Evening star., 1947-05-14

Importance OF Being EaIHcSt, Dut g
nerfermance of its successor at the
not a completely polished opening
suiritual sire Of all subsequent dra-'
matte jests. 1t did establish, how
eyers that Gielgud's repertory COM
pany is the nearest thing to an
all-star group that anyone in the
vicinity has seen In a decade.
Classicists properly may chortle
oyerit for months to come and non
classicists may count themselves
recompensed by quality OF acting
which, until last night, had seemed
extinct.
Moreover, at least one of the in
between groups will learn from
Love for Love" that the author OF
'.Forever Amber" was not just
imagining how things were back in
the period of which she writes.
Consreve, who was there, gout and
all, makes it evident that romance
was "a robust game in Charles Il's
time when there were few distrac-
tions such as the sexes encounter
today.
n n + n
Gielgud,s production. direction
and casting Of Congreve's enduring
Joke is an elaborate tribute to Its
prestige in the library of imperish-
able plass. He undertakes to show
not only that love was an infinitely
varied pastime in Congreye's day,
but also that the latter left modern
comedy writers little new to say on
the ls,A,ject. The latter, OF course,
have tricked UP the dialogue and
found more relaxed furniture to
decorate their stages; nothing more:
In setting up the amazing total
of eight major characters, Love
for Love" requires considerably more
watching than today's equivalent
comedy which limits itself to one
and one-half, two at the outside
It was Congreve's faith that every
human being was funny and that
the more human beings he could
corral, the more amusing his COM
positions would be. Gielgud's COM
pany gives him remarkably deft and
agile support in colorful produc-
ton which congresses the farce into
two acts of five scenes.
The course of Love for Love-
was marked by the traditional lack
of loves smooth flow in the last
nights first performance. That is
to say the play Is not always as
hilarious as it Is at its peak mo-
ments. which, human nature being
what Congreve says, seems to be
expected of a farce that has lived
252 years.
once minor flaws are eliminated
and timing reaches its promised per-
lection, Love for Love- will pro-
vide more acting glitter than the
usual six comedy hits.
Congreve's famous characters can
rarely have been more singularly
blessed than by Gielgud, Pamela
Brown, Robert Flemyng, Cyril
Ritchard and several other men,
bers of the company at the Ma
tional. These are an extraordinarily
merry lot of passionate funda-
mentalists and each OF them Is
played with brilliance.
Love for Love- which may have
been skipped in educations too po-
lite to probe Restoration comedy, is
unadulterated boys-meet-girls. The
principal boy and girl are Valentine
and Angelica. They are a pair whose
passions are touched with inagina-
ton, considerably less direct than
those of the others in the vicinity
The problem of the play is to give
this romance at least half a chance
In a field cluttered with simpler and
more highly energized affairs in
volving the others.
Thanks to Gielgud and Miss
Brown-and Congreve, naturally
this Happy effect eventually is
achieved
In the course of delivering his
pungent front-line report of the war