THE VOICE OF NEW ZEALAND
EW ZEALANDERS in England, who flaunt a silver fern leaf and resist all temptation to belong to other nations, can still be flattered by being told that their accent is less emphatic than that of the Australians. But actors from the Dominion ‘soon find that they must cease to warble their native woodnotes wild or run the risk of being typed-and
hence of starving, because there are few calls for New Zealand voices on stage or radio. Thus, when the BBC Schools Ser vice produced a 20minute play about a South Island sheep station, the accent was on but not of New Zealand.
It was ironical that one New Zealander who was invited to take part (John Carson-Parker) was playing an Australian in another radio production that same day. Three voices were provided by two "expatriates" whose vowels are now more rounded than they used to be. Brigid Lenihan, formerly of Christchurch, took the part of the farmer’s wife; she is now the wife of John Knight, a TV studio manager. Ewen Solon, whose home is at Wellington, doubled for the leader of a shearing gang, and a fat lamb buyer. The .play, written by A. D. Curnow, formerly of Christchurch, is one of two designed to impart information painlessly about the Dominion. I have heard of at least one London school which made a tape-recording of the broadcast.
J. W.
GOODWIN
(London)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 822, 29 April 1955, Page 17
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238THE VOICE OF NEW ZEALAND New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 822, 29 April 1955, Page 17
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