French Gravity
AVING much enjoyed that provocative novel, Dawn on Our Darkness, by the French North African writer Emmanuel Robles, I expected something meaty in his play, An Armistice with Truth, I was not disappointed. In a setting of the Peninsular War of 1809, it dealt subtly and convincingly, with issues which have been the concern of the French theatre since Corneille and Racine-the clash between personal feelings and higher loyalties, the manysided character of truth, and the attitude which can transform expediency into the higher truth. The play was full of that kind of debate and logic-chop-ping which the French love in the theatre, but which tends to make the Anglo-Saxon restless. Hence its special aptness for, radio, where the ear can surrender to the dialectic. Selwyn Toogood did a fine job as the tough general, Don Enrique, ably supported by Peter Varley, William Austin and Peggy Walker (save for a somewhat over-played scene at the end). I wasn’t
so happy about the other actors who, in attempting to suggest the tones of the coarse and_ licentious Spanish soldiers, succeeded only in souncing like English actors playing characters from Me and Gus.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19560713.2.47.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 884, 13 July 1956, Page 25
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193French Gravity New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 884, 13 July 1956, Page 25
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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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