Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-10-31

Tor the shock OF tnelr 0pldted ~
Anticipating this very asst
staged Writings play with an
extravagant theatricality t h a
not merely stunS the spectator
but gives him more exercise
than he is likely to have had
since early spring. In her de-
sign for the play, the devil-beset
populace of LOudon, France,
uses even the rafters of the
theater to act out its frenzies of
blaSphemy, beStiality, brutality,
and vulgarity.
The shocked senses, sight ana
hearing, following these around
the expanSe of Arena often finds
the experience more bewilder-
ing than evealing. 1t also
leaves the spectator feeling that
he is more muscularly than in
tellectually or emOtiOnally in
volved in what Mr.. Whiting has
to say about the devils tenancy
Of the human psyche.
=
Writings play, based upon
Aldous Huxley'S "The Devils of
Loudon," fairly clamorS to turn
itself into a spectacular rather
than a play. To the direct queS-
ton, What makes man a sin
ner?, it offers an answer that
becomes muffled in a tortured
tapestry of sin, nuns writhing in
paroxyms of passion in the
streets of Loudon, a priest being
conscience-waShed on the rack,
mobS screaming for the scent Of
sinners being burned at the
stake.
At the end of this violent laby
rinth, the survivor is permitted
to gather that man sins because
the devil helps him to rational
lie and justify the impulse to
discover the joys Of the released
passions.
This intelligence communicate
ed in the earthly idom of 18th
century rural France is a long
and confusing time reaching the
observer of 1.-The Devils" at
Sixth and M streets, southwest.
BY the clock, it is three hours,
an interval that not even the
Eee-wheeling production fills
rewardingly. /
$50
, 1t is a totally enveloping Lou
don that Mrs. Fichandler re-
creates on Arenas expansive
premises. It exists not merely
on all four sides of the spectator
but above and below him, the
latter represented by its drain
age system, inhabited by phi
lOSOphic sewer man.
In this environment, the next
voice one hears may come from
anywhere. And does. 1t is most
dramatic when it proves to be
the voice of Hurd Hatfield as
Urban Grandier, the Sophisiti-
Gated priest made in the image
and likeness of Adonis. 1t is
most anatomically arresting
when it is that of Elizabeth
Lawrence who plays the hunch-
backed Sister Jeanne.
These two so different crea-
lures are the especially chosen
victims Of Loudon's devils.
Chandler is the empirical intel
leetual, the cleric cast in the.
fleshly mould of the great lover.
and unable to resist the tempta-.
ton to discover its uses. He be-
comes an artist in seduction,
but in a world far above that
from which Sister Jeanne
comes.
1t is not one that is safe, how
ever, from her romantic
dreams which become hySteri-
cal when Grandier scornS to an
Swer her written plea to become
the UrSulines' spiritual adviser.
This, so minor among Gran
dier's sins, is the one that is to
bring him down in the great
witch hunt that sunders Loudon.
This, starting out as a purely
local affair, is destined to in
Volve all of France, from King
Louis XIII and Cardinal Richel-
leu to LoudOn's sewer man.
Arenas reinforced company
plays "The Devils" as if truly
possessed, clutching at its flying
fragments of sardonic wit, una
baS h e. by its anatomicaIy
brash speech, revealing in its
purely pelvic acting passages.
1t is inevitable that a cluster
of unforgettable performances
should erge from among
these demon-ridden Loudonites.
MIR. Hatfield'S, for one, as the
handsome Grandier in his de-
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.