Evening star., 1946-10-26

have talked about certain play.
the work of two POLITICALLY gifted y
Christopher Isherwood. The talk I
chatter, has not been glib, or know
much about 1t, but great many
persons have been curious: anxious
to learn something about it.
No professionally unproduced play
Of modern times has attracted so
much curiosity. One would hear
from time to time of q university,
or experimental, theater production.
Perhaps somewhere in this colIn-
try, or in England. But no one, ap-
parently, ever had seen "F-6" on
the stage, or had met any one who
had seen 1t.
The result Of all this, together
with the literary criticism which
the work evoked, has been to give
"The Ascent OF F-6" splendid ad-
vance press. Instead of being al
lowed quietly to die, the fate Of
plays spurned by the professional
theater, the n-Isherwood trag-
edy found constantly larger and
more sharply impatient latent
audience.
The years of impatient curiosity
for the drama which existed locally
came to an end last night with the
presentation of "The Ascent of F-6"
as the first play of the season at
Catholic University theater.
What did not come, coincidental-
" to an end, Is the reviewers puz-
element over the merits of the play.
Confronted by an experimental
verse play, he frankly finds him.
self an experimental reviewer who
does not seem to be getting anywhere
with his experiment. After years
of carping that there is nothing in
the commercial theater to fire the
imagination, he finds himself con-
fronted by a dramatic theme and
treatment which threaten to frac-
ture the imagination. His prayers
for something different In the
theater are suddenly more than
answered. He feels like some one
trying to catch paper cupful Of
water while standing under Niagara
Falls.
Obviously, it is the very rare play
which has that effect upon the
theatergoer, which b, Of course, q
way Of saying that Auden and Ish-
erwood have accomplished some
thing remarkable in writing "The
Ascent of F-6."
Long before any spectator decides
how much he is delighted by "F-6,
he will have come to the conclusion
that no similar work In years has
so excited him.
Here is q verse play whose
rhythms are contemporary, not the
archaic cadences of Shakespeare
which the minor musicians OF the
drama mimic so painfully. More
over, it never descends to the level
of sound without sense. Even when
Auden and Isherwood are not al
ways successful In COMPRISING their
thought perfectly In their poetic
pattern, they retrieve 1t from oblit-
Grafton. The spectator never Is per-
mitted to drop out altogether, even
though he may have moments Of
feeling that he has fallen behind.
The fascination of "The Ascent
of F-6" as a dramatic experiment
which the program admits 1t is
extends beyond its word form. Its
production is dizzily exciting, at
times almost discouragingly dizzy.
The play literally spills all over the
theater as II seeks to encompass the
geography Of the British Empire
upon which the sun never sets.
Voices come from everywhere, some
times simultaneously as when a,
pompous BIC speaker evokes the
retort perfect from an trate listener
sitting in his suburban kitchen.
In reducing the theater's conven-
tions to a shambles, and turning its
prosaic prose into q stormy music,
Auden and Isherwood have done SO
for purpose. An admirable pur-
pose. They have something to say
which the dimensions of standard
drama do not permit. That is the
important thing, and whether the
spectator agrees with its Importance,
he is dazzled into listening.
4 Il
The story told in 'F-6" is tragic.
There is a mountain on the border
of Britain's Sulu colony called, on
the military maps, F-6. The first
white man who climbs this unscaled
peak shall dominate the Sulus for
1000 years. The natives are restive,