Anouilh: A Study in Theatrics by John Harvey (review)

1967 BOOK REVIEWS 469 God's Chillun, living out a truly tragic experience? Are the lives of the Dion Anthony-Billy Brown figures of The Great God Brown the enactment of a double tragedy? Is the great Khan of Marco Millions also. a tragic protagonist? Perhaps. Carpenter's analysis is convincing, and despite superficial disagreement on the aptness of the use of the term, the plays fit the pattern that Carpenter establishes . That pattern may well be, in the modem sense, genuine tragedy. On the other hand, there is little argument with the view that Strange Interlude is more myth or morality than tragedy; that Mourning Becomes Electra is "an artistic work of great power" along with its often incredible melodramatics, and that Long Day's Journey Into Night is undoubtedly O'Neill's single best work. Finally, one of the stronger appeals is Carpenter's avoidance of the ever-present temptations to dwell upon the lurid side of O'Neill's life and to attempt to explain the inexplicable aspects of it. Instead, his presentation of the already familiar facts as they reveal the development of O'Neill the Tragic Agonist is refreshingly attractive and convincing. The following paragraph, which closes the section entitled "An American Tragedy," is the most concise statement of O'Neill's position that I can immediately recall: And yet the very elements of his heritage which most caused his personal tragedy, and set him most apart from the American society about him, paradoxically made his tragedy most American. For the typically "American" experience--as contrasted with the typical experience of the old world-has always been characterized by insecurity and homelessness, isolation, and often alienation. The Irish immigration which introduced the O'Neill's to an alien land, the migratory profession which necessitated his family's homelessness, and his own consequent alienation from the religious faith which had sustained his parents-all were typically American. His own tragic agony and the imaginative dramas which he produced merely realized and greatly intensified the elements of tragedy inherent in the American experience from the beginning." JORDAN Y. MILLER Kansas State University ANOUILH: A STUDY IN THEATRICS, by John Harvey. (Yale Romanic Studies, Second Series 13), New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1964, 191 pp. Price $6.00. The popular success of Anouilh's plays makes it difficult for any critic to consider seriously the experimental value of his theater, particularly since Anouilh, in the midst of the much-discussed French avant-garde, continues to write plays which on the surface appear traditional in form. Therefore, more concerned with his ideas rather than his concept of the theater, critics are prompt to accuse Anouilh of having easy recourse to artificial devices to solve the technical problems of his plays. But, in fact, it is this artificiality, this reliance on theatricalism, which is the most valid aspect of Anouilh's theater, and which Professor Harvey analyzes with great insight and a thorough knowledge of the theater. In other words, it is the sub-title of this book, A Study in Theatrics, which is significant here. Professor Harvey sets out to show how Anouilh's theater is above all un jeu- "a game of pretending, a game of the intellect involving the creator, interpreter, and spectator alike." Avoiding the abused existentialist terminology and the divergent criteria for the "Theater of the Absurd," Professor Harvey concentrates on defining Anouilh's own theory of the theater, that of a playwright who strives "to create-by every artifice possible--something truer than truth." In an effort to unveil this "essential truth" that hides behind "the lie of the theater," Pro- 470 MODERN DRAMA February fessor Harvey examines, in a series of thoughtful chapters, the form of the plays, the characters as self-made caricatures, their emphasis on self-dramatizing and role-playing, and more specifically the tragic role they choose for themselves. The book ends with a perceptive discussion of Anouilh's scenic vision, his style, and the staging of the plays. A useful appendix lists the dates when the plays were written (if known) and when they were first performed. Anouilh emerges from this study not only as a playwright...