Word: shaw
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Shaw himself regarded Methuselah as not only his greatest work but also one of the supreme monuments of literature. "It is a world classic," he said, "or it is nothing." Few people would share his verdict; for it is an amazingly uneven and windy work. Yet at its best, its diction attains the force and eloquence of the Bible...
Moss has shown good taste, too. He has done most of the cutting in the central triptych, where Shaw's writing was weakest and most forced. The two acts of Part I ("In the Beginning") remain virtually intact, and these are really great writing and great theatre. In Part II ("Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas"), Moss has strung several comments by one man together into a short address; with the house lights half up, Professor Barnabas speaks to the audience as though addressing one of his biology classes--an effective solution indeed. For Part III ("The Thing Happens") Moss drew...
...adapter also hit on the idea of having Shaw himself deliver a prologue and brief between-scenes commentary. This material was drawn both from the playwright's voluminous preface and from the postscript that Shaw wrote in 1944 for the Oxford Press' new edition of the play. Felix Deebank, dressed and made up to look exactly like Shaw, delivers all this in fine brogue-tinged fashion...
Philip Burton has staged Parts I and V admirably. But if this show is to survive on Broadway, he will have to be more inventive in Parts III and IV to compensate for Shaw's sagging script. Marvin Reiss's sets and John Boyt's costumes are quite adequate, and Paul Leaf has achieved some handsome silhouettes and stunning lighting...
Miss Bettis (The Serpent, and Fusima) makes the most of her wonderfully modulated and deep-throated voice. As "the most subtle" Serpent she slightly lingers with superb effect over the sibilants that Shaw carefully placed in her speeches. Tolan (Cain, and Zozim) brings real fire to the role of the world's first transgressor of the Fifth and Sixth Commandments. Moss (Prof. Barnabas, Accountant General, and the Elderly Gentleman) manages to make individual his three well-seasoned men. John Granger (Strephon) and Dorothy Whitney (Chloe) round out the cast...