Evening star., 1951-07-26

Arena Stage is the latest groul
of course, it takes more than mere
be the ability to do a becoming
Importance, since it is farce
notoriously vindictive toward its
abusers. Arena has this ability
and and the next three weeks
during which it will be doing the
Wilde work should reasonably be-
among the most successful the
round-house, as it is affection
ately known, has enjoyed.
1t is a newish sort of company
that Arena is offering this time
and it has been impressively in
Spired by Wilde and expertly di-
rected by Zelda Fichandler.
A capacity house saw last
nights opening performance and
almost nothing else its members
could have done would have rep
resented such good taste.
&* X
Every revival of THE Import
ance of Being Earnest that is not
downright disaster suggests that
this is the best of contemporary
satirical comedies. Unlike most
others, it refuses to age. Even
those familiar enough with the
text to prompt a neophyte actor
are perpetually astounded at theI
freshness of Wilde'S dialogue.
And. as for the dramatist's bril-
liantly ill-mannered cross sectionI
of English society near the CEN
tury's turn, time merely ripens its
members. From Lady BracknellI
to Lane, the butler, they are the
most amusing collection of alb
normals in modern stage litera-
ture.
Had Wilde had the ability to-
bury them in a plot, John Wor-
thing and all his playmates would
no doubt have been extinct dec
AIDES ago. Since he had no more
sense of plot than a horse in al
horse opera, their nonsense will
60 on until everything comes to
a stop.
In addition to being one of the
brightest productions in It's roper
tory year. AIena Stage has faced
THE Importance of Being Ear
nest" as easily the most chal-
lenging.
1t has taken every safety pre-
caution against any character
making the tragic mistake of being
less than letter perfect. To drop
or forget single Wildean word,
polished by decades of high style
and high speed acting, is sheer
suicide and Mrs. Fichandler has
thoroughly impressed her actors
with this hazard.
I Where they slip, and this only
occasionally, is in the tempo with
which they deliver the plays
beautifully made insults. This, of
course, can be fatal to THE I'M
portance of Being Earnest" but
not when it happens so rarely as
In Arenas production.
One Of the most tastefully Sc
lected casts in Arenas happy first
season is visible In the current
production.
To select one Of these choices
as happier than another may be
rank Discrimination but that is
what this reviewer is about to do. /
1t is his impression that Arena is
In extraordinary luck to have
found newcomer Ethel Casey to
play Gwendolyn Fairfax. Miss
Casey Is not only pretty enough |
for Gwendolyn. Many actresses are
that including Pamela Brown who
is not pretty In any of the ac-
cepted senses at all.
The major requirement of Lady
Gwendolyn's imitators Is that
they shall be acutely intelligent. It
is her golden chore to deliver
some OF Wilde's most excruciat-
ngly exact and poisonous judg-
ments upon the world and its
worldlings. She is the supremely
naughty young female who wears
a mailed mind in velvet glove,
so to speak. and 1t is the venture
some actress who undertakes her
portrait.
Miss Casey does it well, indeed,
or SO it seemed to this reviewer
who has been an admirer of Lady
Gwendolyn's since adolescence.
n r
For Genwdolyn's fanged male
counterpart, Algernon Moncrieff.
Arena has an impreSsively dex-I
trous new man in Albert Corbin.
The company has chosen wisely,
too, in Warner Schreiner as the
earnest Earnest, in Marion Sitter
as Lady Bracknell, and Marion
Karczmar as the youthful Cecily
Cardew, a lovely adder of a girl
who proves that a dewy facade
can be monstrouSly deceiving.
While these are carrying the
burden of whatever plot Wilde
bothers with in his farce, he has