1955-09-24 — Page 8

ThePage 8

THE CHINA MAIL,

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1985,

by FRANCIS MARTIN

PETER BROOK makes ROMAN MUSIC

T

with champagne glasses and a plastic trumpet

sorted out all the wine-glasses

,in

at Gordon Place until he found

not

musit

London, the matty bandbox where he HEATRICAL people and his wife Natasha live

Gordun Place, off Kensington are raving, be-

Church Street. It wA4 littling, humming

merely a matter of inventing and howing or barbaric tunelets, blinking incredulously about had to be utterly different from a plumping ex-prodigy in a conventional theatre stuff in powder-blue suit, with elec- texture and "feel" as well.

and an

Peter Brook.

At

A hat . trick brouhaha. Avon

The

tric blue eyes, beetle brows Brook and Blezzard clashed and enthusiastic titter: experimentally with pets

warming pans, played with pencils

Venetian On

glass the phiale, turned wire baskets Into caused

harps. The effects they mocked Stratford-on-

produced up were finally played and re- Brookk (a) Shakespeare's most sinughterous corded professionally. Here are and problemallen! tragedy.

some of them: Thus Andronicus; (b) designed the Asenery and costumes; (C) wrobo the inciderita) music. Most critics; even born sour- pusses, gave him the accojacie on all three counts.

bad

their roward.

Two chords

For the stag hunt scene Brook expreimented on a plas. fic trumpet which Natasha A year's sweat and High bought him for fun in Harrods toy department. After an hour Brook worked four preliminary

or so he hit on a motif which and eight Intensive months. For this he was puld rather less than Blezzard scored for real trum

and trombone. pet

This

was a keen coulface worker. "My

performed slowly, ted through fees," he reckons, "worked out

an echo box and played back at about £10 a week."

at lightning speed. Brook claims

Limitations

Why didn't

he make things easier for himself by farming out the music to sonte acknow- "Because," ledged composer?

says Brook, who KOCS other people's limitations clearly

as his own talents, "I couldn't

think how to get from any

a set that would ring out monotonous. Hittle tune and chord to match when played on with with pencils. Five Georgian

Unpalatable

For the

AN serio knell symbolising

the ila "drap of Time...

Emmajoto

BILL MEGOWRAN offers some possible

/

answers to 67-year-old question:

Who Was

Jack The Ripper?

F

OR nearly 70 years. During #c reign of terror the world has sought which possessed London while the Ripper stalked the East End the answer to the streets, and in the years since.

grimmest and ghast- many stories have been told and fiest of all riddles. Detec- many theories advanced to tives of all nations, clent "prove the Ripper's identity. In ists, criminologists, novelists the main, they fall into these

eight categories: and ordinary amateur stud- ents of crima like you and 1. The Foreigner. At the time was commonly believed that the Ripper Amust be

The teeming warrens stewe of Spitalfimds,

me have studied the clues and racked their brains find the answer.

Who was Jack the Ripper?

Jack

to foreigner.

and

a

Aldgate and Whitechapel were melting pot to which thou- minds of foreliners were fock-

Nobody knows, Nobody will ing at that perled from Germany, over know. But many people Poland, Russia and the Baltic have claimed that they knew countries,

been.

the identity of London's most

A foreigner "on the run" could most ferocious mysterious and

Many others be sure of shelter there from his costumes were allowed to pull mas built up in bits off here and there accord-have built up ingenious theories compatriots. Only a man who the locality could be Ing to taste,**

to suggest whom he might have Ilved in

the bewildering But for purposes of familiar

ar with the practical record the identity of maze of alleys and courts which Jack the Ripper is a mystery made it possible to pass from as impenetrable as the song the Aldgate to Stepney right through Syrins

name Spitalfields

Whitechapel ! or the song Achilles assumed when he hid by daylight without touching &

single main street.

Angelic

mooningers.

and

A Postcard

champagne glasses were among these Brooks still has a kindly them. All survived, he is aston- "word. ́ ́ ́ ̧ ished to say.

Result: an 'cerie "Why was ' tils Romeo and (Stratford, 1947) hated knell symbolising the slow drag Juliet of Time,

BOT Because, explains Brook, his 'production of it was potl- romantic, anti-sentimental.

Brook hold down his job as Martin: "But Homeo is a Covent Garden's production- romantic play, Isn't it?"

director for three years,

then .Brook: Yes. But not in the swept out, saying unfattering / himself among the women. play's funereal

Victorian way-trees,

about the entire race of But Sir Thomas Browne re- moments, he stamped rhythmic light, gauze, rambler roses and

His nex! minded us that even those ally on the sustaining pedal of all that, What I tried to put

.commission was In clasic puzzles are not beyond his Strohmenger to make all over

was Elizabethan romans 1953. The New York Mei, pald

conjecture. Nor is the riddle But this theory was refuted the piano strings shudder and telem, a fierce, violent thing him

1,500 dollars for putting on of the Ripper,

by the Ripper himself-or so, we moan at once.. Monstrously. Remember. Roberto Gerhard's new 90,000-dollar duction

may belleve--in Д postcard amplified and deepened, the incidental music?

It hack the nt Faust, "I went to

Met.."

Even after 07 years it is written, in red ink and addressed Brook Stomp, as I suppose we lerceness, the violence of n he laughs,

an aggressive, hardly necessary to recapitulate to a newspaper which caught the must call it, accompanies

bloody-minded mood, I was go the grisly story of the Ripper publle imagination and gave the death-march tune ("three notes

Salome. Brook produced ing to do Gounod's Faust as it

murders,

shuddering unknown murderer the name by only very like Three Blind Richard Strauss's opera at.

RETCATCH to be done, namely in three months in 1888 when all which hệ was known forever Mice") on recorders which have Covent Garden against a provo- 19th century dress. And if they London walked in terror after after: been so contorted

and

slow eative decor by Salvador Dall. didn't like it I wasn't going tonightfall. Indeed, so revolting they sound 20 On the first night he was brozd recorded that

give a * damn,"

were the detalls of his slayink feet long and as breathy as and whistled at by the gallery.

could bring blast furnaces.

This episode he wears 19 alt Disnertingly, they did Uke that few people

found myself, with a themselves to write, or read, of medal.

cast of angels

on my hands," them in this more enlightened As you will see, Brook givea

gallery at Audiences were angelic, too, 1 day. Garden represents the

seems. They swallowed costumes wheel aparks. The ideas are not Old Guard, for which I haven't 400 years "wrong" without a

Sometimes they much use. always good.

Salome could have wall. are unpalatable. His 25 or more won over three-quarters of its Don't assume that Brook was West End and festival produc- enemies if given a fair chance. altogether pleased. He smiles tions since he was 19 (11 years But Dall's designs

about the Mot. Fact ngo) include certain flops

their, seen in

inished state, remains, he didn't shock a soul. debatable things. For most of Singers who didn't like their

(COPYRIGHT')

that the resulis hit off to per- vff theatrical Ideas as an entry Covent first-night

fection Queen Tamora's lines:

The babbling echo mocks the hounds,

were never bravely to the well- Replying shrilly "tuned horns,

As if a double hunt were heard

at once.

For the scene where ike composer I I know musle primi- unspeakable Aaron cuts tive enough for my 'purpose. In Titus's hand, he put a micro- The

to phone inside his Strehmenger theatre people listen music. with only a quarter of grond. Inventod two chords, insist on played them softly in endless car. Composvra writing for an ear and a half, alternetion, over-recorted them Or even thee.

savagely and had them played back at repulchral pitch.

an

"So I decided to write the music myself. As a composer of

or

It's the same the whole world over, says RICHARD HUGHES,

and braves the wrath of thousands when he makes the claim .

EAST, WEST-HIKERS RUIN THE BEAUTY SPOTS

'An

those

Six Women

ONE OF THE

WORLD'S STRANGEST

STORIES

"This minister monster could [have been 'capable of any crime": George Chapman, banged in 1904,

Four women witnesses sald that they had also spoken to ikis seafaring man with an American drawi.”

the

man in o

"I'm not an alien maniac

A Pólo Nor yet a foreign tripper; 7. George Clayman. I'm just your jolly, lively named Severino Klosowski, who

friend,

took the name of George Chap- Yours truly-Jack the Ripper.? man, owned a public house in Southwark and was hanged in 2. The Policeman. In spite of 1904 for poisoning three women. the concentration of polles in the The

Poisoner" cer Borough district on the night of Septem-tainly

had tho pale fece and ber 30 the Ripper got through dark, moustache attributed to the cordon and struck twice.

Ipper. Having seen his Ripper. Hu 'Briefly, this is the story:

"Only a policeman or

photograph, I am convinced that unknown murderer police uniform could have got this sinister-faced monster could butchered six women in the through," said the exponents streets of the East End between this theory. Some went farther have been capable of any crime.

unt The

Ripper murder took August 7-and November 9, 1888, and suggested that the abrupt There were no murders during "cnding of the Ripper slayings place on November 1, 1886, a the month of October and the was due to the discovery that week bere Chapman left Lon-

came to on end suddenly as they und begun. ranking police official of such chain of atrocities tools place in ns they were committed by a high don. While he was living in Now Jersey an exactly similar the women, Elizabeth importance that the matter had that State, The American mur- Two of

Fadows, to be hushed up. Stride and Catherine

ders also finished abruptly when the shine night, were killed

the US. and 3. The Woman. Theorists who Chapman left September 30, within half an

to Britain, Chip- hour of each other and within insisted that the Ripper must be returned ten minutes walk. The first of a wontan adopted a similar argu man was ambidextrous, BO WAS the two was killed in Berners.ment to that of the Policeman, the Ripper. Chapman had served Street,

Whitechapel and the school-Only a woman could in the Russian Army as a sur- assistant. During, the second in Mitre Square, on the have got through the police cor good's boundary of Whitechapel and don without arousing suspicion." period of the Ripper murders Chapman worked in Whitechapel Tokyo, countryside with loud mountain. It seems, too, that the City of London.

4. The Mad Surgeon. "Was na a barber—an expert with a T is perhaps difficult shouts of:

Jack "Let me be the Japanese version of a hiker

famous cut-throat razor, All

the Ripper the murdered. women or climber is a better and no for you to imagine clean in body and mind!" worse than his white counter-

were prostitutes, all the crimes Hatley Street surgeon, a dual hikers begini-

committed in the East personality on Jekyll-and-Hyde equivalent Japanese part. young

"Rokkonshojo," is

End; three in Spitalfields, two lines? One published version of Brookning an excursion into the invocation,

Several Japanese newspapers carnestly and sincerely chanted have launched a crusade for in Whitechapel and one in the this story alleged that the "mad by the pilgrims who open the cleanliness in eating

City area. and

murders surgeon was tracked down by

clairvoyant... annual climbing season: of cleanliness in the

took place in the dead of night. disposed of

anded to an James Mount Fuji in this Land of the litter by Fuji climbers, as well All of them were characterised

"Loes" cleanliness in mind

and by the same mantacal ferocity asylum. To account for his dis the bodies were hocked and appearance his "udden death" They also protest against the gashed with a very sharp knife. was announced and funeral rites practice of gouging names) and In each case death apparently actually conducted. addresses on holy stones, his for the victim's throat was cut merciful "swiftness, came with

Sixth Victim toric monuments, temple slabs

powerful and shrine steps at the top of with one quick and No one would dare to ques- the mountain.

slash. One of the women was The Innocen! tion the

tradition of the form

foreign timber is inclined to actually belfedded. supremely purifying symbolism mistake these hieroglyphics for of an ascent of the sacred slopes reverent Buddhist quotations or of Mount Fuji. Indeed, even a mystical poems until he learns certain type of Impressionable otherwise.

"Doesn't sound like a 'plano two-note and three-note tunes I in the least," he gleats, "You'd am far closer

to the motitality say it was an outsize organ of the primitive Roman, than doubled by a gigantic double- any composer I have ever bass fiddle. Frightens you

death,"

to

met."

For weeks at a stretch, then, Brook closeled himself with For the scene where the grand piano, tape recorder and seeming-mad Titus is discover-

desk a young collaborator. William ed sealed at a blood-red Blezzard on the top floor of in his blood-red study,

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But the

Rising Sun.

$O

This is honourable Japanese · heart, custom." And no “doubt very edifying, too,

maijin (foreigner) becomes de- lirious in describing his spiritual rebirth during the climbi

Myself, I'll test this out when they put up a cable railway to the plak.

"

were

All the

Police Cordons

-6.

&

Robert

Like a Skull

8. The Man with the Whits Eyes To-add-to-the-gencral panic, East End hooligans de

out of alleys and gringing veloped the playful habit courtyards to frighten women walking along the streets. of these grim

One

jokers was

arrested. He was obviously

Fane. His face was blackened with burnt cork, upon which he Father's Vengeance, had painted a white pattern of Another published "solution" is rings round his eyes and mouth But the most dreadful feature the story of another famous to make his face look like a was the revolting treatment di, burgeon, demented by the death skull. the bodies after death, treat of his son, whose downfall was

At this time, the height of ment which bore the unmis due to a woman of the streets.

the sixth and takable evidence of a hand and He sought news of her from the scare after

arly arrest con- brain skilled in surgical "other women, tlways killing his lost murder,

informants to cover his trail. The ever remotely, had to be com- noted with the Ripper, how- There is clearly a camaraderie

knowledge.

sixth victim, Marie Kelly, war muniented to police headquarters holiday makers the world over. of untidiness among hikers and

the woman he sought, and after at Old Scotland Yard, thon killing her he fled the country, housed in Royal Palace Yard. East does meat West-over" an

inally revealing his identity on The man was taken there for informal rubbish heap at any

his deathbed in Buenos Aires. Interrogation by two highly- beautiful skonic" resort,

Despite the fact that the

As soon as ho One Tokyo newspaper suger known up to that time of the people who saw the Ripper

strongest police cordons London 6. The American Sallor. Ons placed officials.

"Was' 'alone with them

grabbed an ebony ruler, lak gestat that, to curb vandalisin, vere brown round the districts was the policeman who dis- them both. out with this should be placed on the top of in which he prowled, the Ripper covered, the third victim, Ann weapon, and dashed out of the As soon as they reach the top Mount Fuji,, in which climbers was sten only three time if Chapman in Bucks Row a building. Three weeks Inter of Hanbury Street, his body, with the face still they unburden themselves of a

would write their names and

he was seen at all.

This tonnage of waste paper, empty addresses date of climb,

poilerman painted, was found

in the beer and sake bottles, tins, sea-

Witnesses, including one also spoke of a. witness, “a BCR-

Thames near Hungerford weed-and-rice boxes, fish-heads with appropriate remarks, cere-

crimes policeman, recalled after,

with faring man wal

an American www.moniously and decorously,

Bridge. His identity was never und other

and none of the had been committed having seen accent," who spoke to him the established picturesque impedi menta-to numerous and varied "Someone would steal the in the vicinity a tall, spalo man night after the murder on his witnesse who thought they it is hardly conceivable it could book or set fire to it before it with a black moustacho. He wore beat and said that he too had had seen the Ripper could have been transported by haver had been on exhibition for a

woman in swear to identification of the a cap and a long coat, and walk-seen the murdered mck to the peak

"week" cominented a scepticaled with the vigorous stride of a company of a man just docomposed body. But one

tho before

crime, Ho gave policeman It sooms this Tatting accumula lotter to the editor next day.

"thought" it "whe youngish man. That is all. ition of debris should in time Anyhow, tho very around

hle name and address, but these the same man to whom he had noticeably, increase the natural Mount Full. these days is: Such, then, la very brief out-proved to be false rnd all spoken in the East End after

the second murder. 12,000-foot height of the noble "Rokkonanojo!"

line, Is the story of the murders, attempts to trace him filled.

However, many Japanese nho bitterly contrasting the true pilgrims appeal for spiritun and bodily cleanliness with the "garbage behaviour of many of the younger climbers,

JOHNNY HAZARD

THIS IS THE WAY TO LIVE, JOHNNY...COPPING UP GOOD GRAVY AND GOOD J'OPERA IN THE SAME",

THEVENINOS

a sort of glant visitors book

-the

By Frank Robblus

AND IN THE BAITYTIKAYRE”A HANDI

IS'DUT A SINGLE BULMÁ

BEEN A LONG:

tuation

San Miguel

B