Insubstantial Castle
(ASTLE IN THE AIR, a farce by " Alan Melville, proved pretty featherweight stuff for ZB Sunday Showcase after the substantial plays and documentaries this excellent session has been offering. Why is it that English farces seem so much more old-fashioned and so much less witty than American ones? This play, about an improverished Ear] trying to sell his castle to an American millionairess, while preventing the Coal Board from requisitioning it, abounded in all the stock lines and situations which have done duty on the cocktailset theatre for a couple of generations. It may have been lightly amusing on the stage. But the one and a half radio hours spread the joke far too thin, and the last half-hour was, for me, listening only in the line of Radio Review duty. The NZBS players went through their predictable paces. Dorothy Campbell was pleasing as the American widowbut I’m not sure how much the effect of her performance owed to the fact that she is a talented player, and how much to the fact that she was a fresh voice.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570329.2.34.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 920, 29 March 1957, Page 21
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181Insubstantial Castle New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 920, 29 March 1957, Page 21
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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.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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