Light Heavyweight

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 528, 5 August 1949, Page 11

Light Heavyweight

HE Emlyn Williams play The Light of Heart must be very Highly thought of by the NZBS, since it is one of the few permitted to go over the half-hour mark — almost approaching the hour limit previously reached only by plays in the BBC’s World Theatre series. It was full of nice fat parts for the nicely--trained and very competent NZBS cast, including one minor but meaty one for the Cockney without whom, apparently, no NZBS play would be deemed airworthy. Yes, The Light of Heart is certainly an actor’s play, but I am tempted to question whether it was a listeners’ play. Once past the opening scene, which was curiously reminiscent of ITMA (the Chinstrap of the inebriated Murdoch Thomas and the Sam of Bevin, the kindly Welsh policeman), listeners found themselves languishing amid the alien corn of a plot in which broken-down _ actors, self-sacrificing daughters, promising young musicians with inferiority-complexes and impresarios manoeuvred for position, It had its moments, of course. The plot, like the characters, was meaty, the dialogue full-flavoured, the situations robust. And seldom has an author used the sword of melodrama to better purpose than Mr. Williams, who invoked its timely aid to apply the coup de grace to a situation that was rapidly becoming intolerable to the audience-though the actors were still enjoying it, There’s a lot to be said for complete removal of one angle of a triangle.