mr. jose ferrer. i'm jose ferrer, your host for this presentation of the ghost sonata by august strindberg. of course, when i tell you my name, i'm observing a social convention. in the ordinary course of a day, we all have occasion to introduce ourselves. and in many cases, the introduction goes no farther than that polite talk about weather, family and other routine items. but strindberg, the playwright, wasn't satisfied with ordinary social conventions. a name, he knew, tells only part of the story. a name doesn't convey one's personal history, real and imagined, one's dreams, nightmares, personal quirks, the demons that haunt, but also reveal. it was strindberg's interest in the psychological and in the strange new method of expressing it dramatically that gives him a special place in theater history and has made his influence felt by every major playwright of the 20th century. in the late 19th century, concern for psychological truth in the arts paralleled freud's investigation of the subconsciou

mr. jose ferrer. comedy wears many masks. it's a term that can be used to describe a series of jokes or an incident or a whole dramatic genre. in fact, the word comedy is used in so many ways that a single definition is difficult, if not impossible to make. still, it's something we want, even need to experience whether with a quiet smile or an out-and-out belly laugh. when we turn to the purpose of comedy, we find some agreement, for always at its core, there is a spirit of fun, which delights, amuses and entertains. usually, there is a companion word with comedy, which helps to describe its thrust such as situation, romantic, social or farcical, satirical. often, it's discussed according to levels: low comedy, high comedy. on the highest level, there is the comedy of ideas or comedy of manners with emphasis on language and wit. for instance, the plays of jonson, congreve, wilde and shaw. on the lowest level, there is physical comedy such as is found in burlesque and farce, with emphasis on a madcap situation and fast-paced,

mr. jose ferrer. the play you are about to see is oedipus tyrannus or oedipus rex by sophocles. this play was first performed in athens in the theater of dionysus about 24 centuries ago. aristotle, who might be called the first drama critic, considered it the perfect tragic drama. the rest of the world has more or less gone along with that down through the centuries. sophocles wrote some 120 plays in his lifetime, but only 7 have survived. when his first play was chosen for competition, he was in his early 20s and he won first prize. his last play was written when he was 90 years old. sophocles was an artist of the noblest genius, whose art transformed the severe truth of life into theater reality while tempering it with the beauty of poetry. standing at the very apex of the golden age of greece, he was recognized by his contemporaries as one of the glories of that epic. from aristotle's discourse on tragic drama, from the existing plays themselves and from the ruins of the many theaters scattered throughout greece, the aegean islands and asia minor, scholars have developed vari

mr. jose ferrer. saint joan is essentially about sainthood, but there is a certain romantic quality to it as george bernard shaw sweeps his audience along in an almost poetic flight. it is not a biography in the sense that you can turn to the play for an accurate reporting of the facts, rather shaw selected the facts which suited his purpose. he approaches joan, his protagonist, historically, but develops the character mainly in terms of ideological clashes. primarily, shaw is interested in joan as someone who imposes her ideas on history. she is led by the voices of st. catherine, st. margaret, and st. michael who instructed her to acquire a horse, soldier's clothing with armor, and an army and drive the english out of france. so her actions are based on her faith in her voices. shaw was a co-director for the first london production in 1924 with sybil thorndike in the title role, and he reminded her that joan was a sturdy, independent 19-year-old woman, not a sweet angelic little girl. the story of j