Evening star., 1954-01-07

came, standard equipped. with m
energy. He hadn't thing on
his mind, he said. and then
proceeded to romp through ideas,
involving Queen Elizabeth I,
Ethel Barrymore, Shakespeare,
Montgomery Cliff, Thoreau.
Spencer Tracy, Jean Louis Bar
rault, Barrault's wife Madeleine
Renaud, Jean Paul Sartre and
Jean Giraudoux. Oh, yes, and
Jean Arthur, Ruth Gordon and
Carson Kanin.
There were several others fly
ing past in Mr.. Wilder's brief
survey of life from the 10th
through the first half of the goth
century. They disappeared be-
fore we could make note of
them. A fast tape recorder
might keep up with Mr.. Wilder
Might.
The one apparently taboo
character in Mr.. Wilder'S con-
versation is Mr.. Wilder.
II enjoyed your lecture on
Thoreau," the drama department
said at one point, referring to a
reprint in the Atlantic Monthly.
Funny, all you city. or Rookie
feller Center type Thoreau's say
you enjoyed it, Mr.. Wilder said.
Tied Weeks (the Atlantic edi-
tori had to cut it. Left out
everything about Thoreau as
artist, printed the rubber boots
wandering about Walden. Every
body who yearns to wander about
Walden in rubber boots liked it."
Mr.. Wilder paused. There are
some big city Thoreaus who do
the part very well. Brooks At
kinSon is one"
Obviously the reference meant
Mr.. Wilder had read Mr.. Atkin-
sons "Once Around the Sun" It
suggested a topic on which he
might be trapped into slant
on Mr.. Wilder. Reading is al
ways good subject on which to
talk to writer's, one too seldom
brought up.
Mr.. Wilder evaded the trap.
MY reading is directed" he
said. Has to be. I wish I had
time for this and that reading.
haven't. This and that readers
cover lot of ground, but not
very profitably. At least it
wouldn't be for me-"
That covered reading.
Writing? Well. every drama
reporter has spent years plaguing
Mr.. Wilder on THE Emporium"
That's the unfinished play he
works on when other ideas have
not abducted him. He has
nothing further to say on it now
and no man is more artful at
sidestepping topic on which he
has nothing to say. Nevertheless,
we tried.
THE Emporium" we slipped
In during a half-second's lull in
the conversation.
IT have done one bit of theater
writing" Mr.. Wilder plunged
ahead in direction he chose.
Its preface to a book on stage
design. Maybe I'm not the man
to write a preface to such a book.
In general, I feel plays are over
produced-as guess Our Town
may have intimated."
It was at this point that Mr..
Wilder got around to Queen
Elizabeth I and the first produc-
ton of Shakespeare's Twelfth
Night" for Her Majesty at
Whitehall. 1t was an in-the-
round production and Mr.. Wilder
indicated that there is great
virtue in such staging.
The theater is not at its best
when it presents something rep
resenting the unique occasion"
he said. Then it looks like
something lifted from life, in
stead of looking like life. You
might as we'll look at a painting
which, while beautiful, is a diff
ferent thing"
A CLINT of Mr.. Wilder's di-
rected reading came into the
talk here, in the fugitive obser-
vation:
Elizabeth was "a at the time
and still the coquette."
Obviously, a hard man to keep
up with.
y X X
On the score of Montgomery
Cliff, a close friend and the actor