University of Virginia Library

No Intention

I have no intention of
attempting to answer any of these
questions here, although I would be
happy to discuss them with
anybody who is also bothered and
perplexed by them. What I will do
here, seeing as this is a review of a
play and not our judicial system, is
say that the drama is well
presented, well argued for both
sides, flows smoothly, has been
excellently staged in the Good
Shepherd-Faith Church by Gordon
Davidson, and is acted to perfection
by Ed Flanders, William Schallert,
David Spielberg, and the rest of the
cast. It is strong theatre which I
strongly recommend. And it is,
perhaps above all else, theatre that
is representative of our times.
Perhaps a possibility for the
Virginia Players next year - ch, Mr.
Weiss?

***

I will not elaborate on Edward
Albee's latest play, "All Over,"
because it has posted a closing
notice for this Saturday night, but I
will mention it briefly just because
it is a work by one of our foremost
dramatists. Unfortunately, it is a
work which points his career on a
downhill course.

Offstage a famous man is dying;
on stage his wife, children, mistress,
and best friend are waiting for the
end. The difficulty with the piece is
that for all the talking the
characters do about themselves,
they remain very sketchy dramatic
figures about whom we couldn't
give less of a damn. And even if the
quasi-soliloquies which they deliver
throughout re-affirm that Mr. Albee
has more than a touch of the poet
about him, the drama becomes
static, the evening hollow, and the
audience weary. It is always sad to
see a serious play by Albee or Miller
or Williams or any other playwright
of great stature fail at the box
office, but in the case of "All
Over," that failure was deserved.