The Mailer Review/Volume 6, 2012/Gore and Norman in Provincetown: Difference between revisions

Norris recalled the “wild and wooly week” in her memoir, ''A Ticket to the Circus'': “Rehearsal all day, some kind of lunch and dinner, ending with a late night of drinking and sparring between Norman and Gore in our bar. I didn’t for the life of me see how Gore was making it so well. He had more energy than all of us combined. We were all exhausted.” I recall dropping Gore off at the guest house late one night, watching him pour himself a Scotch nightcap, and then returning in the morning to find him lying fully dressed on his bed with the glass still in his hand. The 77–year-old Vidal popped up and went right back to work.

“Don Juan in Hell” is a 90-minute dream sequence in the third act of Shaw’s Man and Superman. It is often cut from productions of the play, one of Shaw’s finest dramas, and performed separately. Mailer trimmed “Don Juan” to 60 minutes, and made further refinements during rehearsals. Vidal knew his part almost by heart, and while he listened politely to Mailer’s suggestions, he played the role his own way. On the night of the performance, Vidal, wearing a jacket with a scarlet lining, told Mailer, “Norman, when I walk on that stage, you are going to hear a roar of applause the likes of which you have never heard.” The applause was indeed thunderous and the Devil stole the show. Vidal had a strong, resonant voice and he played the role with wicked wit and flair. He was especially memorable when he extolled the superiority of his abode over the dull place upstairs. The four dissect with every weapon of wit and rhetoric the great philosophical questions, culminating in a masterful set of exchanges between Don Juan and the Devil on the merits of the Life Force. It is brilliant dialogue, perhaps Shaw’s finest. “If you were scoring the bout, it would go to Vidal,” said one reviewer, who called Vidal’s portrayal “flawless.” Mailer agreed that Vidal was “terrific,” just as he had been at Carnegie Hall.