Euripides and Professor Murray by T.S. Eliot

The recent appearance of Miss Sybil Thorndyke as Medea at the Holborn / Empire is an event which has a bearing upon three subjects of / considerable interest: the drama, the present standing of Greek / literature, and the importance of good contemporary translation. On the / occasion on which I was present the performance was certainly a success; / the audience was large, it was attentive, and its applause was long. / Whether the success was due to Euripides is uncertain; whether it was / due to Professor Murray is not proved; but that it was in considerable / measure due to Miss Thorndyke there is no doubt. To have held the centre / of the stage for two hours in a rôle which requires both extreme / violence and restraint, a rôle which requires simple force and subtle / variation; to have sustained so difficult a rôle almost without support; / this was a legitimate success. The audience, or what could be seen of it / from one of the cheaper seats, was serious and respectful and perhaps / inclined to self-approval at having attended the performance of a Greek / play; but Miss Thorndyke's acting might have held almost any audience. / It employed all the conventions, the theatricalities, of the modern / stage; yet her personality triumphed over not only Professor Murray's / verse but her own training.

The question remains whether the production was a "work of art. " The / rest of the cast appeared slightly ill at ease; the nurse was quite a / tolerable nurse of the crone type; Jason was negative; the messenger was / uncomfortable at having to make such a long speech; and the refined / Dalcroze chorus had mellifluous voices which rendered their lyrics / happily inaudible. All this contributed toward the high-brow effect / which is so depressing; and we imagine that the actors of Athens, who / had to speak clearly enough for 20,000 auditors to be able to criticize / the versification, would have been pelted with figs and olives had they / mumbled so unintelligibly as most of this troupe. But the Greek actor / spoke in his own language, and our actors were forced to speak in the / language of Professor Gilbert Murray. So that on the whole we may say / that the performance was an interesting one.