"We have aimed at a simplicity of interpretation; at presenting a Hamlet who is not an abnormal neurotic, but a young man, full of the zest for life, but ultra-sensitive to the shocks and disillusionments, caught in a particularly horrible and brutal set of circumstances." Thus the director of Maurice Evans' complete "Hamlet" has summarized her work; and thus, simply and directly, Miss Webster has expressed both the strength and the weakness of the justly celebrated production.

Indeed zestful, masculine, youthful, and almost gay is the Evans Hamlet. Doubtless a reaction from the involved psychological analyses so commonly foisted upon the original character in recent years, Mr. Evans' interpretation is vigor ous, and comparatively speaking, simple. To the ghost, Hamlet shows a nature capable of passionate hatred; to his uncle, he is actively hostile, not sullen or melancholy; to Polonius, he is flip, humorous; to Ophelia, deeply in love; to his mother, pitiless, scornful. Even when alone, Hamlet the melancholy philosopher is subordinate to Hamlet the emotional youth.

It is impossible not to feel that this interpretation, though far more appealing than its antithesis, loses something important to the play. Hamlet's intellectual nature, or, as Coleridge has it, his habit of "calculating consideration which attempts to exhaust all the relations and possible consequences of a deed," is, after all, fundamental to the plot. In Mr. Evans, this side of Hamlet is not absent, it is merely submerged; but it has so become indefinite that one is actually not convinced when he says "Oh cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right!" Neither can one answer for him when he exclaims, "I do not know why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do'." It is perhaps significant that in Lacrtes one finds a man not vividly contrasting, but in many ways similar, to the Evans Hamlet.

For the minor characters and the direction only the highest praise can be given. Particularly in Polonius (George Graham), whose part has benefitted greatly from the producer's unwillingness to apply the blue pencil, has the subtlety of Shakespeare's characterization been caught. When giving his instructions (I-III) to Laertes (Wesley Addy)--who is excellent in his humorous indifference to his father's preaching, but none the less convincing in his pursuit of revenge--Polonius is at once sage and verbose. To Ophelia (Katherine Locke),--who is appropriately fragile, and who contributes a mad scene (IV-V) as effective as any in the play--the Lord Chamberlain is exasperatingly hasty and foolish. Humor, too, enters into Mr. Graham's skillful portrayal, especially when the utmost is wrung from his interview (II-II) with the smooth, villainous King (Henry Edwards) and the sensual, light-witted Queen (Mady Christians). Only from the ghost, who--in spite of the effective lighting--falls between abstract ghostliness and the human wisdom and tenderness which Shakespeare intended, could more be asked. All in all, Maurice Evans' "Hamlet" is so good that, unanimously, the opening night audience agreed with his gracious acknowledgment of their prolonged applause: "I like to think that the author, were he here, would have enjoyed our play as much as you have done." W. R. F.