Gravity and Outer Space

New Zealand Listener, Volume 39, Issue 989, 1 August 1958, Page 20

Gravity and Outer Space

[_¥YDIA RAGOSIN’S play Beyond, which the NZBS, in Earle Rowell’s production, presented recently in Sunday Showcase, had an excellent idea, and she was well served by producer and cast. Four men are on their way to the moon: how did they get there? Not physically, understand; what psychological motivation persuades a man to forsake the pull of gravity for other, more persuasive attachments? The opening scenes, where we experience the excitements of the expedition being prepared, had a fine authenticity and a range of virtuoso sound effects which must have exercised the ingenuity of the Auckland studios; then we are aloft, and the play loses impetus as the spaceship gains it. We are taken deep into the lives of two of the travellers; we learn that one of them has never found the "gravitational pull of human attachments" sufficiently strong. He feels that his emotional life is a mess; hence he needs (continued on next page)

and takes, another orbit. This episode did no harm. But the other involved us in a tedious archaeological expedition and after we had been digging for what seemed hours, we unearthed an early moon goddess, Ningall, if I render it correctly, and it is in search of her that her discoverer climbs aboard the rocket ship. Eventually, the ship passes through a cloud of meteors which throw it off orbit, and we leave the travellers circling for ever round the sun. Much too diffuse, the play was nevertheless enjoyable for its distinguished production and acting.