Giraudoux at Riccarton

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32462, 24 November 1970, Page 11

Giraudoux at Riccarton

The Riccarton Players have chosen a three-act play, their first for three years, for their next presentation to open on Saturday night. The play, “The En-

chanted," by Jean Giraudoux, is under the direction of Alex Henderson, and it will be of particular interest to play-goers who saw Mr Henderson’s production of Giraudoux’s “The Mad Woman of Chaillot,” for The Elmwood Players last year.

Giraudoux, the leading French dramatist of his generation, began his writing career as a novelist. Although he did not turn to the theatre until he was 46, from 'his first play he achieved a success which was as remarkable as his plays were unorthodox and his ideas unlimited. In “The Enchanted" he lets his imagination have full play and the result is a graceful, poetic drama which portrays a world which is more than a world, inhabited by characters who are more than human. The play has been described both as “a delightful meander in the realms of fantasy” and as “a testament of faith.”

The play is set in a small French town which, in the opinion of the inhabitants, is receiving unfavourable attention from a ghost (Peter Unverricht). Fascinated by the ghost, that of a handsome young man, the town’s young schoolteacher. Isobel (Cathrine Mowbray), falls under the influences of supernatural forces and is nearly lost to her earthbound suitor (Douglas Clarke). Things are further compli-

cated by the efforts of a beaurocratic Inspector (David Warwick) and his two executioner henchmen (Syd Cross and Paul Scott) to exorcise the spirit. The townsfolk (Ivy McKenzie, Joy Milne, Frances Collins and Elsie Goodins) are more of a hindrance than a help, and the Inspector is almost driven to despair by the attitude to learning and education of the little girls of Isohel's class (Katherine Scott, Joan Doocey, Nancy Boyce, Diane Hill, Lorraine Glubb, Valerie Keating and Mary Boyce). He does receive help of a kind from the Mayor (Reg Barlow) and the Doctor (Barry Smith), and life is eventually restored to normal; but not without some pathos and a great deal of comedy. The players have retained their intimate theatre-coffee club style of presentation for “The Enchanted,” and coffee will be served during the interval and patrons invited to remain after the performance for coffee and conversation. The season will end on December 5.