From Our Files: Paul Scofield in 'A Man for all Seasons'
The British actor, who died Wednesday, won an Academy Award when he took the role on-screen.
posted March 21, 2008 at 10:50 am EST
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In 1961 Paul Scofield's stage performance in the play 'A Man for allSeasons' was reviewed in the MONITOR; Scofield, who died Wednesday,would eventually win an Academy Award for his 1966 screen portrayal ofTudor statesman Sir Thomas More.
PAUL SCOFIELD IN 'A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS'
By John Beaufort
New York
From the November 25, 1961 issue of The Christian Science Monitor
'A Man for All Seasons,' Robert Bolt's study of Sir Thomas More, newly arrived at the ANTA, is a prodigious piece of theater. To a degree as welcome as it is rare, the tragedy brings two eras into conjunction. With a controlled perspective given to few writers of historic drama, Mr. Bolt draws a focus which reduces to its minimum the time-space discontinuum separating the current century from those which have gone before. Sir Thomas and his contemporaries pass before the 1961 spectator with an easy naturalness in which there is no trace of condescension. The universal theme and great persons of the drama are not diminished. Rather is the spectator lifted to their plateau level. The author has attained immediacy without compromising distinction.
CREDIT SHARED
None of the foregoing is meant to detract from the indispensable contributions made by Paul Scofield, the star; by his largely accomplished supporting cast; by Noel Willman, the director; by Motley, whose spare settings set off their sumptuous costumes; and by Paul Morrison, whose lighting epitomizes visually the production's over-all clarity. Denied its highly sensitized interpretation, "A Man for All Season" could not reach the transcendence experienced at the ANTA. Yet Mr. Bolt's text provided the initial impulse. He therefore deserves the initial expression of thankful praise.
To digress momentarily, it is, I think, more than coincidence that the three most potent dramas of the season deal in some way or another with human isolation. (Admittedly, this is a prevailing phenomenon in the testament of the 20th-century artist- and perhaps not so unique to our times as we sometimes imagine.) "The Caretaker" witnesses the isolation which set men apart from each other. "Gideon" eventuates in an estrangement between the warrior of the Lord and the God whom he has served (Mr. Chayefsky chided the critics for not seeing the existentialism inherent in his play.) "A Man for All Seasons" isolates a subject from his monarch over a matter of conscience. A similar isolation figured centrally in last season's "Becket."
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