Those Pioneers Again
NE MAN’S KINGDOM, Ruth Park’s historical romance, was an ambitious attempt to give us something of the rude rough drama of the pioneers in ‘one hour. It was pretty much the mixture as before-fine dogged types in the usual setting of hard work, romance, solitary and difficult childbirth, two deaths and a flood. Through it all they remained fine and dogged. The literary exemplar.of this play was, I suspected, Gone With the Wind; and whether this can be regarded as a worthy model, depends, of course, on one’s assessment of the merits of that work. The production of One Man’s Kingdom fell short of the high standard I have come to expect of NZBS plays, the script being broken in too many places by bursts of music, sighing of wind and other background noises. The beautiful words and thoughts uttered by the narrator ("So the children slept on the breast of New Zealand close to her volcanic heart," meaning "They lived in the King Country"), did little to soothe my mood of critical distaste for what seemed to me the vulgarity and the sentimentality of this production. I Tegretted its appearance as a play, as a tribute to the pioneers, but perhaps most of all, as chosen entertainment for 4YC
aisteners,
Loquax
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19510810.2.21.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 632, 10 August 1951, Page 11
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215Those Pioneers Again New Zealand Listener, Volume 25, Issue 632, 10 August 1951, Page 11
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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