Word: giraudoux
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...lady is, of course, Countess Aurelia--the title personage of Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot (La folle de Chaillot). Giraudoux wrote three versions of this play shortly before he died in 1944. Had he lived longer he could not have improved it much; indeed, the mad tea party is absolutely perfect. He never wrote a greater play, and only his Electre can perhaps equal...
...Giraudoux's dialogue is dazzlingly witty, and one side-splitting line follows another. The style survives Maurice Valency's translation very well indeed and Warren Enters has staged the work admirably. On opening night some of the cast had trouble with a few lines, but all should be running smoothly...
...even with its pungent peccadillos and devious imbroglios, Giraudoux's theme is light and trite, his scope limited. As we found "Marivaudage," we find "Giraudoux-age"; Giraudoux's verbal and analytical virtuosity approaches the precious. He dallies for three hours with the ephemeral, and the eternal sentiments received eternal dissertations. Above all, Giraudoux's result is not entirely coincidental with his aims. Intellectual comedy such as this should address itself to the imagination and intelligence more than to the emotions, and determination of the inherent nature of reality and truth should attempt to dissociate to some little extent love from...
...However, Giraudoux fails to maintain a balance between ideas and spicy French sex, and the play becomes bikini. Interspersed with rationalistic salvos are a crescendo of kisses, lovers entwined like vine leaves on a Greek frieze and racy gods until the romp is reduced to a gala Gallic gaiety and the comedy verges on hedonism. Frankly, three hours of the bed become boring...
...Giraudoux's views of the world through rose-colored glasses, his frothy creation, a cake with two layers of pink frosting on top, and his celestial wedding of irony and humor charm us. With numerous improvements, the Tufts production should be a delightful evening's entertainment...