SPECTATOR COMPETITION No. - __Igo Report by A. V. Coton Readers
were invited to submit a synopsis for a ballet based "on a situation after" Sartre, Ethel M. Dell, Ronald Firbank, Sir Osbert Sitwell, Ouida, Jane Austen, Raymond Chandler, I. Compton-Burnett or Charles Morgan.
Whether confirmed ballet-addicts or not, competitors are probably aware that many ballets fail because they are based on stories too involved, situations too fantastic, or characters too complex for convincing realisation in terms of dance and mime. Many ballets only make sense after the programme-note has been d;wsted.,4and what occurs on the stage leaves the casual theatre-goer still guessing after the curtain has fallen. Many entries, though faithful enough to their literary models, lacked any dramatic quality; or, if of an allegorical nature, were so vaguely worded as to defy transition into visual spectacle. Jane Austen and Raymond Chandler (unlikely acquaintances!) tied in popularity at the head of the list of models; there followed a huddle of Sitwells and a gaggle of Sartres. Dell, Compton-Burnett and Morgan had a few followers, and nobody risked efforts in the style of Ouida. (is she totally unread these days?) or of Firbank (perhaps because so many of his stories seem all too likely as ballet-synopses). Many good situations lacked plausible characters, and some nice concepts of hero, heroine and villain were set in situations unworthy of the authors emulated. Some competitors wrote ironically of their models, setting them inside their own novels, but were more con- cerned in retrospective literary criticism than in making a framework for a piece of theatre. There were some nice morsels- of situation here and there--Ian Whitaker, after Sitwell: "Scene: a castle in Italy (but more like one in Spain). Prologue: Dance of The Two Wise Men and One Wise Woman. Act 1: Enter The Baronet accompanied by heralds blowing their own trumpets, etc. . . ." G. Garley, after Chandler : ". . The cops arrive and put The Private Eye among the suspects. He is beaten-up, drugged, seduccd, grilled, bribed and counter-bribed. To him appear allegorical figures of Justice, Dope, Corruption and False Fair Women; they fight together, and Justice triumphs. . ." But very few sustained a clearly developing story. H. A. C. Evans and R. S. Stanier tie with the best synopsis for a dramatic ballet and an allegorical ballet respectively, and receive each a prize of two pounds. And one pound to R. A. K. Wright for the best of the Sartres. Mr. Evans' Raymond Chandler ballet and Mr. Stanier's Charles Morgan are not too far-fetched, to judge from some examples that have been viewed in theatres within the last decadiz..
PRIZES (H. A. C. EvANs) After Raymond Chandler
Scene 1. Private Eye's office. He, holding bottle, expresses depression and whisky addiction. -Enter Man-Into-Corpse, falls dead. Enter daughter, Luscious Blonde, expressing horror, begs help. Private Eye, infatuated, begs love; is refused; sulks; finally succumbs to large wad. Scene 2. A Sinister Street. Enter Luscious Blonde, trailed by Ruthless Gangster. He grabs, she calls. Enter Corrupt Cop, pretends arrest. Enter Private Eye, suspicious.' Brushed off by Corrupt Cop. Follows. Scene 3. The same, a few blocks on. Enter Corrupt Cop, Ruthless Gangster, Luscious Blonde expressing fear, loathing, etc. Enter Private Eye; attacks. Enter Chorus of Sinister Charac- ters bearing guns, blackjacks, etc., beat up Private Eye. Scene 4. Big Shot's High-,Toned Sinister Residence. Big Shot showing prisoner, the Good Guy, what will happen if he won't to k. Enter Corrupt Cop, Ruthless Gangster, Luscious Blonde. General dance expressing triumph (Big Shot), calm stoicism (Good Guy), fear, admiration, loathing, love, etc., (Luscious Blonde), general nastiness (Ruthless Gangster), greed and thirst (Corrupt Cop). Enter Private Eye from skylight, battered but brave. Gun play. Enter Chorus of Sinister Characters. General mêlée. Private Eye down for third time. Enter, variously, Chorus of Honest Dicks, who prevail. Scene 5. Private Eye's office. Good Guy and Luscious Blonde leave for honeymoon. Private Eye left sad, full wallet but empty bottle. Very symbolic—empty triumph, heart, life, etc.)
(R. S. Stanier) After Charles Morgan
A conflict between Integrity and Humour. Scene shows sup- porters of Integrity (symbolical figures representing Artistic Purity, Moral Purity, Love, Andre-Gide and John Galsworthy) performing
an elaborate dance of adoration around Integrity, represented as a sheep wearing a mortar-board. Dancers also wear mortar-boards and carry long pieces of knitting. Suddenly dance violently inter- rupted by tempestuous band embodying Humour, turning cartwheels like clowns in circus; amongst them we recognise Falstaff, Mr. Pickwick, Rabelais and Beachcomber. Mortar-boards huddle nervously while humorists dart about bombarding with pea- shooters and catapults; mortar-boards forced to drop knitting and fly from stage. Attackers pick up knitting, wave it during dance of triumph (Orchestra: Figaro music from Rossini).
Integrity group (mortar-boards) reappears protected by umbrellas, for warding off ammunition from pea-shooters and catapults. Dance of Attrition ensues,.each party circling other in turn. In a flash the Spirit of George Moore appears on pedestal vacated by sheep, executes a pas seal expressing Artistic Synthesis. The two groups merge, George Mobre descends and leads dance expressing Humour Purged By Integrity. All prostrate themselves before sweep (Integrity) on pedestal and are issued with new mortar-boards and knitting. (Orchestra: Magic Flute, "0 Isis and Osiris".) (R. A. K. WRIGHT)
After Sartre
At curtain rise Robert is lying amid filth in a gutter of a squalid cul-de-sac. Enter two men- dancing as one; a strange dance which suggests the maudlin, banal nature of spurious existence. Each in turn then dances before a junk-shop window; but the images in the window are not true reflections of themselves; they are images of each seen through the eyes of the other. Robert executes a solo dance of freedom, vertiginous and wild, expressive of his bursting out of, and transcending, himself. A group of madmen enters and performs a frenzied dance. They are crazed by being unable to overcome- their sense of belonging-to-others, and make repeated assaults upon the wall at the blind end of the street. The stage darkens and Death enters in the form of a skeleton. Robert gives an enigmatic smile on seeing Death and dances a slow, dignified yet animated dance conveying the loneliness of man in the face of his own death.
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