Word: brecht
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Olivier was given the Old Vic theater on the south bank of the Thames and an annual grant of $364,000. He has since made it one of the finest stage companies in the world. Among its recent productions: Olivier's first Othello, Coward's Hayfever, Brecht's Mother Courage. Peter Hall was involved in a similar buskin-strap operation on the Royal Shakespeare Company. Before he took over in 1960, the group had restricted itself to Shakespeare at Stratford on Avon. Today, thanks to a $252,000-a-year subsidy, Hall has added a London theater...
...play often at the expense of the Brechtian irony. The dialogue, for example, is often spoken with passion rather than with detachment. His stage, however, is far too small for the pageantry scenes, and Murray has made no attempt to enlarge it with devices. As a result, Brecht's intended contrast between the large and the intimate scenes often gets muddled...
...Brecht drew his Galileo as a big belching proletarian who would belch even in the Pope's presence. Tony van Bridge seems far too well-mannered with the Establishment, but among his scientist friends he back-slaps sufficiently. He brings extreme power to the role, perhaps too much. The rest of the Charles cast rarely reaches his heights or depths. Lynn Milgrim provides the one exception with her brilliant performance as Galileo's light-hearted daughter who changes into a madonna-like grey-haired spinster...
Lawrence Pressman also does well as the disciple, Andrea Sarti. Brecht intended Galileo's little band to resemble a revolutionary conspiracy of sorts, and Mr. Pressman often seems the reincarnation of the young Trotsky. His scene with the dying Galileo at the very end of the play is appropriately the high point of the evening...
...Bridge, the fire is there -- the play often wraps and wiggles with the power of a python. The Charles, in short, deserves a medal both for its courage in attempting Galileo and for its large measure of success in setting off so many of the depth charges which Brecht placed in this play...