The Royal Shakespeare's “US”

Extract

The artistic failure of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Vietnam documentary US has been largely obscured by the controversies it has wittingly and unwittingly aroused. In London, at the present time, it is possible to convert almost any lukewarm entertainment into a box-office success by stirring it in the press. In the case of US, one had a subject which was already incendiary, and so it was relatively simple to work up the requisite hoopla. This is unfortunate whenever it happens, because it gives an audience the added difficulty of having to disentangle legitimate intentions and actual results from distortions perpetrated by the mass media. But in this case, Peter Brook’s production, devised collectively by the Company, is no innocent victim of circumstances. It seemed pre-disposed to vulgarization; almost intended for tabloid exploitation.