Where Was Villon?
| ISTENING to James Forsyth’s play The Other Heart, based on the life of Francois Villon, was an experience, but an experience one would not wish to repeat. The play is one of considerable dramatic power, in this case sadly blunted by over-production. It was full of noises on, the pealing of bells, the braying of trumpets, the creaking of gibbets, the twittering of little birds. The hysterical laughter of Rene’s doxy caused exquisite agony early in the piece, but it was nothing to the braying of Villon’s sadistic jailer a good hour later. Between noises it was possible to be stirred by the quiet terror of the passage where Katrine de Waucelles relates her dream of the Examiner, to be moved by the dramatic rightness of the final scene. But I found it impossible to reconcile my ideas of Villon with either the puling poet of the early part or the sadly-wise fugitive of the latter part, though there were strong echoes of Christopher Fry. Where was Francois Villon? Where are the snows of yes-
teryear?
M.
B.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540521.2.22.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 774, 21 May 1954, Page 12
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181Where Was Villon? New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 774, 21 May 1954, Page 12
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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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