WORLD THEATRE
Sir,-As one of four listeners who were unable to comprehend the play The Family Reunion, by T. S. Eliot, in the BBC World Theatre Series,-I write to ask if someone who appreciates the play will kindly explain the character and plot of the play, and point out any aesthetic or moral values. © ~~ This play about a morbid family (although the acting and voices were’ ex= cellent) seems to me to be a distortion of human emotions-on a par with the distortions of the human figure as portrayed in some decadent: modern art, such as in the surrealist movement or in the absurdities of sculpture which Moore recently exhibited in Battersea Park. It will be interesting if light can be thrown on the reason why intelligent authorities in the BBC selected this play.
H. M.
HELM
(Pangatotara).
Sir,-T. S. Eliot’s Family Reunion was such a remarkable oasis in a desert of indifferent radio programmes that it seemed a pity that its artistic cqntinyity should have been broken by sports announcements. A brief. musical intétval, during which Part I of the famous verse drama could have been discussed, might have been a good idea. But a half-hour of weather forecast and sports results was simply incredible and surely an error in taste. However, one imptoved the regrettable half-hour with toothcleaning and grumbling. T. S. Eliot would have enjoyed our idiom; especially when it came to bowls and croquet!
MORE DRAMA
(Kawau).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19500217.2.12.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 556, 17 February 1950, Page 5
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241WORLD THEATRE New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 556, 17 February 1950, Page 5
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