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liye °od would have us be-
has spectacle! —
: also d 28 minutes of it.
lisg 8S Audrey Hepburn,
& is Performers as long
i arm, ‘and spectacle!
lit, connately, it has very
iia “iction, less authentic

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dourg an

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es bang Mosphere, and only
dig Nove] Ones of Tolstoy’s

re.
Nee ‘i NO doubt the spec-
ing ppoctacular at times,
e. arg cause it is done on
al * Scale’ under-paid
© eff y Permits. Some
egy ‘lS0; : S are quite effec-
ait % Ome of them sug-
*eflegh &ctual sacrifice of
oY gooseflesh.

«tne Stizations range from
Bene, vatment of the Rus-
y Oscar Homolka
Se the only on-
Nality who could

Wi cdl fmt hl il hei i is a

i

* Hansel and Gretel, a children’s play, will be taken to

Most parts of the province by the cast of Holiday
(ete touring in a converted bus. Picture above shows
iy ° Tight) Edgar Hanson and Hansel, Glen Beck as the
» Marie Adams as Gretel. The play is directed by Joy

be confused with a Russian)
and an equally superb por-
trayal of Napoleon, to an ut-
terly absurd Cockney-Russian
by an embarrassed John Mills.

For the rest, the dialogue is
quite authentically American
and spoken in accents ranging
from real Amurrican to a
clipped Oxford with the odd
one from the continent thrown
in for good measure. Few of
the performances are really
bad. and some are quite good.
Oh, yes! there is also Audrey
Hepburn, who will no doubt.
be quit popular with the more
sentimental of the ladies.

Briefly, Tolstoy’s epic has
been reduced (perhaps
“streamlined” would be a more
appropriate term) to the love
affairs of Natasha Rostov
(Audrey Hepburn) on the
background of of the battles
preceding and including the
War of 1812, and Napoleon's

DANCER ‘NORMAL, ORDINARY PERSON’

-Talent and hard work are the

central thing’ declares Ulanova

HE miraculous Ulanova
T agreed to meet the press
at last—for she is as shy as
some stars are publicity-mad—
and one day last week some
of us almost dropped a curtsy
when we met her at Covent
Garden in London.

And this most modest of
stars confessed: “I never ex-
pected such *@ reception as we
have received_here. It has been
wonderful.”

Small, pale, etheral Ulanova,
wearing a quiet, fawn-colored
suit, with black jersey and
flat back shoes, a gold chain
around her neck, sat quietly
stroking one knee of her beau-
tiful and precious legs, and
answered a flood of questions
for over an hour.

Often a sparkle of mischief
came into her dark blue eyes,
for instance, when she was
asked what she thought of
criticisms that the Bolshoi
ballet, though technically sup-
erb, was old-fashioned.

“When Sadler’s Wells ballet
comes to Moscow perhaps our
critics will also find it old-
fashioned,” she said laughing-
ly.

“We had these same ‘mod-
ern’ ideas in the twenties, not
only in ballet but in all the
arts. Now we favor a more
traditional style. We are seek-
ing humanity — and-:so will
you,” she said.

Asked how she achieves that
dramatic intensity as Giselle
which has. staggered every-
body, Ulanova answered: “One
must live in the part.

“My method is to try to find
jn the character features that
I have in myself. When I

War and Peace has spectacle,
’bectacle — and not much else

disastrous retreat from Mos-
cow.

These are not regarded as
quite as important as Natasha’s
affairs — except for spectacle!
Not much of Tolstoy’s philo-
sophical observation remains,
and this mainly in the person
of Pierre Bezhukhov (Henry
Fonda).

Some of the advance pub-
licity has- likened War and
Peace to Gone With The Wind,
the assumption being that the
latter was an important film
(presumably because of its
length) instead of the stinker
it actually was.

Urfortunately, these two
“epics” have more in common
than length, but it quite un-
fair to liken War and Peace
to the earlier film. War and
Peace is artistically well be-
yond that earlier American

super-colossal — and I don’t
mean the wide screen!
N. E. STORY

have found these it is easier
to create the role.’ She add-
ed: “That was the method of
Stanislavsky” — still obvious-
ly the great name in the Rus-
sian theatre.

5 53 xt

Did Ulanova have any rules
of health? she was asked, and
she answered that she followed
no diet and went to bed when
she liked — “sometimes very
late’? — and she goes to classes
every day.

“There is no need to make
yourse'f unhappy because of
your profession,” she said. “I
am quite a normal, ordinary
person. In this business talent
is not everything. Talent and
hard work are’ the central
things.”

She has nothing to do with
training or selecting the

younger ballerinas of the Bol-
shoi Company “as yet,’ she

said, but later she would teach
them. When she retired.

“Come here as ambassador,”
suggested somebody, and she
laughed. But when, later, it
was suggested that she should
go, with the Bolshoi, to the
United States, “as an ambas-
sador,” she answered gaily, “I
cannot be an ambassador
everywhere.”

In fact, plans are already
made for the Bolshoi to visit
France in the near future, and
there has been talk of a visit
to the U.S., “but only with
theatrical people,” said the
Bolshoi's director, | Mikhail
Chulaki.

Would she like to return
to England? Very much —
but with “something new,”
and it takes time to prepare
new things, she said.

SYLVIA LYND

ULANOVA ... One must live the part
NOVEMBER 2, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 13