Drama of Expedieney

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 543, 18 November 1949, Page 14

Drama of Expedieney

HE RADIO PLAY has often and perhaps too glibly been described as the newest artform. This description has been generally accepted but I can’t help feeling that it is rather premature. I doubt very much whether the radio play has attained sufficient awareness or profundity to deserve such high praise. It could more truthfully be described as the. newest form of. dramatic presentation. It is not so much a new art-form as a remoulding, and maybe a distortion, | of an old one. It is, in a way, the drama | of expediency. There is more than a hint of Mr. Wemmick. "Here’s a tadio-let’s have a play," and for every original radio play, there are hundreds which are merely dramatised versions of novels, stories or stage plays which have all had their initial inspiration in a totally different medium. Whatever the answer, the radio play’s 20-odd years of existence have inspired a large number of books, and the latest to hand is Felix Felton’s-which is entitled, simply, The Radio Play.* Felix Felton has had over 10 years’ experience as a BBC producer, and what he has to say is condensed into a very readable and informative volume. He does not tell us how to write a radio play but discusses what happens once a play is placed in the hands of a producer. A great deal has already been said in similar publications, a lot is ordinary commonsense, but it is all written in the light of personal experience and comes together very nicely. One’ of the’ main conclusions arrived at after reading The Radio Play is that a producer who has a professional knowledge of music (as Felton has) has a far better chance of making his productions memorable and exciting than a man without such a qualification. Another is that ham or insincere acting is out of the question. As he says, "The microphone destroys bunk," and only actots who have an essential core of integrity can attain any sort of radio virtuosity. Descriptions of the technical assistance which is available for BBC producers make one aware of the difficulties experienced by our own Drama Department. The BBC has innumerable studios for different effects, the producer has a host of trained and gifted professional actors -to choose from, there is time for ade-

quate rehearsals, there is the control panel, and there are a number of topflight musicians who can be employed to compose special scores for special productions. New Zealand’s Broadcasting House is still,a dream of the future, and in the meantime the NZBS Drama De- | partment has to cope

with certain make-shifts and inadequacies which must be frustrating. In Wellington there is one small studio, a limited rota of experienced players who are usually engaged in other employment during the day, there is no control panel for the producer, and I have not heard of one production where the music has been specially written, so that the regular presentations which’ come from this department should be given credit for the adequate standard of efficiency which has been achieved.

Sycorax

*THE RADIO PLAY, by Felix Felton; Sylvan Press, London. English price, 10/6.