Unfortunate Gourmets
LTHOUGH I am still seeking for more new plays, The Man Who Ate the Popomack (1YC), which I had not heard before, made quite pleasant listening. I remember W. J. Turner as the witty Australian who wrote those entertaining stories about Henry Airbubble and the Duchess of Popocatapetl, and the haunting lines about the enchantment of "Chimborazo, Cotopaxi," and so I expected something out of the ordinary trun of fantasy. I wasn’t disappointed with most of this fable of the men who ate the exotic Popomack fruit, thereby acquiring its repulsive smell, which causes them to lose friends, and, in one case, a fiancée, despite such expedients as a diving-suit. William Austin, I thought, in particular, gave a nicelyjudged performance as one unfortunate gourmet. But I always feel horribly
cheated when "it all turns out to bea dream"; and wish that Mr. Turner could have devised a neater and more meaningful ending than this last refuge of flagging invention. Here is one case in which the NZBS might justly have called in its busy play-doctors. But, then, I believe that Mr. Turner is still alive, whereas Shakespeare has been Sopeey. dead these many years.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540618.2.21.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 1954, Page 10
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196Unfortunate Gourmets New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 778, 18 June 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.
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