Treason & Plot
S Y. RAY’S immensely topical play, * An Occasion for Fireworks (YCs), while not as spectacular as a giant Roman candle, was as satisfying as a big bonfire. To me, one of the most interesting things about it, apart from its genuine dramatic quality, was the care the author had taken to be fair, and the skill with which she trod among the embers of controversy. Her interpretation of the Gunpowder Plot, about halfway between Gardiner and Hugh Ross Williamson, was not only highly intelligent and closer to established historical facts than the version we learnt in school, but it spread its sympathies widely and generously. If Cecil’s Machiavellian role in laying a trap for the conspirators was barely hinted: at, the work of the Government’s agentsprovocateurs was clearly established. Only one scene I felt to be superfluous, that showing Fawkes as a bdy. In a good cast, I would single out for special mention Kevin Brennan’s Fawkes, Anthony Ward’s Percy, Alan Jervis’s Winter and Roy Leywood’s Catesby, a nice blend of New Zealand and Australian talent. This play and A Masque for Old Bones show that New Zealanders, if encouraged, can write radio plays that are more than just passable. May these two be the prelude to many more as good.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19571122.2.56.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 954, 22 November 1957, Page 34
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213Treason & Plot New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 954, 22 November 1957, Page 34
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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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