"Under the Sycamore Tree"
"SIX of my feet are killing me,’ moans ~ the Queen Ant in Samuel Spewack’s farcical fable for the stage, Under the Sycamore Tree. And the Queen Ant isn’t the only character who sounds like someone we know. Like the animals of Swift and Orwell, Spewack’s ants have strangely: human problems. Their conservatives hark back to the days when
everyone spoke in numbers, not in new-fangled words. Ant wars — with DDT-are as terrible as man’s atomic massacres. But for all its material horrors, life for the ants is uncomplicated by emotion — until science decides to experiment with rearing the young. An ant-girl and an antboy are brought up as humans... The subsequent goingson in the ant colony under the sycamore tree
make an hilarious spoof_of human foibles in general, and, since Spewack is a U.S. citizen, of American foibles in particular. The play, like most American imports, received a warm welcome in London, where it played with Alec Guinness in a leading role. Wellington playgoers will be able to see Under the Sycamore Tree when it. is presented by Victoria College’s Drama Club for four days beginning Wednes-
day, March 31. Those. wishing to know what it. is all about should tune | to 2ZB’ at 4.0 p.m. on the preceding Sunday, March 28, when the station will broadcast excerpts from the show. Sam Spewack, incidentally, is a successful Broadway playwright, bestknown perhaps as coauthor of Kiss Me Kate, and of Boy Meets Girl, a comedy hit of the late thirties. ’
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540326.2.26
Bibliographic details
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 766, 26 March 1954, Page 13
Word count
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253"Under the Sycamore Tree" New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 766, 26 March 1954, Page 13
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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.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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