Hepburn’s Cleo-Paw-Tra

The weather chart of human emotions, so carefully mapped by the Method School of actors, cannot follow the quick succession of showers and sunbursts which makes Shakespeare’s Cleopatra such a dazzling creation. In her, whim makes its own laws, and the energies of human life and mystery are revealed as through parted clouds; her pranks are apocalyptic.

Such a character is not to be found in the lairs of the Methodizers; nor among our conventional Shakespearean heroines, in the patterned archness of their Portias and Violas. If Vivien Leigh could qualify, it would be as the Hollywood Scarlett O’Hara rather than the Old Vic’s Titania. No matter how many Frank Sinatras and Marilyn Monroes discredit the concept of the “star,” there is in the assertive personality of a John Barrymore or a Charles Laughton some ability to blaze out or burn, which Shakespeare’s roles demand. Laughton proved this again last summer, with his sublimely ludicrous portrayal of “sweet bully Bottom.” He was a fool, but a great fool, as Shakespeare meant his asinine poet-lover to be. Max Reinhardt’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, with James Cagney as an equally engaging Bottom, and Mickey Rooney as Puck, showed how magically the mystic world of Hollywood can be redeemed and made a fairyland.

GW

About the Author

Garry Wills

Featured Tags

Manage following

Theater

The weather chart of human emotions, so carefully mapped by the Method School of actors, cannot follow the quick succession of showers and sunbursts which makes Shakespeare’s Cleopatra such a dazzling creation. In her, whim makes its own laws, and the energies of human life and mystery are revealed as through parted clouds; her pranks are apocalyptic.

Such a character is not to be found in the lairs of the Methodizers; nor among our conventional Shakespearean heroines, in the patterned archness of their Portias and Violas. If Vivien Leigh could qualify, it would be as the Hollywood Scarlett O’Hara rather than the Old Vic’s Titania. No matter how many Frank Sinatras and Marilyn Monroes discredit the concept of the “star,” there is in the assertive personality of a John Barrymore or a Charles Laughton some ability to blaze out or burn, which Shakespeare’s roles demand. Laughton proved this again last summer, with his sublimely ludicrous portrayal of “sweet bully Bottom.” He was a fool, but a great fool, as Shakespeare meant his asinine poet-lover to be. Max Reinhardt’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, with James Cagney as an equally engaging Bottom, and Mickey Rooney as Puck, showed how magically the mystic world of Hollywood can be redeemed and made a fairyland.