CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THE THEATRE
Caligula. By Albert Camus. (Embassy.) IN Paris after the Liberation the Caligula of Camus was a sadistic young philosopher who gave the remarkable actor Gerard Philippe his first opportunity to display an inspired performance of madness. At Hampstead last week Caligula's name part was played by a Greek actor, Mr. Michael Yam*, who had neither the necessary range nor physical presence. 'Moreover, Mr. Alexis Solomos directed in such an untidy and melodramatic manner that it was difficult to gauge just what merits the play may possess. The turbulent activities of the Emperor, who would be content with nothing less than the moon, soon became less harrowing than tedious ; the more movement there was on the stage of the Embassy Theatre, the more " by-play " on the part of the Court, the more gong-banging and hawker's-crying by Mr. Yannis, the less intelligent the evening became.
The best moments were those when the subsidiary characters calmly, and at ease, discussed their beliefs, and Mr. Laurence Payne as Cherea, Mr. Lynden Brook as Scipio and Mr. Leonard Sachs as Helicon in their quiet ways gave the evening's best performances. Miss Mary Morris played the Emperor's ageing mistress as a youthful but old-fashioned vampish Russian spy. Some entertainingly erotic ballets were devised by Mr David Patenghi and danced principally by two Ethiopian princesses, but their costumes, of black woollen tights worn under khaki tunics, were of an unwarrantable ugliness. As decorator, Miss Audrey Cruddas did an uneven job, and the statue " kindly lent by the Royal Academy of Arts," the couple of oriental lanterns and the empty cheval glass of which the decor mainly consisted, appeared prominently wherever the locale might be.
To bring such a play as this to the London ,stage under present conditions is by no means an easy task, and Envoy Productions should be encouraged in their attempts ; nevertheless, these seemed somewhat half-hearted and the evening became an intellectual
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