Wolfit in Babylon
BEGAN by being rather irritated by Nebuchadnezzar. Those mincing English voices; those Dorothy L. Sayers modernisations; those coy little character touches, which are really so superficial! Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego sounded more like the members of a London literary society than like Biblical characters, and Nebuchadnezzar himself like a Gauleiter with a soft spot for nature poetry. But, as the play proceeded, and advanced out of that matey English style which seems to be the modern form for Biblical plays, it increased in depth and interest. The episode of the fiery furnace was no anticlimax, and the final scenes of the King’s degradation and _ regeneration were genuinely moving. Donald Wolfit’s superb, fruity voice-the most radiogenic I know-made Nebuchadnezzar a truly regal figure, and, as a broken old man, he carried full conviction. Wolfit is never afraid to act, even at the risk of being called a ham, and, at his best, as Volpone, Richard III and Nebuchadnezzar, he carries us to heights the average radio actor never even glimpses.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19561005.2.45.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 896, 5 October 1956, Page 22
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172Wolfit in Babylon New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 896, 5 October 1956, Page 22
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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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