Shakespeare at Antioch, 1957: Past Record and Present Achievement

Abstract

URING its first five years, the Antioch Festival put Antioch College and Yellow Springs, Ohio, on the map t9 d by undertaking to produce the entire canon. Since the noble experiment ended last year and the Festival has now embarked on a more modest schedule, the record of those first five not-always-starlit summers is worth reviewing as partial explanation of the nature of this season's repertory: Henry VIII, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Under Arthur Lithgow's guidance, Shakespeare Under the Stars began in I952 with the eight Chronicle Plays (including a collapsed version of the Henry VI trilogy), presented to suggest that had seen the entire sweep of English history from King John to Henry VIII in a single vision. In 1953, a cycle of seven Greek and Roman Plays revealed surprisingly little thematic coherence, but the chance to see such rarely performed works as Pericles, Timon of Athens, and Titus Andronicus made the season a scholar's delight. From 1954 to 1956, the three repertories inevitably contained fewer rarities and a preponderance of comedies; Hamlet and King Lear were reserved for the fifth repertory (I956) and, especially when the magnificent Antioch King Lear emerged, one saw Lithgow's wisdom in waiting until these plays could be staged against the widest possible experience in Shakespearian production. Many lessons were being learned during this period, not only by the actors and directors, but by audiences as well. Indeed, a pervasive sense of discovery gave those five years a special excitement felt by everyone who found his way to this small Ohio town. The Antioch stage, stark in its openness but unlimitedly flexible with its many playing areas, implied the Elizabethan theatre without any oppressive antiquarianism. Audiences learned to detach themselves from the proscenium and entered easily the theatricalized worlds opened before them. Every season we learned anew the strengths and weaknesses of repertory companies. Watching promising newcomers learning from more experienced hands in a breathtaking variety of roles, hearing actors achieve a feeling for Shakespeare's lines, Antioch audiences learned how Elizabethans undoubtedly followed and his acting fellows. The little-known plays revealed unsuspected strengths, and on occasion, as with the intractable Two Noble Kinsmen, audiences willingly allowed but the smallest share in joint-authorship. Most important, everyone ultimately grasped the coherence amidst complexity which the entire canon represents.