Evening star., 1950-10-31

"A o1SoN"oS PAeAy 0NSSSos AAAS
repeated at the university theate
Practice is being preached for
two reasons; first, because the
Jean Giraudoux comedy fantasy
is such an excellent work; and.
second, because Washington never
had a chance to see it produced.
It would be satisfying to report
this exceptional venture as one of
the university theater's major tri-
umphs. Unhappily, this is not the
case. Even with DR.. Josephine
McGarry Callan in the title role,
THE Madwoman" is faint echo
of its satirically merry self. The
gayety of the original is buried in
an intensity which suggests that
perhaps M. Giraudoux and his
translator, Maurice Valency. are
not quite to be trusted to speak
for themselves.
The attack at present is that
there is quite a message to be
delivered here and that there is
a corporate responsibility to see
that one misses it. Martha Hunt,
Estelle Winwood and the profess
Sional company which played it
on Broadway took the attitude
that champagne with all the bub-
bles intact is champagne as it is
supposed to be.
1t is disappointing to find their
elders being so much more light
hearted than Catholic us nor
mally sparkling young about this
sort Of thing.
With DIR. Callan leading the
way, especially in a second act
that defies excessive seriousness,
The Madwoman Of Chaillot" still
suggests itself as a highly imagi-
native work.
AS q social critic. M. Giraudoux
is on the side of the poor. So Isl
nearly every one else, of course,
but M. Giraudoux is more clever
about it.
He has set his conflict between
the people and their exploiters in
a couple of fascinating Paris cor
ners and has chosen as their
leader a singularly qualified eld-
erly female eccentric. To all out
ward appearances, the woman is |
the maddest resident of the Chail-
lot district. She believes in hui
manity. love, decency, kindness
and in taking corrective measures
against those have departed from
these simple faiths.
Corrective measures are OBJ
viously in order against a group
OF business tycoonS who want to
tear down Paris, starting with the
Chaillot area, in order to see if
there is not oil in the earth below.
For such as these, the Madwoman
works out little plan to lure them
into the dark labyrinth of the
Paris sewers from which there is
no returning and in which the
avaricious can search for oil to
their hearts content.
The plan works perfectly, 1eav-
ing Paris to the Madwoman's S
motley little people who have a
great use for sunlight sidewalk
cafes and none at all for oil.
s k y X X
This is patiently great joke on
exploiteers and it's fullest enjoy
ment would seem to lie in treat
ing 1t as such. Director Alan
Schneider and his college cast do
not quite agree. They are not
altogether confident that the
goodness of the good little people
and the wickedness of the big,
rich ones will show itself without
effort on their part. This serious
ness is not notably becoming to
the innate irony of the joke with
its triumph of innocence.
This extreme of care will be
most evident to those who saw the
deft carefree original performance.
It will modify for these, even
the rich, meaningful performance
Of DR.. Callan in the role which
Miss Hunt played so sensationally
in New York. This magnificent
relic of early goth century Paris,
caught up in the savage aftermath
Of two wars, is a dramatically
amusing figure. If the decent
past must fight it out with the
indecent present of humanity, she
is the old girl to lead the battle.
DR.. Callan. playing her first big
role in her long years with the
university theater, is far too sane
to more than mimic madness.
Nevertheless, she captures a suf-
f1ciency of Giraudoux's woman to
make quite evident what he had