Fine Display Of Actor’s Technique And Art

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31178, 30 September 1966, Page 14

Fine Display Of Actor’s Technique And Art

Even if the substance was thin and the presentation indifferent, the Repertory Theatre’s performance last night of “Diary of a Madman” was a wonderful showcase of a professional actor’s technique and art. Jonathan Hardy's virtuoso creation of a disintegrating mind had truth and genuine pathos. i The production, by John ; Kim, was adventurous. There was a rich marriage of all the arts—the diary was often more literary than dramatic; there were interesting abstracts of light playing on the slender columns which formed the stage setting; evocative music not only reinforced the text, but also created an atmosphere of its own; and the madman’s last pose reminded one of ballet, Petrouchka perhaps. But there were many Infelicities. A tape-recorded voice was horribly artificial; the back-projected designs seemed badly timed and did little to illuminate the action; and the constantly changing lighting was so fussy that it distracted as often as it attracted one's attention.

Gogol's short story did not, ■ in this adaptation, become sufI ficiently dramatic until the second half—when the ageing civil servant’s mind finally gave way. Perhaps this dramatisation is an example

of the advantage of radio over the stage, for the radio adaptation recorded by Paul Scofield stimulated one’s imaginative response more consistently. Jonathan Hardy was always arresting, although his eyes, surely his most powerful asset, were often underlit, or obscured by his hair. But his voice was a marvellously played instrument, only erring perhaps in being at times too precisely articulate.

Apart from the amusing-frightening-sad unveiling of a diseased mind, “Diary of a Madman” has something to say about the crushed soul of a civil servant. One wonders whether New Zealand’s Gogol is not even now making his entries in his diary—hidden among the writers who populate our own civil service. Let’s hope that he is a little more interested in other people than in himself. If one must go mad onstage, isn’t it better to be a Lear, surrounded by other dramatically interesting characters, than Gogol’s madman who never really inhabits a real world?

If you are interested in acting, rather than plays, then you will not want to miss the second performance by Jonathan Hardy in the Repertory Theatre on Saturday night. —P.R.S.