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Old Familiar Voices

HE Man Who Phoned, by E. N. Tay‘lor, certainly deserved its winning place in the NZBS play competition, being one of the best of these slick and slightly macabre fantasies with Old Man Death playing a leading part. To me it was a curious blend of the familiar and original, the original thanks to the playwright and the familiar thanks to the cast. I am so used to hearing Peggy Walker play the patient wife (Yesterday, To-day and To-morrow, O-U-T Spells Out are two recent examples) that it would give me a rude shock to find her cast as the barmaid who gets bumped off. Selwyn Toogood gets around a little more, but is easily recognised by the constant listener even when disguised as Husband George. The third member of the cast was Bernard Beeby himself, playing his favourite role (he was equally successful when playing it straight in The Pardoner’s Tale and with blowsy comaradie in O-U-T Spells Out). In fact I have become so accustomed to hearing Mr. Beeby sounding like Death that I came all over queer at hearing his voice introducing In the Reign of Gloriana in the Children’s Session. (Miss Walker and Mr. Toogood were also in the cast.) I have often commented on the high standard of NZBS productions, and possibly the best way of maintaining this high standard is for casts to be selected from people of proven ability, But to have the same players constantly recurring tends to distract the listener from considering the play on its own merits, and the characters in the play, ‘instead of being merely their creator’s, take to themselves telegonic traces of their imterpreter’s previous roles,

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.I whakaputaina aunoatia ēnei kuputuhi tuhinga, e kitea ai pea ētahi hapa i roto. Tirohia te whārangi katoa kia kitea te āhuatanga taketake o te tuhinga.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19481029.2.17.6

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 488, 29 October 1948, Page 9

Word count
Tapeke kupu
282

Old Familiar Voices New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 488, 29 October 1948, Page 9

Old Familiar Voices New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 488, 29 October 1948, Page 9

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