A Madwoman and a mad woman While the United States and Davis ayoungjuggler. sisting of stairs and a curtain • the European Community were The uncredited set was modest backdrop. The men wore evening trying to avert a trade war that - a corner of the cafe and the clothes, the women twenty-some­ would have tripled the price of Carl Madwoman's cellar boudoir. thing flapper outfits. French white wines for American Lebovitz Phyllis Rogers was the costume The play, in the English adap­ consumers, two French plays qui­ consultant. tation by Lewis Galantiere, is etly slipped into Charleston last Lebovitz is This was Charleston Alley mostly talk, so that it tends to be month-Jean Giraudouz's "The reviewer-at­ Theartre's most ambitious un­ static, and the Eastern staging Madwoman of Chaillot," staged large for the dertaking yet, and overall they was essentially a series of Journal Gazette by Charleston Alley Theatre, and and Times­ did themselves proud. tableaux. The dialogue, however, Jean Anouilh's "Antigone," pre­ Courier. *** is tight-packed and taut, and sented by EIU's theatre arts de­ Now generally regarded as a what is said demands concentra­ partment. raged. "Nothing is ever so wrong discerning critic of his time, Jean tion on the part ofboth the actors Set "a little before noon in the in this world," she says, "that a Anouilh (1910-1987) had diffi­ and the audience. Alas, much ofit spring of next year," Giraudoux's sensible woman can't set right in culty finding an audience on got lost on the Mainstage, be­ play (in Maurice Valency's excel­ the course of an afternoon." But Broadway. Despite a cast that in­ cause the actors raced their lines, lent adaptation) opens in the what wrong is being righted cluded Katharine Cornell and swallowed words and spoke in an Chaillot district of Paris at the here? The evil capitalists plan to Cedric Hardwicke, "Antigone" intimate conversational tone. cafe Chez Francis, where four dynamite Chaillot for oil, but so had only 64 performances in This is high tragedy, and as such men- the president of a multi­ far haven't gone beyond the talk­ 1946; "Cry of the Peacock," two could have used some loud and national corporation, an idle ing stage. Is this punishable by performances in 1950; "Legend of clear declaiming. Which may ex­ baron, a stockbroker, and a death? In the mock trail, when Lovers (Ruydice_," with Richard plain why the ones who came off prospector-are discussing their the ragpicker is asked what he Burton, 22 performances in 1951; best here were hoi polloi - discovery of oil reserves under will do with the oil, he answers, "Mademoiselle Colombe," with Christopher Pomeroy as Guard Chaillot. They plan to do what­ "Make war," and so the verdict is Julie Harris, 61 performances in #1 and Erin Moore as the Nurse. everis necessary to drill a well un­ guilty. What would it have been, 1954. It wasn't till1955 that As Antigone, Kathleen Craven der the neighborhood, but are one wonders, if the answer had Anouilh finally had a Broadway hardly cut a tragic figure flutter­ thwarted by the Countess Aure­ been "Make jobs?" hit in "The Lark," with Julie Har­ ing her hands like Billie Burke, lia, known as the Madwoman of But then, this is a fairy tale, ris as Joan of Arc (229 perfor­ and her long tresses concealed Chaillot, who lives in a an apart­ where everything is good or bad, mances). This was followed by an­ her face and made her all but un­ ment below the street, with a black or white. A fairy tale works other success in 1957-"The intelligible when turned her head back door that leads into the sew­ best on a proscenium stage with a Waltz ofthe Toreadors" (132 per­ way from you. ers of Paris. In a mock trail, with certain distance between actors formances). Creon, the best-written role in a local ragpicker standing in the and audience. This, of course, "Antigone" is a modern-dress the play, should be cold, com­ for the would-be destroyers, the isn't possible in the intimate con­ version of the Sophocles tragedy. manding, cynical, and when first four are found guilty by the fines ofthe Charleston Alley The­ It follows the plot line ofthe origi­ his sone Haemon, betrothed to denizens of the district, and she atre. Happily, CAT director Duke nal closely, centering around Antigone, and then his wife Eury­ eventually lures them through Bagger avoided overstatement in Antigone's efforts to bury her dice kill themselves, broken in the back door, which she closes his staging, while preserving the brother, who was slain in a battle spirit. Geoffrey Cowgill made and locks behind them. intent and spirit ofthe work. And for the throne. Creon, the king him indistinct and with his little Giraudouz, a diplomat who he got generally admirable per­ and Antigone's uncle, decrees, for black mustache, sort ofa cross be­ was the official spokesman for formances from his large cast, reasons of state, that the corpse tween Hitler and Charlie Chap­ France during the early days of which included a virtual who's be left to rot unburied, which to lin. World War II, wrote this fable in who of Charleston theatre. the Greeks was sacrilegious. In the original Broadway pro­ 1943, while the Nazis were occu­ Dominating the proceedings Antigone finally pays with her duction, the narrator was a male pying Paris. He died in 1944, so he was Tanya Wood as the Mad­ life for honoring her brother. in a tux, smoking cigarettes, never knew the joy the French woman ofChaillot, who should be Changes made by Anouilh in­ telling the story, editorializing took in the original 1945 Paris a larger-than-life figure, a clude a lone narrator to represent and chatting with the audience, production (it has been suggested the chorus and three tough-guy all in an easygoing manner, like that French audiences may have Parisian grande dame. This is dif­ ficult to achieve when your audi­ palace guards. Antigone never re­ an "Our Town" stage manager. felt that they were seeing all Fas­ ence is practically sitting in your ally liked her brother and hadn't Eastern's narrator, Deborah Al­ cism flushed away before their lap, as at CAT, but Wood man­ seen him for years, and her insis­ thoff, was more formal and got up eyes) or the delight of Broadway aged it beautifully, and without tence on burying him is more a like an oracle, especially when three years later. excess affectation. Beneath her matter ofprinciple than religion. she was on an upper level with a In a program note to the 1945 The play was first staged in light shining up into her face. Paris production, Louis Jouvet, eccentric exterior, her Mad­ woman was a person of down-to­ Parisin1943duringtheNazioccu­ Praise be, she enunciated clearly who played the Ragpicker, ad­ earth intelligence, determined to pation, when a playwright had to much ofthe time. dressed the author posthu­ save her beloved Paris. be extremely careful, but it still Haemon was played by Donald mously: "Each ofyour plays antic­ Linda Bagger, Martha Menser managed to say a good deal about Gaul, Ismene (Antigone's sister) ipates what is happening and is and Ruth Riegel were delight­ dictators, human rights and re­ by Shannon Glore, Eurydice by yet to happen, and warns us." fully pixilated as her fellow mad­ spectforthe individual conscience. Theresa Veglia, and Guards #2 "Chaillot" is certainly timely and women. Dick Rogers was elo­ One can imagine how Parisians and #3 by Jeremy Seymour and relevant. The world, as Girau­ quent as the Ragpicker, and felt when they saw the tyrant de­ Brandon Hoefle. ·doux sees it, is hell-bent on a path Dana Dunn walked off with his fied and heard that the citizens of The costumes and makeup to self-destruction, and the only Thebes were with Antigone. were by MaijorieA Duehmig, the 'hope is with those who remain scene as the Sewer Man. Angie Lynn Gallion and Frenchmen found release and the lighting by David Wolski, and the pure in spirit, represented in the Michael Madlem were warm and resistance its public voice. sound by John Rourke. ·play (in a Capraesqtie touch) by a The Eastern production was Anouilh's "Antigone" is rarely appealing as the unsullied Irm~ • noble Parisian underclass of po­ and the would-be suicide trans­ done on the Mainstage under the if ever done these days. A tip of ets, jugglers, dreamers and formed by her love. Lee Stein­ direction ofE.T. Guidotti, with the hat to Guidotti and company drifters. the set, by C.P. Blanchette, con- for letting us see it. Environmentalist, feminist, metz, Don Otto, John Roberts idealist, the Madwoman may be and Tony Cox were the villains; J . faded, foolish and clownish, but Leeds Bower a shabby, sympa­ thetic doctor; Pat Lenihan a po­ she's not really mad, except per­ lice sergeant; newcomer Jim haps in the sense of being out- Handley a deafmute; and Ian .