Chronicle-1961

Eliot has the Greek tragedy in mind. There is an inevitableness about Becket's end, somehow. The women of Canterbury sense this, and urge him to go back and leave them to their humble chores. Becket's subconscious intent to become a martyr is strength ened by the insistence of the Fourth Tempter. He had anticipated the other three temptations—to become the man ofthe world again, to become Chancellor again, to aid the barons to overthrow despo tism. But the Fourth Tempter tempts him with his own desires, and from that moment he makes no effort to save his Ufe. The action of the play is relatively static, and success must inevitably depend upon characterisation. The failure ofthe central figure would have meant the failure of the play. The part of the Archbishop was played, appropriately, by Bishop. It was a brave decision by the actor. His voice is normally a quiet one, with a tendency to drop. In the poor acoustics of our Chapel, and with no stage, so that many of the audience could see little, this was asking for trouble. But by perpetual effort, for which wecommend him, he achieved a good clarity and, as far as we could tell, little was lost. His long part had been meticulously memorised, and he achieved the various shades of elation, dejection, and determination which the part involves. Well done! Other characters, although having considerable parts—and difficult ones to play, must be subordinate. Their succemssust he, not in action, but in voice production, and the Chapel is no place for anyone with a weak voice. There were some which did not carry, in spite of effort. The exception was Price, whose resounding words, as First Tempter and First Knight, penetrated toevery corner, and in this respect at least he was the pick of the cast. But Mr. Le Feuvre, as Fourth Tempter and Second Knight, had plenty to say, and spoke with the certainty and conviction of an experienced actor. The Chorus, well drilled in their unison speech (and this is difficult, for one voice out of step makes the rest inaudible) spoke wth great clarity and hardly a word was lost. At no stage did any of them really know what they were talking about, but the intent here is to create atmosphere by the use of word-pictures. Whether the words have logical meaning is beside the point. But the Chorus were monotonous,and one would have welcomed a change of pitch. Change of speed, on the other hand, was good. Perhaps it is inevitable(for we have seen it before)that choral speech must adopt a monotone. The stage manager and his assistants almost stole the show Mr. Metcalf is an expert in this. Lights and spotlights were set all over the place, with dimmers, and lights faded in and out or focussed themselves, often to the background of Plain-Song, in a fashion that no professional theatre could have bettered. 141

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