PLAYGOER

For its fifty-third production the Cercle Francais presented a new play by ex-Harvard Professor Baldensberger on the tempting theme of Cassandra, the Trojan prophetess. This version of the story may be good French literature, but it certainly is not good theatre. It has an undoubted appeal for the many students who can understand French when it is spoken rapidly, but apart from this esoteric group the appeal is definitely limited, since a reading knowledge will not suffice.

Though the author makes Cassandra, whom Shakspeare wisely treated as a minor character, the center of his play, he fails in giving any clear picture of the tragic prophetess, and his play is a mere retelling of the familiar events encompassing the fall of Troy. Added to this the acting was insufficient to carry the foreign language. One of the major players, an officer, was far more interested in the audience than in the play and turned constantly to face them. This kind of acting is typically high-schoolish. Bright spot in the evening was Aesop, of fable fame, who was played with some of the flavor of the great French comedian Raimu. Except for him the production was mediocre and seemed more a recitation that a serious attempt to capitalize on the analogies of the Cassandra story to the present day. Music for the performance was ably provided by a harpist but the meant-to-be-moving "Hymn to Apollo" fell miserably flat.