The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 10, 1969 Page: 4 of 8
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"In The Village"
'War and Peace'extols pacifism
By RALPH BURDICK
The Alley Theatre has gone
all out for its new production,
"War and Peace," adapted from
the novel for the stage by Er-
win Piscator, with the English
adaptation by the director, Rob-
ert David MacDonald. The pro-
duction makes full useS5f the
extensive stage machinery of
the new Alley, where it runs
through May 4.
MacDonald hastens to point
out that the Alley production
is not a "Reader's Digest" con-
densation of Tolstoy's novel,
but an attempt to make his
own play based on the char-
acters and situations of the
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the rice thresher, april 10, 1969—page 4
novel. How new it is seems
debatable, but the director has
gone to some considerable
trouble to make it pointedly re-
levant to 1969, U.S.A.
Fate
The professed major concern
of the play, how fate affects
men, requires a special elevated
stage on which to portray the
workings of fate. This concern,
however, is largely overshadow-
ed by the complex personalities
of the characters. Yet the over-
shadowing, far from being a
fault, is probably what saves
the play from becoming an an-
imated lecture on deterministic
philosophy, and keeps it within
the realm of art. Certainly fate
is there, and is depicted, but it
is the complex personalities of
such characters as Pierre and
their reactions to fate Which
make the production a play.
Acting, direction good
The surprising thing about
such an adaptation of "War and
Peace" is not that it can be
done, or that it has been done,
but that it is any good.
Part of the credit for the suc-
cess of the production must go
to the original adaptor for not
becoming completely bogged
down in the novel, although the
precise attention paid to his-
torical detail seems to interrupt
the flow of the action more than
necessary. Part of „ the credit
must go to MacDpnald for his
perception of the relevance of
the emotional, psychological,
and human realities, to our
time.
The rest of the credit must
go to the actors. Ted D'Arms
and Joseph Ruskin in particular.
Ruskin, as the narrator, holds
the play together, rather like
one of Thornton Wilder's stage
managers. His ability to slip
into the action as a character
unobtrusively, and with equal
skill slip back out again, is
invaluable to the continuity of
the play.
D'Arms, as Pierre, provides
the action for Ruskin to slip in
and out of. Pierre, the paunchy
aristocrat-philosopher, provides
the focus for much of the dra-
ma. D'Arms brings off the
bumbling intellectual reformer
with the proper mixture of
humor and drama, one of the
more memorable and saving
factors of the production. His
is clearly the outstanding per-
formance of the play.
Difficult role
It is hard to be a hero on the
stage as in life, which Dale
Helward's performance as An-
drei affirms. Andrei does not
come over as a real person, but
not all the fault lies with Hel-
ward. Andrei can be a stuffed
shirt acting as foil to a good
Pierre, who is a "real" person,
and serve a purpose.
I. M. Hobson plays a cranky,
eccentric Prince Bolkonski and
bows out with a dignified cor-
onary in Act II Scene IV. Cher-
yl Scott, as Lisa, enjoys as
short but dramatic appearance
as Andrei's first wife who is
soon overshadowed by his sec-
ond love, Nancy Evans Leonard,
as Natasha.
The Alley production is some-
thing more than a condensation
of the novel or a moral diatribe.
Good acting in the major parts
and some dramatic stage ef-
fects have turned it into thea-
tre.
Nevertheless it drives home
its point of the absurdity and
inhumanity of war, which, in
the largest city in the state re-
ceiving the second largest an-
nual income from the Defense
Department, cannot be called
irrelevant. It is a matter weigh-
ing heavily ©rH>he-conscience of
humanity, and it is the duty of
the arts to examine it.
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Bahler, Dennis. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 56, No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 10, 1969, newspaper, April 10, 1969; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245056/m1/4/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.