Salt Lake Telegram | 1938-10-15 | Page 7 | 'Hamlet' in New Pace Pleases Critic

HAMLET IN NEW PACE PLEASES CRITIC I IBy By MARK BARRON NEW YORK Oct 15 AP Not AP-Not Not since Eugene ONeill O'Neill excited Broadway with his nine-act nine Strange Interlude has there been such an impressive first night as occurred this week when Maurice Evans presents for the first time in New York the entire performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet The curtain rises at p. p m. m and nd the drama continues with the exception of a minute 30 intermIssion ion slon for dinner until 1125 p. p m. m This may seem long for an evening in n the theater and especially at a a. alay play lay that is as familiar as Shakespeare's Shake- Shake peare's peares scenes are to most audi- audi But Evans has given an exiting ex eX- citing freshness to his production that hat held the first night audience enchanted and frequently aroused them hem to applause in the middle of B scenes cenes n I Evans ans has a different interpretation tation of Hamlet He plays plas the sad man with all alI the poetry Shakespeare Shakespeare Shake Shalie- speare has written into him but at atthe atthe atthe the same time he reads the lines with a swift pace that makes snakes them seem for most of the time as asIf asIf asif If this were a play written by a modern dramatist Evans plays Hamlet as if that young man is a gay blade who has no regrets for anything he has done one a who has suddenly sud sud- denly enly become encompassed in the family amily problem of trying to decide if f his mother and his uncle really murder his father and is trying to o decide that problem with all compassion and understanding for forlis his lis mother Not that he sympathizes sympathizes with his mother but he tries to o understand her as a modern youth understands his modern mother In fewer words Evans Eans acts Hamlet the plot of which Undoubtedly undoubtedly undoubtedly un un- is as old as the human race in a manner that makes Shakespeare's lines seem appropriate appropriate to modern day families That fact perhaps is what made Shakespeare ageless Evans is an actor who certainly must prove that acting is an artHe art He is a man who is not tall in indeed indeed indeed in- in deed he comes up to the shoulders of most of his supporting cast He has thinning hair and certainly could not be called handsome But he le has the superb answer to all such criticism in that he can act and there here are so few actors on the stage tage who really can act Evans can an take an ancient play playas as he does doesn in n Hamlet and hold an audience enthralled for nearly five hours That indeed is a feat for anyone on the he stage or in any other ion slon