Evening star., 1952-02-06

3eW current drama practltlonerS
Kramm has come UP with q
thing In this 1951-52 season-in
play of a sensitively balanced man
who married man eating wife
The entire action takes place In
the psycophatic ward Of a large
city hospital. This dramatic area
Is made Of faScinatingly more dra-
matte by the acting of Jose Ferrer
and Judith Evelyn and by the ex-
cellent incidental playing OF a
cast directed by Ferrer.
Ferrer also is producer Of 'The
Ehrike." which makes him one OF
the few triple-threat performers
In the theater. incidentally, but
for the mischance of q movie COM
mitment, Ferrer was scheduled to
present 1.-THE Shrike" at the Olney
summer theater two seasons ago.
Honest Judgment of "The
Shrike." which means "a preda-
tory bird" requires the admission
that its excellence rests to a large
extent upon the quality Of its
acting.
Producer-Director Ferrer has
shown superb taste in choosing
himself as the temporarily de-
ranged young play director and
Miss Evelyn as the woman who
stalks him through the psyche
pathic ward to convince him that,
only in death, can he escape her.
He has done well. too, with those
who play the inmates and the staf1
Of the plays snake pit and whose
behaviour suggests mans vaunted
enlightment has done little to i'm
prove conditions in these houses OF
horror. The innocence. ignorance
and i'll luck that have arranged
humans in this doctor and patient
relationship are revealed with all
the cold anger Kramm can muster.
This is lot of cold anger.
It's macabre quality is evident
even in the ironically humorous
asides which creep into the action.
The curtain rises on a hospital
psychopathic ward which Is being
readied to fill its last bed with the
unconscious form Of Ferrer, who
has lust taken 156 sleeping tablets
to end his life. Although he had
left her three months ago Tor
another girl. Miss Evelyn follows
him there.
Hoyering between life and death.
the husband is safe for little
while from the cloying, voraeiously
greedy woman who drove him TO
attempted suicide. The wards
medical and guard staff and the
other patients are less fortunate
however. Before Ferrer rega1ns
consciousness, she has convinced
these that she is the perfect SYM
Dol of the unshakably loving, for-
giving, and loyal wife.
When medicine redeems him for
the drug overdose, Ferrer faces
a new battle, even more desperate
than the one which put him INTO
the hospital. Now this man who
wanted only freedom is more
trapped than ever. He is oflciauy
tagged as a homicidal maniac.
He is at the mercy OF a psychlat-
ric staff which. he is convinced,
has prejudged his case and ne Isl
cornered behind locked doors nyl
the woman he abhorred more than
death.
yet he Is to live and learn that
his one way to escape commitment
in a state madhouse is to accept
release in her custody. For the rest
Of his life.
While Kramm's play rests It's
main case on the relationship be-
tween the sensitive, intell1gentl
husband and the poisonously pos
sessive wife, 1t concerns itself
powerfully with the incidental as
poets Of its macabre situation.
Ferrer, the sanest looking charac-
ter on the stage, cuts a poignant
and terrifying figure in his intel
lectual and emotional duel with
the psychiatric staff.
He tried to commit suicide.
therefore he is insane. Or, If not.
1t is up to him to prove his sanity
despite their tyrannical rejection
Of his arguments. He takes tests
which to him are ridiculous, and
when he suggests as much, he Is
charted as antagonistic, which, in
the textbooks of mental medicine,
is a profoundly dangerous symp-
tom.
Worst Of all is that his image Of
his wife in no way comedies with
that of the hospital staff. They
know she is a ministering angel,
waiting to save him. They cannot
comprehend his concept Of her as
o man-eater waiting to devour
E. MORRISON PAPER co. M