ABSTRACT
. . .To the three that already had a home in repertory here ‘Three Sisters’, ‘The Cherry Orchard’ and ‘The Sea Gull’ - Jed Harris added ‘Uncle Vanya’ this month to signalize his return as a producer to the New York theatre . . . at first reflection it seemed a too quiet re-entry for one who had made his meteoric climb with such shrewd, fast-moving productions as ‘Broadway’, ‘The Front Page’ and ‘The Royal Family’ - though, to be sure, Mr. Harris had also given us a sharp drama, ‘Coquette’, and the vagrant, fanciful ‘Serena Blandish’. But there was, inevitably, reason to wonder what his course would be with the passive melancholy of Chekhov, and how much it would offer to his undoubted showmanship. One result was to re-emphasize Chekhov's very great depth, subject - like Shakespeare's - to still greater richness in varied treatment and exploration; another was to establish not only Mr. Harris's sensitivity to every aspect of a play, but his ability to communicate his feeling for it exactly and in his own terms.
