Evening star., 1960-12-04
THE PASSING SHOW
ObliqueIy, Arena Might
Win q Best-PIoy Award

NNWOEO
shall have the values Of in
telligence, wit, and contagious
humanity given to 1t by
Arenas resident director. F.
Cowles Strickland.
And, correlatively the
values made so implicit and
explicit by the performance
Of William Shust as Emile,
M. Marceau's Everyman hero.
These are by no means
guaranteed in a Broadway
production of THE Egg" M.
Marceau is a Gallo artist
with a highly individualized
style, its requirement a subtly
sympathetic understanding
that the Arena production
brilliantly achieves. His '"The
Good Soup" a lesser play.
restyled for Broadway last
fall by such polished profess
sionalS as Carson Kanin and
Ruth Gordon. crashed almost
instantly into the flop
column.
It's Not Merchandise
New York by no means
guarantees him the respect for
his artistic integrity that has
made "The Egg" so dazzling
at Arena. Its concern, so
many melancholy New York
ers told us all last week, Is
for theatrical merchandise.
This. "The Egg" is not. To
treat it as such would be
fatal.
At its best, Marceau's play
would have one serious COM
petitor for the only prize for
which it is eligible, the best
foreign play Of the year.
This one would be Shelagh
Delaney's "A Taste of Hon
ey," a brave, sad, wryly
amusing slice of life, Miss
Delaney's play is currently
the artistic achievement of
the season.
This playgoer. however,
prefers "The Egg" by the
narrowest of margins for
two seemingly logical reasons.
One Of these is that M.
Marceau. a more imaginative
and exploSively free writer,
deals with a larger slice of
life than does Miss Delaney.
The problem ne presents
in the light-hearted travail
OF his hero. Emile, is what
does one do about life? The
answer he proffers is that
one use "the system" name
ly to adopt all the face
saving attitudes and postures
that help toward the self
deception that living is an
adventurous and ENJOYABLE
experience.
Emile, who spends as much
OF his time philosophizing
with the audience as address,
ing his fellow players, does
not insist "the system" is
perfect. AS M. Marceau's
morally flexible, or resilient
hero, he is merely making a
smiling effort to make it more
workable in life's endless
dilemmas.
It has been a long time
since theatergoers have seen
such a one man Everyman
graphing with such problems
as learning about amour. how
to attain security (limited)
by getting on a government
payroll and how to reconcile
oneself to a marriage ar
ranged by fate and ones in
laws rather than oneself.
He Has a Problem
Emile is all of us living in
a succession of battling
plights. He visualizes these as
"the egg" of life, his problem
that Of cracking the shell to
get inside where he will at
least be more comfortable.
AS M. Marceau's engros-
sing spokesman, he has the
advantage Of appearing at
Arena on a central space
stage as against the pro-
scenium, or box, in which
he will be confined in New
York. This is a handicap but
1t need not be a fatal one
for Emile is essentially a
hilarious copper.
II we were a producer, we
would transport him, lock,
stock and the Messrs. Strick-
land and Shust as is to New
York-but, then. everyone
knows how commitments are
in the theater.
Yet how nice 1t would be
to have Arena come I'm first