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| Brian Bedford, Joan Van Ark. |
Never before produced
on Broadway in English, Molière’s L’École des
Femmes was
provided with an outstanding production under Stephen Porter’s clever
directorial guidance. Brian Bedford received accolades for his inimitable
performance as Arnolphe, an aging and jealous gentleman married to Agnes (Joan Van Ark). She is the sweet young thing he wishes to protect from younger
suitors by shielding her from their gaze.
 |
| David Dukes, Brian Bedford, Peggy Pope, James Greene, Joan Van Ark. |
The
complications that ensue when his friend, the dashing young Horace (David
Dukes) falls in love with and tries to woo Agnes, without knowing her
relationship to Arnolphe, offer the basis for this comedy of cuckoldry.
Translator
Richard Wilbur’s sprightly rhymed couplets, said the delighted Richard Watts, roll
“off the tongue with such idiomatic ease that is [sic] sounds for all the world
like an English classic.” Most observers thought the humor and charm were on a par
with the best Broadway entertainment, considering the company mettlesome, and the
direction warm, zestful, and human. A rare detractor was Brendan Gill, who deemed this a “conscientious” but essentially joyless revival. Despite
valiant efforts, he observed, “the play has slipped through their over-careful
fingers.” Commenting on the title, he stated that it should be translated without
the definite article.
 |
| James Greene, Brian Bedford, Peggy Pope. |
Bedford,
an admired English actor who often starred on Broadway in British plays
(especially the classics), was, to many, the show’s best feature. Douglas Watt
felt he gave “a smashing comedy performance” in which he “seizes the part and
plays it as the young Charles Laughton might have done, but in his own special
style. His rages are heartfelt and passionately presented. . . . It is a
sweeping, majestic comic performance that often succeeds in arousing our
sympathy for this superior fellow whose ill luck it is to be confounded by
ninnies.” To T.E. Kalem Bedford was “a comic marvel. His face is an
ever-changing panorama of unholy glee, bottomless despair, and a sour-pickle sneer.”
Among the few sourly sneering responses, however, was that of Stanley
Kauffmann, who found Bedford mannered and unconvincing.
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| George Pentecost, Brian Bedford. |
Barnes added, "The two other leading actors, the flourishing Horace of David Dukes and the radiantly innocent Agnes of Joan van [sic] Ark, show just the right panache, also giving the play the verve and sparkle it demands."
Bedford walked off with the Tony for Best Actor, Play, and the Drama Desk Award
for Outstanding Performance. Van Ark received a Tony nomination for Best
Supporting Actress, Play, and a Theatre World Award.
