Shows from the ZB's

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 655, 25 January 1952, Page 14

Shows from the ZB's

OWN near the toe of England where the Atlantic dashes against the cliffs and the next stop is America, the little Cornish village of Mousehole clings to the hillside that runs down to a small fishing harbour. The local folk pronounce it "Mouzle."" Mousehole has not altered its looks overmuch for hundreds of years, though there have been changes in its way of living. Its principal industry used to be smuggling, but things have quietened down a bit since then; so much so that some of the men have given up the sea altogether and have taken to market gardening. The pride of the village is its Male Voice Choir. It was formed about 40 years ago and used, at first, to practise in the net loft about the salting tanks. Perhaps it was the air of this meetingplace where the smell of fish and the sea was at its strongest, that gave the singers the special tonal quality which they say has helped them to carry off prizes throughout the West of England. However, no matter what the cause of this special timbre may be, it is sufficiently important to the choir to keep it drawing on the musical resources of Mousehole alone. Foreigners are rigorously excluded (a foreigner, incidentally, is amyone who does not live in, Mousehole, or whose family does not ‘come from the Village). The Mousehole Male Voice Choir, together with twelve other British cheirs--among them the Huddersfield Glee and Madrigal Society. one of the comparatively few choirs in

England today specialising in unaccompanied singing-will be heard in the BBC programme Britain Sings, when it is broadcast on Sundays from the main Commercial stations. It will begin on February 3, and will be heard from 1ZB, 2ZB, 4ZB and 2ZA at 8.45 p.m., and from 3ZB at 5.30 p.m.

T is in the very nature of the short story to come quickly to focus, to deal with its subject succinctly, and to hold its reader’s attention from beginning to climax. These qualities, when they are present, frequently make short stories ideal material for radio drama. They are present in a high degree in those that have been dramatised in the VOA programme Short Story Theatre. In this series of half-hour plays, which will be broadcast by the four ZB stations every Sunday at 4.0 p.m. stories by well-known American writers have been chosen and adapted for presentation as radio drama. Particularly notable among them is Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery." This account of primitive country superstition was first lifted out of print into television. A new technique was used to convey the tension and the peculiar allegorical qualities of the situation in which the winner of the lottery and her family find themselves. In was then adapted for radio. Conrad Aiken’s spiritual drama, "Mr. Arcularis," was also televised before it was turned into a radio play. Among the other stories that will be heard are E. Scott Fitzgerald’s "Crazy Sunday," Hemingway's "Fifty Grand," Steinbeck’s "Leader of the People,’ "I Am Not a Stranger," by James Street, and Ben Ames Williams’s "The Piano." The series will start on February 3.