Word: benedick
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...stuff, and is based more on accident and coincidence than a Hardy novel. Shakespeare obviously took this tale just as a frame to hang some original fun on. What impresses us (as it did Berlioz in fashioning his last opera) is the sparkling and witty comedy of Beatrice and Benedick, along with the wonderful farce of the constable Dogberry and his night watch...
Shakespeare's maturer comedies, boasting perhaps his most modern-style pair of lovers. Benedick'and Beatrice are no pastoral swain and sweetheart, no parties to Shakespeare's pet formula of Boy Turns Into Girl. Theirs is a lively sniping contest full of sophisticated scorn; they are as pert, as mocking, as hoity-toity-though by no means as hardhearted-as a Restoration gallant and belle. And the trick that is played on them-of causing each to overhear how the other adores him-still has laughter...
Done right, Beatrice and Benedick can carry off a play that Shakespeare didn't always do right by. But last week's production, which closed after four performances† completely lacked spin and sparkle. Claire Luce played Beatrice as officiously and coyly as an old maid who has just announced her engagement; Antony Eustrel's Benedick was all O-what-a-gay-dog-am-I. And under Eustrel's direction, the rest of the play offered such tripping and gurgling and spouting as today are banned from high-school auditoriums...
...program will include: Bach, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor; Haydn, Symphony in G major, No. 88; Berlioz, Overtime to Beatrice and Benedick; and Strauss, Don Quixote, Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character, Op.35...
Robert E. Miller '48 as Benedick, and Henry P. Robbins '48 as Claudio have been assigned the leading roles; they will play opposite Miss Eustacia Purves, Radcliffe '48, as Beatrice, and Miss Claire Gilman, Radcliffe '48, as Hero. Robert Lubchansky '48 takes the role of Leonato and Robert Girvin '48 will play Dogberry...