Word: shakespeareanly
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...Macy's-Gimbels' price war. Effective only in scattered scenes and particularly in the foul language and cold ironies of its Thersites, who, more than anyone else, probably represents Shakespeare's point of view, the play is difficult to stage in any context. But Shakespearean directors have long tried to meet the challenge anyway, notably Tyrone Guthrie, who, with the Old Vic, once did Troilus and Cressida as an Edwardian period piece, the Greeks as Prussians and the Trojans as British guards...
...Hunter's Rosalind marks her Shakespearean debut, and is a remarkably good first try even though not likely to be long remembered. Her voice is a bit edgy and narrow in range, but the role's spirit is there. And she handles the solo epilogue most appealingly...
Moving from Greece to Elizabethan England, Steiner notes that Victor Hugo called Shakespeare "Aeschylus the second." It wasn't quite true. Shakespeare violated the classic unities of time, place and action and altered the tragedy of destiny to the tragedy of will. The underlying unity of Shakespearean tragedy, as Steiner sees it, is "the universal drama of the fall of man." This introduces Christian values without the Christian metaphysic, which is nontragic, since it contains the hope of heaven and redemptive grace. Critic Steiner fails to explore one pagan link between Greek and Shakespearean tragedy, the obsession with death...
...production would have been improved by Mr. Kazanoff's trading roles with Tom Griffin, whose Orlando, far from being ebullient, is dour and grumpy enough for a Richard III or an Edmund. (Mr. Griffin, sad to say, has been beset by two of the continuing Terrors of all Shakespearean acting: the Noble Voice, which attempts to sound English and inspiring and most closely resembles muffled Gielgud, and the Emphatic Shimmy, apparently an attempt to lend emphasis to a speech by wriggling one's body wildly...
When Macbeth himself enters, however, his first lines suggest that we are in for a Macbeth without a Macbeth. And time bears out our suspicion, alas! Pat Hingle, who has done admirable work in contemporary plays, simply is not vocally equipped to cope with a major Shakespearean role. His speech is thick, and his voice lacks music and grandeur. He is careless with his vowels, and we get the impression that Inverness and Dunsinane are really in Colorado and Texas...