"THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK"
Sir,-Your review of this play (April 23) and the letters by Paul Henderson and "A.M." in the issue of June 4 sug-. gest that the writers were in too great a hurry to carry out the critic’s last duty; to pronounce judgment, and had too little time for the critics first duty: to read and understand the author’s work, It would be a pity if those who have yet to read The Confidential Clerk should put off that pleasure because of the unfavourable comments appearing in The Listener. The reader’s pleasure will be greater if he had a knowledge of what the theatre requires of a play, and if he has read what Eliot has said of his own plays (Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture, 1950; Penguin Edition). : T. S. Eliot has at last succeeded in casting a poetic play on a contemporary theme in one of the forms of comedy accepted for over 2000 years, and has avoided the dramatic. mistakes in his earlier plays, As for the poetry, he has observed his own rule "to avoid poetry which ‘could not stand the test of dramatic utility." : His play has had a deserved success on the professional stage and I look forward to the time when some intelligent group of amateurs in New Zealand discovers that The Confidential Clerk is eminently snitable for pnlavine.
W. K.
McILROY
(Feilding).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19540625.2.12.10
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 779, 25 June 1954, Page 5
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231"THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK" New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 779, 25 June 1954, Page 5
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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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