Saturday, November 24, 2018

Saturday Night Radio Drama - Stephen Bain and Deborah Tucker - City Of Hands





A group of people enter a competition to win a car, the winner being whoever can keep a hand on the car longest. As the days progress, the competition takes on a surreal quality. 

City of Hands was first produced at BATS Theatre, Wellington. The authors undertook considerable research on the people who had been involved in the competition. Like They Shoot Horses Don't They, this play shows the lengths to which desperate people are willing to go and try and improve their lot.

With Geraldine Brophy and Peter Kaa. Carol Dee 
Producer/Director  Carol Dee  


Radio New Zealand 

This is the third of the plays in the series Worldplay 1997.  I think it's a good play for the beginning of the season. 

14 comments:

  1. You're so right, Sparkles. Radio dramas are so much better than movies, TV, or stage plays.

    Who amongst us couldn't instantly top of our head list ten radio dramas better than CITIZEN KANE, CHILDREN OF PARADISE, VERTIGO, THE MALTESE FALCON, THE SOPRANOS, BREAKING BAD, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, HAMLET, DEATH OF A SALESMAN, or A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You still carrying on about that, Stupes? The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Vertigo? You really think those belong with some of the others?

      I expressed a preference for radio drama over visual theater, I didn't make a claim of superiority but preference. You obviously prefer TV and movies to books. You prefer shit to music that requires attention and an endless repitition of the same-old-same-old, especially if you can relate it to yourself to get attention at Eschaton.

      I don't know if Rod Serling preferred his TV Twilight Zone work to his extensive work in radio, both before and after TZ went off the air on TV. I do know he kept trying to revive radio drama in the United States after that.

      The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane I wonder if I could watch them again without my attention wavering. I always thought Citizen Kane was good but not that good, its repute being a product more of Welles gift for hype than anything else. I know I could read lots of relatively minor books again, I was considering re-reading several to see if I'd enjoy them after such a long time. I was wondering what I'd think of Steinbeck after all these years. You should try it, Stupy.

      Delete
  2. So yes- -- you're an idiot? No big shock.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For fucksake, how many times can one watch a Bogey movie over again before even his mannerisms in acting start getting annoying? People shouldn't watch even the greatest movies more than once in a decade because they really can get worn out fast. I'll watch the Maltese Falcon again when I turn eighty and I'll let you know if it stands the test of time.

      Delete
  3. "I always thought Citizen Kane was good but not that good, its repute being a product more of Welles gift for hype than anything else."

    I'm sure you did, shithead.:-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, why would you doubt it when I express my opinion? Because it's not the official approved opinion as read, or, in your case televiewed in the middle-brow NYC based media?

      Welles was really good at managing the hype around his work, especially in that period. I do find it hilarious that the lavishly expensive, lavishly complex and baroque medium of feature-length movie production still looks to something that old as the greatest ever. All that money and so little to show for it.

      Naw, If given the chance to see Citizen Kane again or to re-read Ship of Fools, I'd opt for KAP's novel. I'm off the movies.

      Delete
  4. Quick -- name a recorded drama that's better than CITIZEN KANE?

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Off the top of my head? Draußen vor der Tür.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, there we are. Nobody else in the world would agree with that, but at least Sparky's named something.
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If by "Nobody" you mean the repeaters of the endlessly repeated common received allowable POV, I don't much care about what they say about anything.

      Thats what your kind of people do, Simps, they endlessly repeat the common received allowable POV. You're like the fashionable Parisians who don't much care if something's true as long as it's fashionable. I stopped reading that kind of stuff a long time ago because it is a tedious and incestuous daisy chain of sameness.

      Delete
  7. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Seriously.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    You're so right. Everybody in the world would agree with you.

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No you never have, like I knew. I listened to it and saw Citizen Kane, I have a basis for comparison, you have what everyone else says.

      Delete