Isobel Andrews

Isabella Smith Andrews (née Young; 2 November 1905 – 19 June 1990), known professionally as Isobel Andrews, was a Scottish-born New Zealand playwright, novelist, short-story writer and poet. She wrote over sixty plays, many of which were published, and was associated with the New Zealand branch of the British Drama League. She won the League's annual playwrighting competition four times.^[1][2] Her plays, particularly The Willing Horse, have continued to be performed into the 21st century.

Isobel Andrews
Andrews in 1957
Born	Isabella Smith Young (1905-11-02)2 November 1905 Glasgow, Scotland
Died	19 June 1990(1990-06-19) (aged 84) Auckland, New Zealand
Occupations	Playwright short-story writer poet
Years active	1935–74
Notable work	The Willing Horse (1943); The Goldfish (1949)
Spouse	Ernest Stanhope Andrews ​ ​ (m. 1932)​
Children	2

Early life and marriage

Andrews was born in Glasgow on 2 November 1905. Her parents were Jeanie Scott and James Young, a mercantile clerk. Her family moved to New Zealand in 1911, living first in Bulls and then in Wellington, where she attended Wellington Girls College.^[1][2] On 19 December 1932 she married Ernest Stanhope Andrews, a public servant, who became the founding director of New Zealand's National Film Unit in 1941.^[1]

Early writing career

Andrews was a founding member of the New Zealand Women Writers' and Artists' Society (later the New Zealand Women Writers' Society), which was established in July 1932, and remained involved with the organisation for many years.^[1][3] In 1933 her short story "The Romantic" won first prize in a competition for detective stories run by the Society, and was published the following year in the New Zealand Railways Magazine.^[4] In 1938 she won a radio competition for her play Endeavour.^[5] In September 1939 her short story "Even If We Are At War" was the second short story published by the New Zealand Listener magazine, and it was reprinted in New Zealand Listener Short Stories, Vol 2 (1978).^[2] A collection of her short stories was published in 1944 as Something to Tell. A newspaper review in The Nelson Evening Mail praised her "well-told stories strongly seasoned with local atmosphere", and said "the scenes she portrays and the characters she delineates will be readily recognised, for we have met their counterparts in town and country."^[6] In 1947 she was elected to the executive committee of PEN New Zealand.^[7]

Playwriting and later career

She was the founder and principal playwright for a drama club, the Strathmore Players, one of many flourishing drama clubs established under the New Zealand Branch of the British Drama League. She wrote over 60 plays which usually involved scenes of domestic life with all-female casts (particularly during World War II when there were limited male actors available).^[1][8][9] She won four of the League's original play awards, including for The Willing Horse (published in 1943 and reprinted in 1962), which remains her best-known play.^[1][10] It is a comedy with roles for ten women, and set in a small rural town, with themes of marriage and isolation in a rural farming community.^[11] In 1943 it was awarded the Dairy Exporter Cup for the best play by a New Zealander and the Sir Michael Myers Cup for the best play produced.^[12] She also wrote plays for radio which were aired by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the BBC.^[1] In 1947 the Wellington Thespians staged a week-long season of Andrews' plays, including The Goldfish, which won the Dairy Exporter Cup in 1948 for being the best play written by a New Zealander.^[13] In 1949 it was published by George G. Harrap and Co. in The Best One-Act Plays of 1948–49 and it was subsequently performed on numerous occasions overseas.^[1][13]

In 1951 Andrews and her family moved to Whangarei, where she became the president of the Whangarei Repertory Society, and from 1958 to 1960 was the joint editor of Northland: A Regional Magazine, published by the Northland Women Writers' Group. She became a frequent contributor to the New Zealand Listener, writing short stories and radio reviews. M. H. Holcroft , the editor of the Listener for eighteen years, said in his autobiography that Andrews could "turn in a story of exceptional quality".^[1] Her 1957 one-act thriller Sunny Afternoon was her third play to be published in England, after The Willing Horse and The Goldfish.^[14]

In 1969 she was one of the principal speakers at a PEN New Zealand writers' conference, and the following year sat on the national executive of the New Zealand Drama Council. In 1961 she and her family moved to Auckland.^[1] In 1967 she was awarded a Scholarship in Letters by the New Zealand Literary Fund, which enabled her to write her first novel, Return to Marara (1969), followed by a sequel Exit with Emeralds (1971).^[1][2] A review of Return to Marara in newspaper The Press said "this diverting book transcends the usual limits of [romantic fiction]", and described it as a "well-observed picture of a growing New Zealand town" in which Andrews "shows an inspired sense of the ridiculous".^[15] She also wrote the script for the romantic documentary film To Love a Maori (1972), directed by Rudall Hayward,^[2][16] and Matenga – Māori Choreographer (1974), produced by Hayward and directed by Arthur Thompson.^[17]

Legacy

The Willing Horse continues to be performed, with performances by the Circa Theatre in 2000 (featuring Dorothy McKegg and Elizabeth McRae) and by the South Otago Theatrical Society in 2002.^[18][19] In October 2020 it was performed at the Whangārei Fringe Festival by two teachers and ten students from Whangarei Girls' High School. The student actors said that the play gave them an insight into the lives of women in the 1940s and the limited career options available.^[8]

In 2015 Rekha Sisodia directed Andrews' play The Bride from the Hills translated into Hindi by Mridula Garg and performed as Dulhan Ek Pahad Ki at the National Theatre Festival Alfaaz 2015, organised by Natyansh Society of Dramatic and Performing Arts.^[20][21] Natyansh has performed this play in various theatre festivals across India in Hindi and English.^{[citation needed]}

Selected works

Plays

• Sudden Rain (1935)^[2]
• The Best Seller (1937)^[2]
• The Willing Horse (The Progressive Publishing Society: Wellington, 1943; Paul's Book Arcade: Hamilton, 1962)
• The Real Betrayal (1943)
• When the Rangiora Blows (1944)^[2]
• The Goldfish (S. French: London, 1949, 1954), also published in The Best One-Act Plays of 1948–49 (Harrap: London, 1950)
• A Sunny Afternoon in Spring (S. French: London, 1957)
• The Bride from the Hills (1962; London, 1963)^[2]

Short stories

• Something to Tell, collection (The Progressive Publishing Society: Wellington, 1944)

Novels

• Return to Marara (Whitcombe & Tombs: Christchurch, 1969; Hale: London, 1969)
• Exit with Emeralds (Whitcombe & Tombs: Christchurch, 1971; Hale: London, 1971)

Documentary scripts

• To Love a Maori (1972)
• Matenga – Māori Choreographer (1974)

References

1. Ashton, Beatrice. "Isabella Smith Andrews". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
2. Robinson, Roger (2006). "Andrews, Isobel". In Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson (eds.). The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195583489.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-1917-3519-6. OCLC 865265749. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
3. "New Zealand Women Writers' Society". New Zealand History. Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
4. Hamilton, Stephen Derek (June 1996). New Zealand Language Periodicals of Literary Interest Active 1920s–1960s: Volume 2 (PDF) (Ph.D). University of Auckland. p. 579. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
5. "Radio Play Prizes". The New Zealand Herald. 1 July 1938. p. 13. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
6. "Short Stories About New Zealand". Nelson Evening Mail. 1 July 1944. p. 3. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
7. "State Literary Grant: Annual Meeting of P.E.N." The Press. 7 June 1947. p. 2. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
8. Bryant, Jodi (19 October 2020). "Young Whangārei cast to revive World War II play". Northern Advocate. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
9. "End of First Year: Strathmore Play-readers Celebrate". Evening Post. 13 November 1941. p. 12. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
10. "Slice of Rural Social Life". Nelson Evening Mail. 14 August 1943. p. 3. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
11. Atkinson, Laurie (Winter 2012). "The peculiar business". New Zealand Review of Books (98). Retrieved 7 February 2021.
12. "N.Z. Publications: Prize Play". The Press. 15 July 1943. p. 4. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
13. "Current Notes". The Press. 15 July 1949. p. 2. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
14. "N.Z. Woman's Play To Be Published". The Press. 23 February 1957. p. 2. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
15. "From the New Fiction Lists". The Press. 7 March 1970. p. 4. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
16. "To Love a Maori". Ngā Taonga: Sound and Vision. The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
17. "Matenga – Māori Choreographer". Ngā Taonga: Sound and Vision. The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
18. Howard, Haana (16 October 2000). "Plays dusted off". The Dominion Post. p. 12.
19. Beaumont, Joseph (7 May 2002). "Sterling performances in The Willing Horse". Southland Times. p. 9.
20. "ALFAAZ 2015". Natyansh Society of Dramatic and Performing Arts. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
21. Abbas, Zaheer (25 December 2015). "Alfaz showcases play "Dulhan ek Pahad ki"". Udaipur Times. Retrieved 8 February 2021.

External links

• Review of The Willing Horse for the Nelson Evening Mail, 14 August 1943