Word: hallam
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...boys' American History teacher, Pete Hallam, presides over the conflict, commenting periodically on its progress. A wise but bitter former POW. Hallam tries to recapture the innocence he knew at Devon as a student but finds the same violence he thought he had escaped. Instead of adding depth to the Hochschwender Wexford confrontation, his observations reduce the action to a series of cliches. Reflecting on "that monster war," Hallam sees it "sending last thin even here to this still reverberating around the world even here to this little rural corner...
...there is also Frances Hallam Hurt's view of Chatham. The epitome of the genteel Southern lady, she sees Chatham, from the vantage point of her nearby estate, as "the last outpost of the good life-and surprisingly kind...
...never knew you had a brother, Harvard," says Lady Cicely Waynflete to her brother-in-law, Sir Howard Hallam, in the first act of Captain Brassbound's Conversion. And Howard answers (unpardonably): "Perhaps because you never asked me." It's like that all the way through three long acts: hackwork by a great playwright. Shaw's intention, no doubt, was to present a series of outrageous sentiments in elegant language, but all that he actually achieved was a preposterous plot, a smattering of coy jokes and wheezy epigrams and a brace of cardboard characters (there's even a comic Cockney...
...take Paul Barstow (the new Howard Hallam), a morose and lanky bird of prey, who is somehow at once the hangingest judge in England and--the proper Shavian combination--a silly old fool.] Sir Howard, naturally, is one of Lady Cicely's first successful take-over bids, and Barstow succumbs with the proper air of well-bred petulance. Then there's Robert Chapman, who, as Captain Hamlin Kearney (an American naval officer devised to fill up the last act), suffers such an astounding sea change as to be almost unrecognizable. Kearney is the last of Lady C's successes...
...take Samuel Abbot, who has always enjoyed being insufferably English on stage, but who only just now as Sir Howard Hallam has achieved the appearance of an educated, nourished, pampered, brushed, and altered tomcat, Sir Howard, naturally, is one of Lady Cicely's first successful take-over bids, and Abbott succombs with just the proper air of well-bred petulance. Then there's Robert Chapman, who, as Captain Hamlin Kearney (an American naval officer devised to fill up the last act), suffers such an astounding sea change as to be almost unrecognizable. Kearney is the last of Lady...