Sartre's Secret

By Gerald Clarke

PBS, Sept. 9 and Sept. 16

September also marks the beginning of the TV year for PBS and "Masterpiece Theater." In this two-part series, the season's opener, they share the pleasure of revealing one of France's best-kept secrets: Jean-Paul Sartre is a very funny man. Kean, which he wrote for the Paris stage 25 years ago, is the proof. Loosely based on the life of Britain's great 19th century actor, Edmund Kean, it can only be described as an existential farce, a humorous assault on both head and heart.

Kean was the first superstar, an Olivier onstage and an Errol Flynn off, a rake, a wastrel and yet an actor, as Critic William Hazlitt said, who had "a gleam of genius." If he were at the end of his career today, he would be writing his memoirs in Malibu and growing rich off Polaroid commercials. In Sartre's play, however, he is dodging creditors, juggling mistresses and in his spare moments asking himself that old existential question: Who am I? Sartre's answer, given with stylish wit, is that Kean is like all of life's actors, a mirage that exists only through the force of his own will. When that disappears, so does he.

Actors playing actors are usually disappointing, and Anthony Hopkins, who has been asked to portray one of the greatest, is, regrettably, no exception. He has the talent, technique and energy for the part; but he lacks the presence and personality. Robert Stephens, who is the Prince of Wales -- a player prince to Kean's prince of players -- has both, and he all but steals the show. It is a pity that the two roles were not reversed.

An even greater pity is that American viewers will not be seeing the full BBC version of the play. In Britain, plays are allowed to run at odd lengths, as content dictates. On PBS, which has mimicked the rigid schedules of the commercial networks, content must conform to the clock. As a result, twelve minutes were chopped from the BBC's version of Kean. Most of the loss has been in those offhand moments that give the play texture, but a couple of key scenes have also been dropped, making the first hour unnecessarily difficult. Joan Sullivan, producer of "Masterpiece Theater," argues that her option was to show either a cut Kean or no Kean at all. It was a choice that PBS should not have forced her or her viewers to make.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.