvious that when the NZBS can turn out so good a piece as this, there should be no need to import the lessattractive article of similar type. (The trouble is, I suppose, that the NZBS studios just couldn’t produce the quantity required to meet the demand.)