Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-12-06

solved, Mr.. Kazan's neighbor
settled down to watching the
play in detail, meanwhile keep
ling an ear glued to the next note
the director j6tted down. The
object Of this intense observa-
ton, visual and aural, was to fig-
bure out just what it was that
both saw that Mr.. KaZan felt
was worth q note for later ref
erence when he confronted the
company.
There was one time, especially,
when the critic was sure he knew
what Mr.. Kazan had jotted
down. With every apology to
Alex Nichol if it happens to be
wrong, he made a move midway
in the first act without waiting
for its motivating speech from
Marjorie Steele. At any rate,
the moving pencil moved at
this point and if Mr.. Kazan saw
something else, that's why he,
not we, directed Cat On a Hot
Tin Roof"
Later on, Mr.. Kazan must
have made a note to the effect
that one of the lesser players
was making her performance a
parody of a parody; in other
words a caricature instead of a
character.
Maybe not, however. At any
rate. he was a busy jotter dur
ing the first act.
X \
He must have liked the second
act better. At any rate. to the
alert ears of the ftrtive char
lacter across the aisle, there were
lpalpably fever notes.
And. at one time. there was q
positive guffaw from Mr.. Kazan's
seat. This sound from a director
can only mean enormous APP
proval of an actors performance
(Mr. Gomez's. if he would like to
know. or that of the actor plus
the director. Anyone who knows
Mr.. Kazan is safe in assuming
the former.
The second act went much
better. or had Mr.. Kazan identi-
fled his neighbor and quit TAX
ing notes on the theory his
tscribbing could only denote
hatred for everything he was
seeing.
The opening of the third act
could not have been more dis
concerting to the character across
the aisle from Mr.. Kazan. The
latter simply had not returned
to his seat. This could only sug-
gest that he had identified his
neighbor and had decided to
move elsewhere with his pad and
pencil.
The discomfort of this feeling
was shortlived. Five minutes af-
ter the curtain went up, Mr.
Kazan returned to F-113. He ap-
parently liked this act as well
as he had the second. At any
rate. he seemed to be scratching
equally few notes. An caves
dropper could be wrong about
this. however. That's a pretty
noisy act and could easily drown
out the sound Of directors jot-
ting.
The final curtain presented
another problem Of etiquette to
the chap across the aisle. Should
he slip out as he had at the
intermissionS? That was one
way but suppose Mr.. Kazan had
see him? After all, the two have
known each other all the way
back to the late sos,
Here was one for Emily Post
and where was she? Somewhere
else, as usual.
So. the eavesdropper solved
the problem himself. He got up,
walked across the aisle, shook
hands and asked Mr.. Kazan how
long he was going to be in town.
Mr.. Kazan smiled q bright
friendly smile and said: I'm
leaving early tomorrow morn
ing" He said it with the finality
Of a man who had no intention
Of telling anyone but the mem
bers Of his company what was
in those notes.
Some other day. maybe. At
any rate. it was a most Ell ioyable
evening in the theater--in its
off-beat way.