Word: madwoman
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...straight play offers a varied and interesting list, although, with possible exception list, although, with possible exception of the Odets play, it lacks a good solid tragedy. There is no hit such as Streetecar, Death of a Salesman, Cocktall Party, or Madwoman of Chalilot. Among the new plays, Christopher Fry's poetic drama The Lady's Not for Burning is probably the most successful. John Glolgnd and Pamela Brown carry the greater part of the notion and do so admirably...
...Member of the Wedding (winner of the Critics' Award) might have trouble proving itself a play, it too could take pride in much of its writing. Better still, both these very individual works, like such recent others as A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman and The Madwoman of Chaillot, became genuine box-office hits...
...Enchanted (adapted from the French of the late Jean Giraudoux by Maurice Valency; produced by David Lowe & Richard Davidson), whatever its weaknesses as a play, is frequently enchanting. A fantasy, as was Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot, it uses a much slighter and more tremulous fable. Instead of grandly and wackily turning Paris upside down, it delicately turns existence inside out. Half the play merely suggests and evokes, like music; even the solider half is mostly talk...
Martita Hunt is in the title role and she does handsomely by it. Her Madwoman is warm and human and views the world through a dewy spider's web which she is constantly brushing from her eyes. It is an inspired performance. Other outstanding players are Estelle Winwood, as the Madwoman's gaily demented pal, John Carradine as the oratorical rag-picker, and Lydia Westman and Elconora Mendelssohn as the other accomplices...
...Odets and Saroyans--and other dealers in messages and whimsy--could do well to study Giraudoux' method of wedding them. "The Madwoman of Chaillot" has its share of yuks all right, but the best parts are not those which provoke loud laughter but rather a silent 'yes' when the Madwoman--with the perception of the insane and the logic of the child-like--cuts sharply through to the truth of the matter. The healthy heart-beat of humanity can be heard in this play...