Evening star., 1954-05-05

Man. he observes, is still /;
penetration of the mystery of
life, but just as carnally vulner-
able as ever and every bit as
comic to the gods. He sums it
up tersely and tidily in an epi-
logue spoken by Aphrodite to
the effect that there's a knife
in every flower. and lion just
beyond the freight"
Mr.. Jeffers certainly has a
point there-juSt about the only
point the poor terrified human
mind can find these days-but
the question is. does he have a
correlatively potent play? The
Arena production is one of the
most ambitious in the four-year's
history of the group. but it is by
no means conclusive in it's an
Swer to the above question.
"The Cretan Woman" despite
the perceptive direction of Basil
Langton and the volcanic efforts
of the large cast, has about it a
curious unreality. The vista from
here all the way back to Euri-
pides, farther indeed to Phaedra.
is a little long for modern.
myopic man.
Nor is the audiences effort to
adjust perspective made any the
easier by the fact that the i'm
mediate subject is a seduction
played at the patrons knees. At
the distance of a proscenium
stage, with it's figurative fourth
wall, THE Cretan Woman"
would be a more comfortable,
and quite probably, a clearer
experience.
Like his MEDIA" Of seven sea-
sons ago, Mr.. JefferS' new play
is in verse that is hot. turbulent
and unashamedly candid. Again,
he has followed the original.
Euripides "Hippolytus," in basic
outline.
What he relates is the story of
Hippolytus. a handsome young
prude who scorned the goddess
Aphrodite, and who was pun
ished by being ruthlessly exposed
to the unholy love of Phaedra,
his young stepmother. There are
those who think that Phaedra's
inclusion in Aphrodite's venge-
ance is the classic example of
what happens to innocent by
ISLANDERS, but otherwise Euripides
would have had no play. Nor, of
course, Mr.. Jeffers.
Following the classic pattern,
''The Cretan Woman" makes no
concession to the notion that de-
tails of this affair should be left
somewhat to the patrons imagi-
nation. It is all conducted out
there in the open, right in front
of the Palace of Theseus with
everyone in the audience, willy
nilly, a party to it.
This can be disconcerting,
much more in central staging
than anywhere else.
x y
The symbolic characters of
"Hippolytus' are amplified in
their symbolism-and their un-
reality-in The Cretan Wom-
an"
1t is not enough, therefore, that
Marian Reardon as the agonized
Phaedra must represent a Gre
tan beauty fatally attracted
to her handsome, disinterested
StepSon. She must be all women
who involuntarily find the seren-
ity Of their marriage corrupted
by awareness of an adjacent at
tractive male animal. Miss Rear
don gives Mr.. JefferS' Phaedra
the heroic try of a gifted young
actress, but the latter remains
POLITICALLY remote.
Hippolytus, for whom the
original play is named, is a much
less complex character and dra-
natically inferior to the an
guished heroine. Stanley Pitts,
therefore. is much less hard
pressed to make him visible as
/ young man whose indifference
TO sex could make him offensive
N the eyes of Aphrodite. And,
naturally. a double scourge to
The conscience of proud and
honorable Cretan woman such
Is Phaedra.
Much more testing of the
actor who plays it is the part of
TheSeus. Phaedra'S husband.
Hippolytus' father by a first |
wife. Lester Rawlings inherits |
The role in "The Cretan Wom-