"THE EDGE OF PEACE"
N United Natjons Day, Sunday, October 24, the main National stations will broadcast The Edge of Peace, a play specially written and distributed to all member states of the United Nations. The script was written by George Ivan Smith, a former director of the Pacific Service of the
BBC and now head of the English section of the United Nations Radio Division. The play is in the form of a verse -fantasy describing the visit of an allegorical figure, Man, to Valhalla, the mythical warriors’ heaven. . There he meets all the famous and infamous conquerors of the pastAlexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Nero, and Julius Caesar,
Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, and others. They are assembled around a vast table at the head of which is The Chairman, the archetype of all warmongers and profiteers. The Chairman and his minions have brought Man before them to find out what they can about the latest means of waging war, the atomic weapon. But Man proves to be an unusually stubborn and un-co-operative person. His spirited replies to the warriors’ questions arouse their professional jealousy. Bismark wrangles with Frederick of Prussia, Napoleon and Hitler argue over a phrase, Caesar abuses Nero, and amidst
this ghostly turmoil of vanity and martial arrogance the voice of Man is heard making his quiet plea for peace. "I have few words to tell. I am a farmer living by the sea, where wheat is hard to grow." Despite the new atomic inventions he still has hopes of permanent world
peace, and although The Chairman shows him his war propaganda weapons-the blind belief in national right instilled into school childreh, the malicious spreading of twmours, the inflammatory newspaper article--he still thinks war can be prevented. "If man could think. of man before he acts," he says, "with trust between us we could only need a common
force to guard our common iife." This is the theme of the play, the reminder that we the peoples of the United Nations have resolved to condemn all forms of propaganda which might. provoke a threat to peace. Although The Edge of Peace is written in a form of blank verse it is not intellectually pretentious, but the producer, Bernard Beeby (supervisor of productions for the NZBS), regards it as a very powerful drama that should command a wide listening audience. It will be broadcast at 8.15 p.m. on Sunday, October 24, ,
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19481015.2.21
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 486, 15 October 1948, Page 9
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403"THE EDGE OF PEACE" New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 486, 15 October 1948, Page 9
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