Word: chapman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When Robert Chapman first brought the script for "The General" to the Harvard Theatre Group, he was anxious that the scene shifts be made quickly--in fifty seconds or less...
...deals with the gnosis of lost causes exhumed to terrorize and destroy men who cheated for them "in another time and in another country." Most of all, it is a play about a certain general who never existed and who, I doubt, could ever exist. In "Billy Budd" Robert chapman and Louis Coxe created a personification of good, and no one questioned whether or not he ever walked the face of this earth, because it didn't matter. "Billy Budd" was too much a parable, and its setting in another century on the high seas made unreal characters more royal...
This is never the fault of the acting, which is worthy of the greatest pries. Donald Stewart, as the general, is magnificent in one of the most difficult parts I have ever seen. The language Coxe and Chapman have written for him often seem to belie the meaning of the lines. This general, a man of high principle and absolute truth, is in essence a simple man; he can remove himself from the dirt of the arena because his principles are so ingrained he is incapable of inductive thinking. He believes that the end can never justify the means largely...
...words must be added in praise of the brilliant revolving set by Richard Higgens, of Anthony Herrey's settings and of Irving Yeskowitz's excellent production which does wonders with the Pl Eta's cramped stage. As for Coxe and Chapman, they have given their audience stimulating ideas, especially apt today, but the unreality and inconsistencies of their characters often make these ideas confusing...
...Chapman, co-anther of "Billy Budd," has assisted Radcliffe girls in many of their theatrical productions...