Evening star., 1951-04-15
Dron7o News and Reviews
Drama Caught Alive
In q Critics Diary
Agote1s Lotest Ego Perfect Companion
Of q Book for Devotees OF Theoter
By Joy cormody


companion of book came from Crown Publishers
other day.
went home books do and took its the cluster
Of four five other volumes which make look relaxed
matter what keep saying Women do not understand the
word relaxed" it applies to
The difference between this the others asserted itself
quickly kept getting be read
odd moment that happened Never these moments proved
dull and this how books and become good companions
The book which Crown sent to add heady delight to the
delights the Of James
Agate Far too few people know James Agate for their good and
the profits of his publishers and legal beneciaries
He London critic for more than quarter century
drama critic principally but also book critic and an evauater
OF movies Actually he was bigger critic than these three ac-
tes He critic of fe and much authority
food horses and golf plays. books and films.
No One Is Buried in Aeote's Book
perhaps the last collection Of Agate
the world his interest which the world every lives
dies out Of Agate has from it but not before leaving
delightful record to testify that he here there is
justice and enough time left readers win discovering for
long while what joy it to have had him around
Everybody the theater the century. many
several earlier centuries in he Later Ego Laurence Olivier
John Gielgud Charlie Chaplin Winston Churchill Robert
Sherwood Robert Montgomery Blk Biederbecke Katharine
Cornell Gladys others including
Bernhard Eeanore Duse, Noel Coward and vven Leigh
They not buried there No could buried in
book by Agate hundred years they will all
still be living the author and the people he writing about This
IS the of the companionabe book by Pepys Boswell Agate
or whoever It not history it's journalism rendered immortal
by the iveliness of its practitioners mind.
There kind of ferocty Agates faith that will
but himself every
spirit he makes definitions etches portraits judgments
that are invariably dramatic
Simplicity Marks His shorpness
What is professional?
"A professional" thought
his work when he doesn't feel like it,
Sean OCasey writes slurrng reference Londons
critics for their inability to detect
Replies Agate:
Sean OCasey has far Sunday
propose to take his trousers spank him."
The quality OF being simple well sharp evident all
OF the premises from which Agate operated critic To him
good play that does not make hdget An
absolutely good play which
yawn hdget"
The rules of dramatic criticism
"Ony two that matter Agate "One. Decide what the
playwright is trying to do and how
done it. Two Determine whether the wedone thing
doing at ALL"
On actors reply the question: need brains?
sIf they act If they can't yes .ss* es.
No enjoyed intellectual than Agate
especially with his friends such Christopher Fry letter
Fry taking his Phoenix Too Frequent
speech Agate quoting the
"Are compelled to into all this?"
He Knew His Judgments Were Personal
To which replies 1.-THE not and won't"
concealS them from themselves
superatve dsdan He faced the his judgments
were personal that only the fatuous untdy mind would
otherwise that honorable
responsibility for the tastes he displayed play
wrghts actors directors authors and
thought of them and their
affections as in the of Lillian Gish whom said
Your fame rests not art but the lovely baby
contour of your forehead"
Modern times have produced engaging dass
critic nevertheless by the
mastery OF the elusive art of the diarist.