SHAKESPEARE "ADAPTED"
tates me more than anything else on the radio. I thought’ Julius Caesar (1YC) less disastrous than the unfortunate Macbeth of a couple of years ago only because it was rather better played, misreadings and ail. O. A. Gillespie’s streamlining removed almost all the poetry and the high rhetoric, left hardly a scene unmangled, shifted the balance of characters, destroyed Shakespeare’s dramatic rhythm, and _ ludicrously accelerated the conspiracy and battle-scenes. If radio audiences can take World Theatre plays, with a minimum of cutting, why does the NZBS consider it necessary to offer half a loaf of Shakespeare each time? Yet the truncated version of The Bluebird (1YA) a couple of days later, seemed to me justified. Maeterlinck’s play is too long to begin with; it is largely a play of spectacle; it calls for a huge cast, and has neither the poetic value nor the structural tautness of Shakespeare’s plays. The adaptation was intelligent, if rather hurried at the end; and it was acted with spirit. Potted Maeterlinck, yes, but, please, less Classic Comics Shakespeare! The thought of an NZBS "adapted" Lear or Hamlet chills the blood. = tos Shakespeare irri-
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540514.2.20.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 773, 14 May 1954, Page 10
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192SHAKESPEARE "ADAPTED" New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 773, 14 May 1954, Page 10
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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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