Theatre Anatomised
HALF-HOUR talk on the current London theatre, under the title of London Letter, offers such opportunities for a catalogue of names, interspersed with a little newsy gossip, that Dr J. G. Pocock’s lively, witty conspectus came as a delightful surprise. His direct. comments on plays were informative and provocative, seemingly independent of vogue, save in the discussion of Brecht, and offering a refreshingly new slant on things which last month were dernier cri. But the incidental remarks were the real joy of Dr Pocock’s talk-his brisk demolition of the "lucky Jim" myth, his reference to the "soft-minded Training College conformist, his New Zealand equivalent," his criticism of the chi-chi,
over-elaborated style of production, fading in London, but, he claimed, in the ascendant here, his interesting discussion of why the French can get away with "style" alone, but not the English. Not that I cotild agree with all his deductions and judgments. (Surely he was less than just to Claudel’s Christopher Columbus?) But the vivacious criticism, and admirably high standards implied make this talk ever so much more than the usual emptying-out of theatrical crumbs from the traveller’s knapsack.
J.C.
R.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570405.2.36.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 921, 5 April 1957, Page 20
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192Theatre Anatomised New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 921, 5 April 1957, Page 20
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