MR. SHAKESPEARE

Radio Record, 6 May 1938, Page 14

MR. SHAKESPEARE

BY

EMILE

Writes Radio Thriller "The Merchant Of Venice’ For The NBS

THE theory thet, through being treated with pedantic respect, Shakespeare has lest the affection that is his due from the people is put forward in this article by "Emile." (He sees a hopeful sign in the modern dressing for redio of "The Merchant of Venice,’ the latest Shakespearean production of the NBS, which is due for early release at the National stations.

HE trouble with most of us in our relations with Shakespeare is that we are too polite toward him. And you never vet intimate with people to whom you always have to be polite. From the time Englishspeakine people are intro

duced to Shakespeare at the age of 12 or so, in the schouls they are taught to look on him with reverence and awe. He is put on a pedestal so high that he seems to be quite out of reach of the ordinary person’s grasp. I suggest that this is one of the worst crimes that English teachers, parents and writers commit. It is a crime against the young and against literature and against Shakespeare himself.. Letter To The Paper GUAKESPEARE himself would be both amused and sad. dened about it. It would make him laugh at man’s folly and sigh at his stupidity. If he were alive to-day — he would no doubt write to "The Times" ubout it like Mr.

Bernard Shaw. He would say: "T am, I know, the greatest writer the world has known, but in imaginatiou at least I have been, too, the greatest sinner and the greatest lover uid the greatest hater. In my life IJ Was sometimes pure in heart and noble in my dealings with my fellow-men, win] sometimes the world’s worst ead, ‘l wrote m)\ works so that T could unthe a competence that would enabla me fo live.comfortably, but fF wrote them also because f had to write them. There was a fury in me for setting down on paper the wonderful and the horrible things I saw in the hearts of wiel. "Aud L knew what I was writing Way good, and that it would live on after [I bad gone to wy death, the thought of which filled me often with loathing and horror and later with resignation and submission to the Divine will. "But I did not want to live on as an idol, I wanted to be in the minds of all peeple and in their lives. Uf there is a film ¥ want to be in it, if there is a radie I want to be in it. "But. for Heaven’s suke, if you put my work on the films or on fhe radio, remember how I would have udapted it if I were still alive to do it. "You live faster to-day than we did in Wlizabethan times. Our binnk verse osand our full, lusty. rounded words and periods don’t catel) vour ears as they did vurs. You gu to the

quick of the business with sharper, deeper cuts of the pen. "Very weil, then. Adapt my work, speed it up and cut it down. You will find it can stand the operation. You will find it is so shrewd and so brilliant and so fundamentallv sound in con- |

struction that it will stand any test. Isn’t it the best in the world?’ ‘Radio Preview [THIS is why I am sure Shakespeare would have been so pleased with the NBS production of "The Merchant of Venice," if he had heard it, as I did, in a radio preview last week, The play that takes over three hours on the stage has been shorn to a performance of just over the hour. The blank verse that usually beats relentlessly against the ear has been spoken in aw way that gives the words freshness und charm and the ring of the twentieth century. And the plot has a pace that stirs the blood and speeds on its way to a climax that comes with all the impact of a first-class thriller.

Considered purely as a thriller, Edgar Wallace couldn’t have bettered this version of "The Merchant of Venice." "THE cast for the production was something new for New Zealand. For the first time in radio, players were druwn from the Auckland, Canterbury. Otago and Taranuki as well as Wellington, provinces. They came to Wellington over the Easter vacation for a fortnight to make "The Merchant of Venice," Galsworthy’s "Strife," and Ednund Barelay’s "Mingled Warn" and "Shanghai," a radio serial of the China Seas. ITH this cast one would expect 4 something good. It was good. | From the first scene, sharp, clear and explanatory, until the tension of the last scene in the court room, when Antonio is saved from death and Shylock is defeated and humiliated, every word is audible. The play has a flow, natural and easy. There is a small scene between Portia and Nerissa that is charming. It is lit with soft laughter and it sparkles with wit. The lines, shorn of Shakespeare’s wonderful verbiage, stand out sharp and clear: Nerissa; How like you the young German? i Portia: Very vilely in the (Continued on page 41.)

Mr. Shakespeare

MERCHANT OF VENICE (Continued from page 14.) morning when he’s sober. Most vilely in the afternoon when he's drunk, SHXLOCK’S voice, I thought at first, was going to be a little too lowpitched and guttural for clarity, but it rose higher, with tension. He brought out the deep rich ironies of Shakespeare, when the Christians wished to borrow from him. Bassanio’s voice was that of the pleasant young Englishman, a young man about town of our modern age. That rang true to my ear. I didn’t want him pretending to be long-winded spouting Italiano. Surely Shakespeare saw him as a young Elizabethan man about town, rather than as a Venetian nobleman. Old man Gobbo came to life for me, in a neat little character study that one might have seen and heard in any variety show to-day. And Jessica was pretty-voiced, though I had a pang when I found that the lovely _ lines, "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank, .. ." were pruned in the speeding-up process. YWXHE fierce hate of the Jew rose not quite high enough perhaps in the eourt scene. The noises in the court were good, mutterings of the people and so on, but there was a suspicion of staginess in the climax when Portia plays her trump card that Shylock may have his pound of fiesh but not one drop of blood, In a modern court scene, as every eourt reporter knows, there would have been a deep and curious sigh all. through the court at that moment. One more criticism is justified. A moment or two after his reprieve, Antonio makes a speech in the court in a firm, even voice. Would any man who has just found his life saved after a moment of great tension speak so? Wouldn’t his voice stil] tremble, uncertainly, be high or uneven in pitch, stumble a little? Mine would.