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| Rex Harrison. |
EMPEROR HENRY IV [Dramatic Revival] A: Luigi
Pirandello; TR: Stephen Rich; D: Clifford Williams; S/C: Abd’al Farrah; P: S.
Hurok in the Elliot Martin Production; T: Ethel Barrymore Theatre;
3/28/73-4/28/73 (37)
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| Rex Harrison, Eileen Herlie. |
First produced in New York as The Living Mask in 1924, this enigmatic Pirandello drama is an illusion/reality
puzzle about a wealthy man who was thrown from his horse during a pageant while
dressed as Emperor Henry IV. He has lived during the 20 years since as if he
were actually the medieval emperor. The action concerns the psychological
measures of friends who arrive to disabuse him of his delusion. Produced
as a vehicle for British star Rex Harrison, it toured successfully before
arriving in New York, where it played to good houses for a limited engagement. Reviews
were more respectable than panegyrical.
Walter Kerr had difficulty accepting the work as a “masterpiece.”
Clive Barnes thought the mounting weak in “energy,” with “gloomy and wrong”
visuals. And Martin Gottfried felt the production did “not explore [the play’s]
theatrical and intellectual depths to the fullest,” especially as it had been,
he said, severely cut. But these, like more positive reviewers, were gripped by
Pirandello’s mind-bending permutations, finding that the play’s dramaturgic
frailties palled by comparison with its theatrical, brain-teasing
strengths.
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| David Hurst, Rex Harrison. |
Harrison gave a polished, diverting performance, but
not everyone appreciated his efforts equally. Barnes differed with the actor’s
excessively extroverted interpretation, while Richard Schickel found his mental
and physical faculties had “congealed into a sort of rep-company regality.”
John Simon believed Harrison to be “all wrong. . . . He plays everything on the
same level, except for going very slow at times, and, at others, speeding up to
the point of incomprehensibility.” But to Gottfried, the star established “himself
definitely as a m an of range and technique.”
The noteworthy cast included Eileen Herlie as Countess Matilda Spina, David Hurst as Dr. Dionysus Genoni, Paul Hecht as Baron Tito Belcredi.
