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STRATFORD FESTIVAL:
'Henry VIII' Fine Theatre, History
AS A PLAY, Shakespeare's "Henry VIII" is definitely not the thing,
in part because it does not go very far in catching the conscience
of the king. As theatre and as history, however, it is colorful and
exciting - and so is the Stratford Festival production this summer
in Canada.
Much care has obviously gone into designing the production;
Brian Jackson's costumes clothe the play in rich splendour, and in the
final scene the audience is greeted with a dazzling show of gold
christening robes. Henry VIII appears in four costumes, two of which
reek of authenticity and all of which hold the eye and attention of
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1961
NIGHT EDITOR: RUTH EVENHUIS
'Retribution' Stalls
Equitable Settlement
T HE AMERICAN SEIZURE of a Cuban navy
patrol boat near Key West, Florida is as
childish an act of retribution as the United
States has pulled off in a long time.
The boat was ordered seized on behalf of
a Miami advertizing concern that has a $429,-
000 court judgment outstanding against the
Castro government.
It -has been suggested that the boat might
be returned to Cuba in exchange for the East-
ern Airline plane that was hijacked last month
and flown to Havana at gun point.
The lawyer for the advertizing firm, how-
BASEBALL FANS BEWARE! Rapidly threat-
ening the status of this national pastime is
a new and more thrilling game: airline hijack-
ing. Soon all Americans will be watching the
score in this game as avidly as they now
follow major league standings.
But perhaps it would be best if the United
States and Cuba got together and set down
some rules of the game. After all, the Cubans,
despite their anti-Yankee revolution, still play
baseball. In any case a scoring system is need-
ed: so many points for a DC-6, so many points
for a jetliner, etc.
T HEY COULD even give credit for the amount
of planning and sanity of the thieves. For
example, if a psychotic steals the plane, it is
five points more than if a mere neurotic takes
it.
Another thrill of the game would be the
"we'll (invade, take it to the Security Council,
sue you) if you don't return it." And each side
would be able to gain tremendous propaganda
advantages.
In time, a plane hijackers hall of fame could
develop.
But above all, if the House passes the death
penalty, the game would ,take on the spice of
the old Roman Colliseum.
-D. MARCUS
ever, said self-righteously that "We will under
no circumstances consider exchanging legally
seized property for pirated airplanes."
ONE IS CURIOUS as to the mental sleight-
of-hand that makes our seizure of a patrol
boat "legal" simply because the government
has ordered it.
The game of "you steal one of ours and
we'll steal one of yours and then we'll trade
back" is reminiscent of trading cards and
marbles changing hands on an elementary
school playground.
Aside from general ethical considerations,
it is inexcusable for the government to issue
an order to pirate a Cuban ship for a private
concern, particularly when it refused to dirty
its hands with the exchange of tractors for
prisoners, because such barter was unseemly
for an agove-board government.
RECIPROCAL HIJACKING seems to be grow-
ing as fashionable as sniping across the
Israeli-Arab borders and is likely to become
infinitely more dangerous.
It appears highly unlikely that the United
States and Cuba will eventually "come out
even" after they tire of the counter-stealing
act, and no one but the Americans will lose
face. After preaching the golden rule in inter-
national politics, the image of the United States
taking .such petty revenge is that of a giant
losing patience with a flea that has been
biting him and slapping at it ineffectually
because he never has any idea where it is or
where it will go next.
It is typical of our policy of constantly re-
acting and never acting, but the "eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth" policy was never
an official part of American foreign policy.
AT ANY RATE, it is unlikely that anything
will make Castro give up his new game
before he is good and ready to do so. Playing
along with him will only encourage the sport
and stall any possibility of a mature and
equitable settlement.
-JUDITH OPPENHEIM
-Peter Smith
HENRY VIII--Douglas Campbell (foreground) appears as the masked king in a scene from the
beautifully costumed Stratford presentation of Shakespeare's "Henry VIII."
IMMENSE SUCCESS:
'oriolanus' Poses Questions
the audience. While pageantry
has always been an important
part of the history plays as pre-
sented at Stratford, it has not
within recent memory assumed the
proportions it does this year in
"Henry VIII"
BUT THE PAGEANTRY is nec-
essary, for the play is not always
able to sustain interest in itself.
"Henry VIII" begins during his
marriage to Katharine and con-
cludes with the christening of
Anne Boleyn's child, Elizabeth.
Episodic in nature, the ristory
considers the fall from power of
Buckingham, Cardinal Wolsey,
Queen Katharine and Cranmer in
turn. Nor is this a study of power
politics, for all are not guilty of
wishing advancement,.
Only Henry VIII seems to stand
above the play, not as a complex
figure of a man, but as king, as
England, as serenity and justice
and the hope that is finally ex-
pressed in the christening scene.
As Henry VIII, Douglas Camp-
bell again demonstrates a fine
acting ability; his portrayal of
the king seems to bring portraits
to life. Kate Reid's Katharine is
a proud, proud figure that is every
bit a queen.
DOUGLAS RAIN'S interpreta-
tion of Cardinal Wolsey is limited
emotionally, perhaps as befits a
man of the church, but not very
helpful to an audience for the
most part unacquainted with one
of the least-performed of Shake-
speare's plays.
Jack Creley as the Duke of
Buckingham and Bruno Gerussi
as Archbishop Cranmer, like the
other members of the company,
are good at posing - and it is
in posing that some of their most
telling performances are given.
"Henry VIII,", like "Love's La-
bour's Lost" and . "Coriolanus,"
Stratford, has no weak members.
George McCowan, the director,
deserves applause for maintaining
the usual high level of perform-
ance throughout "Henry VIII";
in less capable hands, the produc-
tion might well have been some-
thing of a bore. Instead, "Henry
VIII" at Stratford is beautifully
acted, beautifully costumed, and
a fine evening of history and
theatre.
-Vernon Nahrgang
B ritish Systen Autonomous
"TORIOLANUS" is one of a small
number of Shakespearean
dramas which leave the spectator
overwhelmed with questions rath-
er than answers. Although certain-
ly a tragic play, it departs fur-
ther from the Aristotelian norms
of tragedy than "Macbeth," "Oth-
ello," or "Lear," while ambiguities
and flaws within the play itself
allow varied and almost contradic-
tory interpretations of its action.
For the fatal flaw in the char-
acter of the hero is less clearly
delineated here than in the other
plays. The damning sin of Corio-
lanus is apparently pride, but it is
a sort of pride which often seems
justified and which, in places at
least, can be interpreted as a kind
of intellectual honesty, an abhor-
rence of pretense and a refusal to
participate in the two-faced po-
litical machinations of civilian
government.
In the heights to which his
arrogance rises, Coriolanus is far
more deeply flawed than the usual
tragic hero, yet one is robbed of
the poetic justice of a villain's
end by a compulsion to admire
the very weakness that causes his
ruin. The impact of the play is
consequently rather diffuse, and
its power depends largely upon
the sensitivity of the performers'
interpretation.
* * *
WITH this rather frightening
responsibility taken into consid-
eration, the Stratford company's
production of "Coriolanus" is an
immense success and one of the
best productions of the past five
years. By choosing to set it in the
period of -the French Revolution,
the director committed himself to
an interpretation in which the
hero's flaws and virtues are more
closely intertwined than usual, for
the Jacob in dress of the rabble,
the target of Coriolanus's latred,
brings with it from history a sense
of power and terror, and to defy
the masses when the masses are
bloodthirsty seems a nobl thing
to do. The immediacy of modern
history makes the action lumin-
ously relevant to the present time.
Paul Scofield's "Coriolanus" is
also luminous, and his restrained
brilliance seems to dominate the
play. Quite similar in mannr to
Christopher Plummer, a former
Festival star, but far less emotion-
al, his coolness and his air of
conscious self-control provide ex-
cellent foils for the strange pas-
sions which surround him. ,
Volumnia, the hero's mother,
and often the most important
character in the play, is played
down by Elinor Stuart in this pro-
duction and her obsession with
valor, rather than dominating the
character of Coriolanus, gives
depth and explanation to it.
* * *
THE WARMTH which is lack-
ing in Scofield is more than made
up for by Douglas Campbell's
Menenius. This amazingly versa-
tile actor seems to have made
Elizabethan English his own, for
he manages to draw the audience
into the humor and pathos of
the poetry almost without their
knowing it. Whatever Scofield
lacks, he-as a spectator of the
personal tragedy-provides, and
the wholeness of the play results
from th balance which the two
between them maintain.
The play manages beautifully
to cohere and to impress, and
Coriolanus himself somehow man-
ages to seem like the first modern
man, torn by the conflicts involv-
ed in the rise of proletarian pow-
er. Whether the spectator agrees
with the Canadian interpretation
or not, it is seldom one has a
chance to see a production so
clearly thought out and so con-
sistently sensitive that the most
negligible line can be important
and the most insignificant char-
acter can cast light on the mean-
ing of the whole.
-Jean Ashton
THERE IS A LESSON to be learned from the
British method of financing higher educa-
tion. According to Prof. W.H.G. Armytage of
the University of Sheffield, higher education
is not viewed there as the political football
it has become in Michigan, with each side
maneuvering for political advantage without
the least thought of the consequences of their
actions.
Take for example the question of appropria-
tions. In England they are granted on a five-
year basis; every university has its five-year
plan. And, in addition, the opposition party
IT Wapald Bons g2noagj Av o of lasg spulq
it comes into power.
Five-year plans are based on both capital
outlay, on which the British have spent some
200 million pounds, and on the five-year
pledges for operating funds. Certainly, this is
a far superior system to annual appropriations
which hamstring Michigan universities with
the inability to make definite plans from
year to year.
THERE IS ALSO another aspect of educa-
tional financing to which the state Legis-
lature ought to pay close attention: British
politicians simply do not dictate how money,
either for operations or capital outlay, is
spent.
ANDREW DOWNIE
... Frederick
Appropriations for education are made to
the University Grants Committee by the
Treasury. All public money for universities goes
to this committee, composed only of educa-
tors, men from various disciplines and institu-
tions on a rotating basis. They appropriate all
money. No accounting of how they distribute
the money is made, nor do any of the individ-
ual colleges have to make a public accounting
either to Parliament or to any other body. The
universities do not even have to follow their
own master plans if they wish, though they
do usually.
PERHAPS this is autonomy carried a bit too
far; traditionally, Americans have main-
tained a system of checks and balances among
their public institutions. And the public does
have a right to know how its money is being
spent.
But it does raise a few valid questions. How
are the legislators qualified to decide on edu-
cational questions? How can a university de-
velop if it must move continually between
feast and famine at the whims of a body
variously sympathetic and hostile toward it?
The legislators and colleges of the state ought
to take a good look at the British system.
-DAVID MARCUS
TALENT EVIDENT:
clove 's Lab ur' N
Soviets Face Test
WHILE PREMIER KHRUSHCHEV threatens
. the world with a monstrous superbomb to
get his way on Germany and Berlin, President
Kennedy chose to reply to him with utmost
and "decisive" effort to ascertain whether the
two probing actions the results of which should
go far in determining our further policies.
He announced that he is sending Arthur H.
Dean, our chief negotiator at the test ban
restraint at his press conference but also with
conference, gack to Geneva to make one final
Soviets are ready to sign a test ban treaty or
not. If they are not, if they continue to insist
on "control" by a "troika" team with a built-in
veto, the President will make "appropriate
decisions."
WE STILL BELIEVE that these decisions
should not be in the direction of resuming
the tests, Khrushchev's monster bomb not-
withstanding. Our own bombs are effective
enough to meet all military needs. But the
pressure for resuming the tests is mounting,
not only in Congress but also as a result of
a secret report which, president Kennedy said,
t r trttr tt1 e
has convinced him that without the inspec-
tion system proposed by the West "no country
in the world can ever be sure that a nation with
a closed society is not conducting secret nu-
clear tests."
The other probing action will seek to as-
certain whether any promising basis- can be
found for peaceful negotiations regarding Ber-
lin, Germany and Central Europe. To that
end it will seek to get a "more precise defini-
tion of the phrases, words and thoughts" ex-
pressed by the Soviets, especially in Khrush-
chev's recent contradictory speech.
IN THAT SPEECH the Soviet ruler again pro-
claimed his determination to sign a separate
"peace" treaty with his East German agents
to nullify the wartime agreements on "access"
to West Berlin and to make further "access"
dependent on agreement with East Germany.
But in the same breath he renounced any in-
tent to "infringe upon the lawful interests of
the Western powers," whose primary "interest"
is their right to stay in West Berlin and have
access to it. Nor did he repeat his previous
insistence that the "access" agreement with
East Germany must be made by the Western
powers, and he ruled out any blockade of West
Berlin.
THE TALENTS of one of the
finest repertory companies in
North America are very much in
evidence in this summer's produc-
tion of "Love's Labour's Lost" at
the Canadian Stratford Festival,
now in its ninth season.
The comedy, one of Shake-
speare's earliest, makes merry
with play on words and the af-
fectations of a large company that
includes Spanish don, French
lord, English schoolmaster, curate,
and nobles; it suffers not at all
from the individuals who may
have been subjects of Shake-
speare's caricature or satire being
no longer known to a modern
audience.
*' * *
IN BALANCE with the carica-
tures of the old and "wise" are
portraits, often more subtle, of
the young and naturally shrewd.
Among the latter perhaps, the
character of the Princess of
France seems to hold the balance
between youth and age, sense and
affectation; around her the play
achieves its final realization of
humanity.
Add to the lively, ultimately
moving comedy of Shakespeare an
attractive setting: Tanya Moisei-
witsch has designed this produc-
tion of "Love's Labour's Lost"
with a minimum of stage proper-
ties and a maximum of the rich,
colorful costumes that have come
MICHIGAN:
'Naked Edge' Becomes
COmic Catastrophe
THE ADVERTISEMENTS say that nobody will be seated during the
last 13 minutes of "The Naked Edge." If you're lucky you won't be
seated during any of the other 107 minutes either.
The main problem with the movie is that it is not at all the sus-
pense thriller it is billed as. If anything, it is hilariously funny in an
unintentional way that only points out its faults.
First, the story: Gary Cooper is an American in London. His em-
ployer is killed. Coop's testimony puts an innocent man away for life.
At the same time, Cooper makes
a "killing" in the stock market
that sets him up in a big way for
life.
* * *
J L ost SIX YEARS LATER, he gets a
letter that has been delayed five
years in transit accusing him of
murdering his employer for his
money. Wifey (Deborah Kerr) sus-
pects that hubby has been up to no
good and starts believing him
guilty whereupon . . .
Well, there's no sense revealing
the ending. In fact, there is no
v-: sense in revealing the beginning
-'fEeither. Actually, nothing in the
film makes any sense.
'Everybody knows that Gary is
a good guy; and everybody knows
that Debby is just having unwar-
ranted doubts, about him. And
after all, it must have been the
butler (of sorts) who did it.
ADDING TO THE film's sus-
pense is Eric Portmann as the
mysterious character. Every such
film has a mysterious character.
Totally irrelevant to the plot is
Hermione Gingold who simply by
acting delightfully stupid brings
the film to some of its best mom-
ents ("locked bedrooms make me
feel guilty").
s Don Adriano de Armado speaks All the producers had to do in a
tratford company's merry and film like this is produce a good
Labour's Lost." story; but they fail abysmally. It
is incredulous, and the viewer can-
of Don Adriano de Armado the not even suspend his credulity.
comparative reserve of the Eng- * * *
lish stage -that demands a less THE ACTING doesn't help.
outwardly emotional type of act- Cooper acts very stiffly and his
ing, one that is however effective whole presence is incongrous with
in his interpretation of Armado as the plot. Kerr is melodramatic.
an old man much given to re- And the others? They're just hang-
flection. ing around for the standard ac-
gPiates'
Ref reshing',
THE ETERNALLY refreshing
element of Gilbert and Sulli-
van operettas is perhaps their ab-
surdity.
Like Lewis Carroll and Edward
Lear; W. S. Gilbert was a master
of nonsense, and nonsense in-
dulged in for its own sake seems
to have a greater lasting power
than the bitterness of mere sa-
tire. It is nonsnse and absurdity,
in any case, which set the mood
of the Stratford "Pirates from
Penzance" and which insure the
company the right to vary from
the traditional the tone of per-
formance.
THE STRATFORD production
is characterized throughout by a
high level of precision and pro-
fessional competence. All of the
principal characters played in last
year's "Pinafore," and they per-
form this year with the same con-
fidnece and vitality. The one ex-
ception, Howell Glynne, comes to
his role from grand opera and
brings to it an exceptional bass
voice and a comically deadpan
face and figure.
* * *
ANDREW DOWNIE sets the
tone of this year's presentation
by playing Frederick, the reluctant
pirate, as if he were mocking W.
S. Gilbert's mockery of the ro-
mantic hero. Usually played as
sweet and rather stupid, Down-
ie's Frederick is a poser and a fop.
The rather brilliant exaggeration
of his performance logically shifts
the emphasis of the play away
from Major General Stanley, or-
dinarily the principal comedian of
the play, but the change is an
amusing one, and involves no dis-
tortion of the script.
If this year's "Pirates" is less
successful than last year's "Pina-
fore," it is because the play itself
-an immediate follow-up by Gil-
bert and Sullivan to the consid-
erable success of the still new Pin-
afore-is less inspired than its
prototype and a little too closely
imitative of it.
THERE ARE FEW flaws, if any,
however in the Stratford perform-
ance, and the company's arrival
here next fall promises to consid-
erably brighten the local dramatic
scene.
--Jean Ashton
I
CONVERSATION-Paul Scofield as
with the pageboy Moth in the S
rollicking interpretation of "Love's]
quick to swish William Needles
(as the terribly dull curate, Sir
Nathaniel) for a careless infrac-
tion of Latin rules; and Eric
Christmas, Mervyn Blake and Kate
Reid are equally brilliant in other
character roles as uneducated rus-
tics.
i
i
7
j
Task
"M3EN IN MASSES are gripped
by personal troubles, but they
are not aware of their true mean-
ing and source. Men in public con-
frnn icctac nti *ha0,, n, .wa n~ro