The Artist and the World

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 912, 1 February 1957, Page 20

The Artist and the World

[HE artist and the people around him are discussed in two new plays to be heard next week. The Late Christopher Bean depicts the reaction of a family who learn that the artist they sheltered has become famous. Immediately their former disapproval of his unorthodox and drunken life turns to admiration of the artist whose works are now so valuable. Emlyn Williams, with humour but small mercy, shows the art dealers trying to cheat the family; they themselves ate quite willing to make as much mony as thep can, even by trickery and the production of forgeries, since the pictures have been burnt. Then Gwenny, the maid, produces some startling information to confound them all. ¢ The central character of The Golden Entry is a man with a passionate concern for the arts but no talent for them himself. Having discovered this lack of ’ creative ability as a young man, Martin Harkfast in his private art gallery has devoted his life to the service of great

talent. "Such men exist in all civilised countries," says J. B. Priestley, introducing the play in the Radio Times. "I only wish there were more of them. This play is an attempt to display and honour one of them." The play shows a day when Harkfast is making a last fearful effort to raise the money to keep his gallery going. He is close to the despair that can utterly destroy a man. On this last day he meets many people with attitudes to life and art very different from his own. But if he finds enemies, he also makes some friends; and although he does not succeed in doing what he had set out to do at the beginning of the play, he does, in the words of the author, throw off his despair, take courage, and return triumphantly to his career as the servant of fine talent. The Late Christopher Bean, an NZBS production by Bernard Beeby, will be heard in ZB Sunday Showcase on February 10. Oliver A. Gillespie adapted for radio this play which Emlyn Williams translated from the French of Rene Fauchois. The Golden Entry, a BBC play by J. B. Priestley, adapted by Cynthia Pughe and produced by Wilfred Grantham, will be broadcast by YC stations.