Word: cressida
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last summer the Aldwych produced, among other things, Troilus and Cressida. Troilus and Cressida is supposed to be a "problem play"; indeed, after having tried recently to produce it at the Loch, Dan Seltzer threw up his hands and swore never again to get involved with...
...Lakewood Civic Auditorium, Lakewood, Ohio. Here a more traditional As You Like It features Maria Lennard, formerly of the Bristol Old Vic company, as Rosalind (July 9-15); Macbeth and his extremely active wife are played by Britishers Stephen Scott and Maureen Harley (July 17-27); and Troilus and Cressida stars Scott as Hector (Aug. 14-Sept. 11). A Shavian touch is added by Candida with Celeste Holm and Wesley Addy (July...
...specifics: Troilus and Cressida are not, as this production would them, interchangeable with Romeo and Juliet. Although Troilus' first scenes are thoughtfully conceived and work fine with Troilus mooning-about indulging in the awkward speculation of a seventeen-year-old virgin, a later device of having the lovers visibly improvising the romantic metaphors they lovingly hurl at one another is gratuitous. First, it's a stock actor's trick (whenever you have a self-conscious speech to say, you make it quite clear that you're writing it on the spot) and all those pauses, well...
Michael Mckean provided a wooden and unconvincing Troilus, at least on opening night, and his youthful monotone, obviously deliberate in many places, grew way out of proportion in scenes when some acting would have been appropriate. Lisa Kelley fared a little better as Cressida, probably because the script requires one hell of a character change whether the actress likes it or not, but she spent most of her time struggling with difficult verse and a very strange costume reminiscent of early Ku Klux Klan...
Troilus and Cressida, the grand opening production of the Loeb Drama Center, was universally acknowledged to be a bomb. Brooks Atkinson, who came up to review the play for the Crimson, said so unreservedly. Undergraduates said so in tones ranging from surface disappointment to unconcealed pleasure. Troilus's importance was more than ceremonial, however. It weakened the case for Loeb professionalism, since it was hardly a success. It also weakened the status of its director, Stephen Aaron, whose tenure as assistant director of the Loeb was to be extraordinarily brief...