I. The Rattigan Version
After his first dramatic success, The Winslow Boy, Terence Rattigan conceived a double bill of one-act plays in 1946. Producers dismissed the project, even Rattigan’s collaborator Hugh “Binkie” Beaumont. Actor John Gielgud agreed. “They’ve seen me in so much first rate stuff,” Gielgud asked Rattigan; “Do you really think they will like me in anything second rate?” Rattigan insisted he wasn’t “content writing a play to please an audience today, but to write a play that will be remembered in fifty years’ time.”
Ultimately, Rattigan paired a brooding character study, The Browning Version, with a light farce, Harlequinade. Entitled Playbill, the show was finally produced by Stephen Mitchell in September 1948, starring Eric Portman, and became a runaway hit. While Harlequinade faded into a footnote, the first half proved an instant classic. Harold Hobson wrote that “Mr. Portman’s playing and Mr. Rattigan’s writing...
After his first dramatic success, The Winslow Boy, Terence Rattigan conceived a double bill of one-act plays in 1946. Producers dismissed the project, even Rattigan’s collaborator Hugh “Binkie” Beaumont. Actor John Gielgud agreed. “They’ve seen me in so much first rate stuff,” Gielgud asked Rattigan; “Do you really think they will like me in anything second rate?” Rattigan insisted he wasn’t “content writing a play to please an audience today, but to write a play that will be remembered in fifty years’ time.”
Ultimately, Rattigan paired a brooding character study, The Browning Version, with a light farce, Harlequinade. Entitled Playbill, the show was finally produced by Stephen Mitchell in September 1948, starring Eric Portman, and became a runaway hit. While Harlequinade faded into a footnote, the first half proved an instant classic. Harold Hobson wrote that “Mr. Portman’s playing and Mr. Rattigan’s writing...
- 3/25/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
The only truly honest moment in Alex Gibney's documentary comes after nearly two hours when Eliot Spitzer finally says that no matter who set up the investigations against him, he's the one who made the mistake. If only Spitzer had started out with this kind of bravado, owning up and admitting, "Look, I fucked a grown woman for money. Wall Street's fucking all of you in the ass and taking your money. Who's worse?" from the very get-go, he might have come off with more panache. As it stands, what seems like a flashy magazine rebuttal and an attempt to regain our good graces bodes about as well for Eliot Spitzer as for the other financial fat cats who are simultaneously skewered in Gibney's documentary. Spitzer's still playing politician, and it makes him come off shady and sketchy. As for Gibney, in what seems like a struggle to remain objective and informative,...
- 11/17/2010
- by Brian Prisco
Historically, English adaptations of Aeschylus' "Agamemnon" have rendered its ancient Greek poetry into proven English poetic forms. The results have been often good and occasionally brilliant. Yet the original Greek meters provide clues as to how a section of a play was performed (sung, spoken or spoken to musical accompaniment). This has prompted Alexander Harrington, a director known for his mastery of oratorical theater, to attempt something radical: approximating Aeschylus' actual, original poetic meters in a new translation. This intrepid idea has resulted in a script of surprisingly clear stage speech and unusual poetic quality. It will debut November 12 to 29, 2009 in La MaMa's large Annex Theater, performed by The Eleventh Hour Theatre Company.
- 11/12/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
Historically, English adaptations of Aeschylus' "Agamemnon" have rendered its ancient Greek poetry into proven English poetic forms. The results have been often good and occasionally brilliant. Yet the original Greek meters provide clues as to how a section of a play was performed (sung, spoken or spoken to musical accompaniment). This has prompted Alexander Harrington, a director known for his mastery of oratorical theater, to attempt something radical: approximating Aeschylus' actual, original poetic meters in a new translation. This intrepid idea has resulted in a script of surprisingly clear stage speech and unusual poetic quality. It will debut November 12 to 29, 2009 in La MaMa's large Annex Theater, performed by The Eleventh Hour Theatre Company.
- 10/25/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
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