THINGS TO COME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 4

THINGS TO COME

A Run Through The Programmes

A Barrie Playlet Most people know J. M. Barrie as the creator of Peter Pan or the author of The Little Minister, but much of his popular success (on the stage at any rate) was based on the spirit of highflown comedy he displayed in plays like The Twelve Pound Look. This play, which is one of his most original creations (if not his most successful oneact play), has been adapted for radio by Gordon Gillard of the BBC, and it will be heard from 4YA at 2.1 p.m. this Sunday, July 18. The Twelve Pound Look is an amusing little study, written in Barrie’s best comic manner, of the deflation of a self-satisfied husband, and it is interesting to note that although the popularity of the Peter Pan story has never seriously declined, many critics now consider that Barrie Was more infallibly an artist in his comic treatment of such themes as the folly of worldly success (as in this play) than when he Wrote in the sentimental vein of many of his earlier works. The Cat and the Captain W. JACOBS fans should enjoy the "play A Black Affair, which the NZBS has produced from his amusing story about the conflict that broke out on a British tramp steamer over the captain’s parrot and the crew’s lucky black cat. The crew are fond of their cat (whose name is Satan), but the captain loves his parrot too, so that when cat stalks bird and the feathers begin to fly the captain vows he will kill Satan if his pet dies. Luckily, before this happens the cook manages to smuggle aboard another cat which could pass for Satan’s double, so that when the parrot dies the wrong cat is thrown overboard. Then the fun really starts, for when the captain hears mysterious mewings coming from behind the bulkheads and under the bunks the crew inform him that it is the ghost of Satan come to haunt him, and a lot of comic by-play ensues before all is solved and amity is restored once nore. The play is full of those salty, sardonic sea characters for whom W. W. Jacobs is famous, and the captain, mate, cook, and other members of the crew are admirably portrayed. The Black Affair will be heard from 2YC at 8.0 p.m. this ‘Sunday, July 18. "Milton on the Air OME people just can’t stomach the poetry of John Milton; in fact it has almost become fashionable amongst the intelligentsia of these days to consign him with a flourish to the dust-bin, together with the works of much lesserknown men. But there are still a lot of die-hards who revel in the boom of his sonorous lines and the magnificence of his rolling periods, and if there are any of them in Otago they will be able to hear from 4YA a series of studio presentations of readings from Milton, starting on Monday next, July 19. At 9.30 p.m., when presumably the children have gone~to bed and only seriousminded adults are sitting about the fire, Philip Smithells of Otago University will introduce the series with an estimate of Milton’s place in literature. The

Organ Voice of English Verse, as this session is called, will continue at the same time on succeeding Mondays. Love in Old Vienna OMANTIC ballroom scenes, with moustache twirling heroes and bustle-flouncing heroines, should figure prominently in the BBC production of Anatol, a series of dramatic sketches of the love adventures of a young Viennese in the Gay Nineties. Written by the

Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler, Anatol became famous years ago because it reproduced with delightful humour the atmosphere of the old Vienna that everybody loved. Using Granville-Barker’s translation the BBC put Anton Walbrook (who will be remémbered for his parts in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and other outstanding British films) in the leading role. Anton Walbrook knows these plays well, having acted them in Munich and Vienna itself, and he captures the true Continental spirit in his playing. Anato/ will be heard from 3YL at 8.0 p.m. on Friday, July 23. ‘More Psychology HAT is personality? Most of us agree that there is a good deal of our parents and grandparents in our make-up, but some psychologists think that what we are in adult life ts mainly due to what our past has been likethe kind of childhood we had, whether we came from a rich or a poor family, the schools we went to, and so on. But then those who think that heredity is the strongest influence point out that no matter how much we change there is always an important basic quality in our personality that remains unchanged. Under the title What is Personality? three psychologists will speak on this subject from 2YA. At 7.15 p.m. on Monday, July 19, J. G. Caughley, psychologist to the Education Department, will discuss the effects of environment, and at the same time on succeeding weeks J. R. Jennings, psychologist to the Labour Department, will talk about the role of heredity, and Dr. T. O. Garland, of the Health Department, will describe how our personalities are affected by physical factors such as accident, disease, and age. Early English Music OR its classical hour on Tuesday, July 20, starting at 2.15 p.m., Station 4YZ has chosen seven early English composers and excerpts from their music will

be presented by members of the Dolmetsch family, the St. George’s Singers, and the Fleet Street Choir. Out of season but always charming, "Summer is I-Cumen In" will introduce the programme. This work was composed by John of Fornsete (born in 1239), who became a monk of Reading Abbey. "His Toye, his Dreame and his Rest," which will follow, is by Giles Farnaby (1560), composer of madrigals and _ virginal music. William Byrd (1543), the greatest figure in 16th Century English music and an organist at Lincoln Cathedral, will be represented by his "Earl of Salisbury" and the "Mass for Five Voices." The remaining items will be "Divisions on a. Ground" by Daniel Norcome (1576), a law-clerk who became a Roman Catholic and fled to Brussels; "The Kiig’s Hunt" by John Bull (1563), one of the most celebrated composers of the Elizabethan group; "Awake, Sweet Love" by the lutenist John Dowland (1563), and "Fantasy for a Chest of Six Viols" by Thomas Weelkes (died 1623), a madrigal composer. Mystery at School W HAT happens in the masters’ common room at school when the end of term comes along? Do the weary pedagogues sit back peacefully and think of wonderful holidays to come in the same way that their pupils do? In some places perhaps they might, but that’s certainly not what happens at the school in the play End of Term, a BBC production from*the pen of William Barrow. The setting of the play *% a housemaster’s study at an English public school, and the chief characters are the housemaster and his headmaster. What hapvens between them is the last thing one would expect to take place in such peaceful surroundings, for crime and violence are afoot behind the scenes. Without revealing anything of the plot we can say that this play should provide a tense half-hour for those who are addicted to mystery and excitement in their nightly radio listening. End of Term will be heard from 2YA at 8.0 p-m. on Friday, July 23.