Word: caerleon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...short, the structure of the play glosses over the basic problem in the material-how to put egomania on the stage. Rolfe obviously could emphathize only with his own person or with projections of his personality (the young alter ego George Arthur Rose and the Bishop of Caerleon). The other characters in his fantasy pageant fit into stereotypes of melodrama. Tocqueville was not the last egotist to structure a world view on the assumption that all other human beings are coarse and mediocre. A dramatic rendering of Tocqueville's Recollections would have just as many pitfalls as Rolfe's Hadrian...
RESERVATIONS about the play do not detract from the merits of the production. The acting, crowned by Hume Cronyn's compelling performance, is excellent. The other characters, however, are left with usually sketchy parts. Margaret Braidwood as Mrs. Crowe and Paul Harding as the Bishop of Caerleon were splendid, though Donald Ewer as Mr. Crowe's accomplice in blackmail burlesqued the role of Jeremiah Sant with a thick Irish accent. Liza Cole, Julie Andrews' mother in Hawaii, played the warm-hearted Agnes with unabashed charm. Her reward after the wildly sentimental scene with Hadrian in the Papal chambers...
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