The Banished Prince: Time, Memory, and Ritual in the Late Plays of Eugene O’Neill by Laurin Porter (review)

196 Comparative Drama recordings, and nine stage productions; throughout, her emphasis is on the film and video work. But this book is not simply a cataloguing of media. It explains the strengths and weaknesses that each form offers in its interpretation of a particularly rich text. Kliman states her assumptions and her plan in the introduction: Audio-visual performances, as well as modern stage performances, can connect us to the stage tradition that has nurtured both. . . . Productions of Shakespeare's texts in all media demonstrate conventional cuts, business, and characterizations; theatrical conventions , for good or ill, inform media productions. Though each performance with its many unique elements, has autonomy, just as each human being is unique in spite of its genetic resemblances to forebears, it is illuminating to explore the links among these performance forms. (p. 14) An opening section traces the conventions characteristic of Hamlet productions by examining Olivier's film, the BBC television Hamlet, the Kozintsev film, and a few other versions. Next the book describes the choices made for and implications of setting in nine television productions . A third section discusses silent films and sound recording. Finally the book discusses the implications of these analyses for the academy, setting the discussion within the context of influence and reception. Kliman describes the way that productions in all media provide creative misreadings of the text and the way that such productions are informed by and inform criticism about the play. For example, the choices made in a production can focus and control our understanding of the play by providing coherence or altering characterization. Thus Kozintsev emphasized the political elements both to comment indirectly on Stalin and to gain aesthetic unity. A production may weaken Ophelia'S character by cutting lines or business in which she resists her father (the BBC-TV production), or it may heighten the sensuality of Gertrude and Claudius by showing them holding court in bed (the Richardson version with Nicol Williamson). In each case, the changes made in the play are consequences of visual as well as verbal interpretation, i.e., effects of what we are shown and how we are shown it as well as of what the characters say. Academics who see few connections between their own literary studies and popular productions will find this study especially useful..Kliman's account of the 1948 Laurence Olivier film provides a case in point. Influenced by Dover Wilson and Ernest Jones, Olivier provided a production that gained coherence by cutting anything that worked against a psychological interpretation; in turn, his production has influenced generations of academic critics, including Kliman: The first Hamlet I saw was Olivier's on film when I was fifteen years old. I went to see it four or five times. It descended to subliminal levels, and when I studied Hamlet later, I "knew" certain truths about it deep in my being. . . . I . . . "knew" that Hamlet loved Ophelia but that she, weak and immature, disappointed him; that a queer sort of relationship between Hamlet and his mother was at the root of Hamlet's problem; that Horatio Reviews 197 was a noble fellow, fit to be king after Hamlet.... I no longer "know" these things in the same way. (p. 13) The warm tone and clarity of this passage are characteristic of Kliman 's style throughout. While film criticism is sometimes marred by an overplus of jargon, this analysis is a pleasure to read. It is also perceptive about various media, offering such insights as the observations that :film is paratactic, that television uses closeups in ways different from film, that voice binds all media. Kliman includes a glossary and takes risks with language throughout her book. Yet she is never obscure or condescending. By surveying such a wide variety of productions, Kliman shows the fullest range of possible interpretations, although, as she herself points out, her survey is by no means exhaustive. The variety she finds will upset some who believe the text is univocal; most readers will discover that variety is richness. FRANCES TEAGUE University of Georgia Laurin Porter. The Banished Prince: Time, Memory, and Ritual in the Late Plays of Eugene O'Neill. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1988...