There seems to be a problem with the verse plays of T. S. Eliot but where does the faulty element lie? Is it the attempt at fitting deep & large themes of humanity within comedy drawing room settings? Is it the lack of action in favor for dense metres? Is it the pervading Christian ethic & influence that audiences try to overlook & undermine?
I like the appealing idea that even in humdrum conversations people can speak natural poetry. This is probably the crux of the problem: it may be good poetry but is it good drama? I want it to be theatrically good but how can I defend it if all the characters are talking impenetrably about an offstage event wrapped in obscure abstract ideas? He certainly took on this challenge in a formidable fashion but what has been the scale of his success?
Watching A Family Reunion at the Donmar Warehouse was like participating in hypnosis. The characters talked at length taking me further & further away from the room, it’s objects & furnishings, into a weird space of cosmic moral action. Reading over some of the lines years later I found that they were starting to make much more sense than when I had first heard them at the performance. This is partly down to sheer experience where poetry does tend to resonate. It is also where the real problem of his plays lie.
It is not in the fact that they are badly written for the stage but more in the fact that constant repeat performances & annual revivals are not a part of our culture. What I mean is that the place where we get the most out of Eliot is in the re-reading, which is an aspect that makes him a great poet, we can re-read his poetry & be surprised afresh. With the form of the play, as it is, this element of re-experiencing is decidedly lost.
Audiences cannot expect to see any play more than once (except for Shakespeare’s) so if they cannot grasp the meanings the first time it is unlikely they’ll get another chance to do so. Christopher Fry seems to me to make better use of both the poetry & the theater in his plays but where are his revival of The Lady’s Not For Burning or A Phoenix Too Frequent? Coming soon I hope.
