Word: play
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Jeremiah (by Stefan Zweig; produced by The Theatre Guild). Biblical narratives have a way of being made into "plays" and coming out Biblical narratives. Jeremiah illustrates the jinx. When Zweig wrote it, as an Austrian pacifist in 1916, Jeremiah's thundering against Israel's war of conquest had tremendous timeliness. It might have tremendous usefulness today if it could be produced in Fascist countries. But simply as a play it is ponderous, labored, rhetorical. For the glow of Biblical diction it substitutes "Whither away?" and other pidgin Elizabethan. For the intensity of an ancient people, it substitutes stage...
Henry IV, Part I (by William Shakespeare; produced by Maurice Evans). Though Henry IV contains the greatest comic figure in English literature, it has been produced on Broadway only once (for a week in 1926) in 43 years. One reason: the whole play cannot be performed in a single evening; another: Falstaff is not only the greatest but the fattest of comic figures, and a severe physical strain on any actor who, all padded and stuffed, impersonates him. For that weighty reason, Maurice Evans announced he would play Falstaff for only four weeks...
...Falstaff o'erstrides the play. Unknightliest of knights, a "tun of a man," a "huge bombard of sack"-guzzler, lecher, liar, braggart, coward, thief-he is like some centrifugal force overcoming gravitation. Far from being a villain, he is the most entertaining and lovable of knaves. Caught out in his outrageous boasts, his fantastic lies, shamming dead (to avoid being killed) on the battlefield, he never loses his unshatterable aplomb, never lags in invention or languishes in wit. At bottom Falstaff may well be a superb showman, not expecting to be believed, only counting on being relished; not expecting...
Footballer Bob MacLeod and Joe Batchelder will hold down the guard posts for the Indians. They are two boys who combine stout defensive play with good offensive ability. Bob White is the best reserve guard Coach Cowles...
Radcliffe has given up bowling as an official sport this year but this unofficial foursome headed by Radcliffe's bowling champion, Miss Grace Bennett, are already set to play any representative quartet from Harvard...