Shakespeare by Geddes

In no small part was the enthusiastic reception of last year's Lysistrata due to the setting executed by Norman Bel Geddes. In Manhattan last week he turned his attention to staging and directing another revival, Shakespeare's Hamlet. The Geddes production lops a good-sized chunk off the original script, a move which will offend none but the most iconoclastic purist. Director Geddes has also provided an adequate cast. Raymond Massey, a cadaverous young man who brings from London fame as an actor-director-manager (The Man in Possession, Topaze, Grand Hotel) simultaneously makes his U. S. and Shakespearean debut in the title role. Stout Colin Keith-Johnston (Journey's End) of the husky voice is Laertes. Friends of Leon Quartermaine who remember his eminently sympathetic treatment of "Uncle" in Journey's End, regretted that he had a part no larger than Horatio's.

Director Geddes has telescoped 20 scenes into 13. These are all played on one huge set, a cunningly fashioned array of forestage, tiers and jutting elevations. There are 14 ways for the actors to get on and off quickly. For effects of grandeur and to isolate the various spheres of activity, Producer Geddes has resorted to a battery of large colored spotlights. Give Mr. Geddes a set of spotlights and you are very likely to disregard the play. No one pays much attention to Ophelia's mad scene because just then Mr. Geddes displays a most extraordinary lighting trick: bathed in saffron light, the actors cast bottle-green shadows.

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