Word: ibsen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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HEDDA GABLER (CBS, 9:30-11 p.m.). Ibsen's play, with Ingrid Bergman, Sir Michael Redgrave, Sir Ralph Richardson and Trevor Howard...
...pieces attempt to represent what six authors--Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen, Wilde, Odets and Williams--might have done with commonplace dramatic themes: love and letters, cuckolds and cash-on-the-line weddings. The "typical Shakesperian clown engages in a "typical" mixup of missives. The deranged Blanche du Bois figure in the Williams parody imagines a Spanish pen pal to take her from the beer-and-beatings world of her Stanley Kowalski type mate...
What this production lacks in authorial wit, it compensates for by the concerted effort of cast and director. Except for a noticeable lack of energy in the Wilde offering and the shoddiness of all concerned in the Ibsen episode, the director, Clayton Koelb, manages to impose appropriate styles upon the four other parodies...
...imagery: "I see a cloud shaped just like a samovar." Her Odets mama ("A dry-goods store you don't sneeze at, papa") carries on the grand tradition of Molly Picon and Gertrude Berg. However, her miming as the maid in Drainpipes owes more to French farce than to Ibsen...
...seem to share this glad acceptance to a remarkable degree. But the better-educated viewer says he likes serious programs much more often than the grade-school group. Those with seven to eight years of school never watch heavy drama, while 11% of the most educated go for the Ibsen-substitutes when available. While only 5% of the grade-school audience are interested in information and public affairs, 13% of the college group and 23% of postgraduates declare that they like it best...