"THE GOOSE GIRL"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 657, 8 February 1952, Page 5

"THE GOOSE GIRL"

Sir-I have more than once ‘had reason to be grateful to the NZBS for its policy of repeating good programmes. On Saturday, January 26, I was again grateful when I was able to hear from 2YC a second presentation of the BBC play, The Goose Girl. This méddern version of the fairy tale is, in my opinion, one of the best things to come from the BBC, At a first hearing one is intent upon the story, There is always something happening when the Grimm brothers are telling a tale, and the listener is carried along at a steady pace. Hearing it for a second time, however, one is able to enjoy more fully the good things which formerly had only a glan--cing attention, ’ Francis Dillon is a name I have come to look for in BBC productions, and I doubt if he has ever been better than in his treatment of The Goose Girl. The principal parts were filled out by excellent character studies, especially the Herald, Bess the mutinous servant girl (who, it seemed to me, had some reasons for discontent), the King and the Prince and, of course, Curlykin. There was something almost cheeky in the use of modern idiom and mannerisms, though it left intact the magical quality of the story. Perhaps this was partly because of the skilful way in which the fairy tale atmosphere was built up. The voices and obscene sounds in the enchanted forest were like passages from the earlier ballet music of Stravinsky, and I was fascinated by the goose-call: of Curly--kin, especially when it-echoed under the gateway where the head of the magic horse was suspended, The whole production proved again that a good fairy tale can be a work of art. And it showed also,. 1. think, that a radio play can arouse the imagination by the skilful use of sound. I doubt if any comparable effect can be reached when all is made plain for us by television.

CURLYKIN

(Wellington).