We Continue [unclear: a] Great Tradition

For some reason (probably quite a sound one) every writer on this theme goes back to Aristophanes as the Father of the Extravaganza. This intensely amusing and pungent satirist of contemporary Athenian affairs is an incontrovertible proof that even in those days the Greeks had a word for it; and many a script simply packed with Attic salt has been salted down in the world's attics.

Anyhow apart from Aristophanes the V.U.C. Extravaganza has a tradition of its own.

There's no type of entertainment like Extrav. It's topically pungent and often delightfully insulting, but those prominent personalities who have for so long smiled tolerantly upon student criticism are generally prepared to take it in the spirit it's meant. In fact records reveal that some Prominent Figures have even written to thank those who have so cheerfully guyed them.

V.U.C. has always boasted of its freedom of speech. And that freedom is even more unrestricted in Capping Week.

And there's another point. The public gets an almost unrestricted view of the Student Body in action. "So that's what V.U.C.S.A. means," one old gentleman was heard to remark. "What magnificent esprit de corps!"

But we digress. There isn't room in Salient for a Survey of Extrav Through the Ages. Many readers will remember past shows—yes, and many of those staid professional folk in the stalls could tell a tale or two of their undergraduate antics. Because it isn't just putting on a show. It's the rehearsals, the hours spent trembling and sweating beneath the vituperative tongues of inexorable producers, the nights spent devising props, cadging clothes and furniture from long-suffering families, those Sunday rehearsals in the Gym with tea and saveloy interludes where flourished that sensitive plant the Extrav romance. Then, after sleepless nights, the Dress Rehearsal, 6 to 11 p.m. (D. V.). And a despondent Producer—Processions—Gods Parties—The Haeremai Club. It all comes back.

Then the production, with all the glamour of back-stage and the very real satisfaction of having put over a good team effort. It was hard work. Yes. But see how many come back for more next year.

Ron Meek has weighed in with his best script to date, and that's saying something. "The Zealous Zombies" has probably made history for speed of production as a full-length show and it'll certainly make the headlines as an Extravaganza in the best V.U.C. tradition. Political Zombies, raised from the Graveyard of Reaction by a thinly disguised dictator, strive for Disunity in Waydown Undah. They even visit a strangely reminiscent figure, the Minx of the Kremlin. Nor is the action restricted to national affairs. The wider field of municipal politics is also exploited and the Council Meeting is not so far from a Mare's Nest as one would think. However, the end is up to standard and throughout the Dominion the people's voice will acclaim the Zealous Zombies as the hit of the year.