The Bradfield Cieek Play : Oedipus Tyrannus.
THIS is the first time that Oedipus Tyrannus has been acted by the boys of Bradfield. It is not an easy play for boys to act,
being a play of geometrical rather than realistic emotions.
Rhythm rather than " acting " is what is called for. I found the necessary rhythm lacking, perhaps because the production
aimed at archaeological correctness rather than truth to the spirit. Truth to the spirit is a vague thing to aim at, and may be missed completely. The archaeologist cannot miss completely, but are his hits worth making ? I could myself do without the "six lyres and four auloi, models of authentic Greek instruments, constructed in 'goo, under the direction of Mr. Abdy Williams." They were not good to look at, and they produced the most dismally churchy kind of noise. It must be admitted, however, that the Bradfield production has to be archaeological rather than eclectic. A producer who has a miniature Greek theatre ready to hand would be unneces- sarily perverse if he did not aim at a whole in keeping with it. It was a gallant experiment of Bradfield College to construct this Greek theatre, and whenever a play is acted in it the gallant experiment is repeated.
The grand thing about the Bradfield theatre is that the chorus can be put where they belong—in the orchestra. The main actors are then raised decently above them, entering from the back of the stage from an alien world, while sub- sidiary characters who are halfway between the heroic world of action and the static observation of the chorus enter from the parodoi into the orchestra and then mount the steps to the stage from the front. The fifteen members of the chorus hold their position in the middle of the audience and so act as intermediaries between the audience and the drama itself. That at least is what they should do, but I was not sure that in this case they succeeded. It is difficult to identify oneself with fifteen boys wearing improbable woolly beards and awkward robes in hideous terra-cottas and purples. While realistically unsympa- thetic the Bradfield chorus failed also to support the play, as they could have done, by sheer rhythm. They were grouped, but not rigorously, in set patterns and occasionally moved their hands in gestures which were an unfortunate compromise between formalism and realism. The music was also a compro- mise, as admitted in the programme—" This setting is neither written in the musical language of today, nor can it claim any association with ancient Greek tonality. The musical policy has been to imbue the material with an air of antiquity, care having been taken to avoid establishing the style of any definite period."
It is no use pretending that it is an easy thing to produce, to act, or even to speak a Greek tragedy. The speaking of this play was on the whole admirable, though some of the actors some- times overdid their realistic intonations. It is no mean feat to be able to speak great chunks of a dead language or passages of heartbreaking stichomuthia with clarity, dignity and credibility.
I must, however, criticise the acting. It ought to have been much sharper and harder. The whole play has a cold but intense austerity which at all costs must not be fluffed or muffled.
Oedipus ought never to have been allowed to wring his hands— a trivial and unconvincing gesture—before going out to blind himself. Jocasta was too soft. The first messenger was ill- advised to adopt a rustic drawl, while the second messenger was too juvenile in appearance though he delivered his lines with
beauty and uncommon spirit. The dramatic pauses in the middle
of speeches were too frequent and not very dramatic ; there was a bad one in the quarrel between Oedipus and Tiresias, Oedipus self-consciously turning his back on Tiresias, while Tiresias labours to bring his next words to birth. Oedipus him- self should have been better made up and should have been played more formally. Playing Oedipus, a boy is less handi- capped by immaturity than when playing Othello or Lear. The mere pattern of the play should carry over the character. I enjoyed my afternoon at Bradfield, but the play itself failed to take hold of me, in spite of the solid screen of trees separating us from the world and in spite of the real fire on the altar in the
orchestra. I noticed a number of clergymen in the audience, and was sadly reminded that a Greek play, once the marriage of religion and entertainment, is now the marriage of entertain- ment and education. This is the real reason why the Oedipus at Bradfield is only a gallant failure. Louts MACNEICE.
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