Broadcast of Shakespearean Performance

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 30, 8 February 1929, Unnumbered Page

Broadcast of Shakespearean Performance

yay, ET another historic broadcast event by 2YA, Wellington, is announced to take place. ee | On the evening of Friday, February 8, for the first time in New Zealand, scenes from (})y| Shakespeare, performed by a professional theatrical company, will be broadcast direct from & | the stage during the actual enactment before an audience. The broadcast by 2YA, Wel- | Seo | lington, will be picked up by 3YA, Christchurch, which station will re-broadcast the peri formance. It is estimated that, making a reasonable allowance for the number of people listening in at each licensee’s home, more than 80,000 people will hear this historical broadcast.

ae PANY thousand lisieners throughout h)} New Zealand will be interested in the news that the Radio Broadfi} casting Company have made eye hf] arrangements with Mr. Allan ; Geof, Wilkie, C.B.E., the eminent’ actorLo manager of the Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company, to broadcast three scenes from the public performance of "The Merry Wives of Windsor," one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s 37 plays. The programme of 2YA, Wellington, which has wready been compiled for this evening, will be interrupted twice to cross over to the stage of the Grand Opera House, Wellington, where "The Merry Wives of Windsor" will be in progress of enactment by the Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company. At 8.35 p.m. (approximately) the delightful "letter-reading scene" by the "merry wives" will*be picked up by the microthhone and put on the air by 2YA, Wellington. Again at 9.50 p.m. (approximately) ‘the microphone will lend its ear to the Garter Inn scene in which the roguish old Sir John Falstaff describes to Ford (disguised as one, Brook) his first experience when he was carried away in the buckbasket after wooing Mistress Ford. This will be followed immediately by the second adventure of Falstaff in his wooing of Mistress Ford. HE three scenes to the broadcast are self-contained in a sense that they involve episodes which, though detached from the play for the purpose of broadcasting, are, nevertheless, sufficiently complete in themselves as to be readily understood and enjoyed.

Mr. Allan Wilkie will play the part of Sir John Falstaff-a role which he has so successfully interpreted as to be widely acclaimed by Press and public throughout

Australia and New Zealand. Miss HunterWatts, Mr. Wilkie’s talented leading lady, will appear as Mistress Ford, a part she graces with inimitable skill. Miss Lorna Torbes will impersonate Mistress Page.

As Ford himself, and also disguised as Brook, Mr. Alexander Marsh, the gifted English actor who has lately joined Mr. Wilkie’s company, gives a particularly fine performance, "The Merry Wives of Windsor," which Warton describes as "the most complete specimen of Shakespeare's comic power," possesses the distinction of having been written by desire of a monarch, for it is stated that Queen Blizabeth expressly requested Shakespeare to write a play portraying Falstaff in love. Falstaff, it must be remembered, had been previously witnessed as a character in Shakespeare’s "Henry the Fourth" where the old knight is represented as the boon-companion of Henry, Prince of Wales; a soldier, fat, witty, boastful, mendacious and sensual to a degree. The Falstaff of "Henry the Yourth" was, therefore, a fit subject for mirth when engaged in love with two ladies whose sole object in pretending to encourage his advances was to punish him for his insolent assurance. This is the Falstaff we laugh at in "The Merry Wives of Windsor." He is in love with both Mistress Ford and Mistress Page ("the merry wives") to each of whom he sends a letter with the same wording. The ladies pretend to encourage his suit only to submit him to most unenviable ordeals. Mrs. Ford’s husband becomes needlessly and very furiously jealous of Falstaff, with whom he suspects his wife is seriously intriguing. It is in the Garter Inn scene that Ford appears in disguise as one, Master Brook, and in order to discover Falstaff’s mendacity proposes a scheme to the old knight to test -Continued on p. 2.

Yum 'Broadcast

Gponttouation of Front Page.) wo integrity of Mistress Word, Falunaware of the true identity of Master Brook, brags of his secret meeting with Mistress Ford, and relates how he had to be smuggled in a buckbasket from her house owing to the unexpected approach of her husband. Ford, seething with jealous anger, and scarcely able to control his emotions, engages Falstaff to again visit Mistress Ford secretly, for it is Master Ford’s intention not to permit Falstaff to escape from his house a second time. The next scene shows Falstaff once more with Mistress Ford. While pretending to encourage Falstaff’s advances, Mistress Ford is suddenly warned by Mistress Page that Master Ford is approaching again. The dilemma in which Falstaff finds himself and his endeayours to escape never fail to create uproarious laughter. With all his frailties, Schlegel says of Falstaff"He is the most agreeable and entertaining knave that ever was portrayed. Waistaff is the crown of Shakespeare’s invention." Here, then, is a part in which the world’s dramatic genius is eonsidered to have attained the pinnacle of his art. Grossly corpulent, dissipated, cowardly, sensual old Falstaff is an outstanding figure in ail the world of drama, and his immortality is assured. AR Wilkie has a decided liking for the part of Falstaff, and, indeed, hig striking success in the role may be due, in no small measure, to his close study of the psychology of the old knight. And despite his failings, with —

Sehlegel, one may say of Falstaff "we are never disgusted with him." Nearly 330 years have elapsed since Shakespeare first staged "The Merry Wives of Windsor." What marvels have been wrought by man since those BPlizabethan days when even the very stage and theatres in which the plays were performed were, with their open roofs, but a sorry makeshift comparedwith the palatial theatrical edifices of to-day! But what of the wonder of radio! Listeners many hundreds of miles from the theatre will sit in the comfort of their homes harkening to wisdom and wit of the great master mind. When the merry laughter storms our ears we may well think of. the laughter of those happy audiences back through three hundred years to the days of Good Queen Bess when Shakespeare and his own company of players moved to mirth the patrons of the old Globe Theatre in London. Mr. Wilkie’s Views on Broadcasting. "THE boadeast on Friday will be the first that Mr. Wilkie has ever experienced, and he is looking forward to the experience quite keenly. Asked if he thought that broadcasting would ever replace the stage, he replied in the negative. To him, the appeal of "flesh and blood’ would for ever remain an attraction to theatre goers. He added that there may possibly come a dull time in drama, but that . the mechanical broadcast in his opinion, could never display the actual . actual performance on the stage. re Ne ONS In conclusion, Mr. Wilkie remarked that he would like very much to hear the opinions of listeners regarding the broadcast. In this respect, listeners are invited to air their opinions through our columns eee er ee EC OSD = oa oa