Judith Anderson Remembers Jeffers

Theater great Dame Judith Anderson returns to the stage--briefly--for “Poems of a Silent Man,” a one-night recitation of the works of Robinson Jeffers, tonight at the Alhecama in Santa Barbara. The actress will be introduced by Robert Mitchum; proceeds go to the city’s Ensemble Theatre Company.

“I don’t know why (Jeffers) is unknown,” Anderson said regretfully. “He’s a great, great poet--way before his time.” The actress, who’ll read “maybe 20” of his short poems, was introduced to Jeffers in the late 1920s in Carmel.

“It was an instant love affair,” she said of their professional collaboration. “He was beautiful to look at: strong and quiet, with his faithful dog beside him.”

In the ‘40s, Anderson starred in two Jeffers adaptations of Greek drama: “The Tower Beyond Tragedy” (originally done in California and later taken to Broadway) and “Medea,” which brought her the highest accolades of her career.

The actress has performed the Jeffers poems a handful of times, but she makes no bones about memorizing her script. “God forbid!,” she said with a laugh. “My memory’s gone to never-never land.” And in spite of the safety of a script in her hand, she claims that stage fright is still a factor: “The day I don’t feel that is the day I’ll never go on again,” she said.

Another constant is the memory of her mother, always admonishing her to “do better.”

“One time I did ‘Tower Beyond Tragedy’ in Carmel--and everything went wrong. I was crying after the performance, and my mother saw I was in despair. ‘Well, Miss Anderson,’ she said, ‘I have to admit it. You were great.’ But that was the only time. Once I was doing ‘Othello’ with Larry Olivier in London, and--knowing she was in the audience--acting my heart out. Afterward, I asked her, ‘How was I?’ She said, ‘I’ve seen you do better.’ Since then, I’ve never been on stage without thinking, ‘All right, mama, I’ll do better.’ ”

THEATER BUZZ: Four original theater/performance pieces make up Pipeline’s “Aleph 3,” opening this weekend at West Hollywood’s Saxon-Lee Gallery. Featured are Carmella Graecen, Scott Kelman, Gilbert Meunier, Betty Nash, Hye Sook, Rob Sullivan and Stanley Young. And beginning Saturday at the Gallery: “Two Heads,” a late-night duo of solo works by Scott Kelman and Peter Bergman.

Kelman, who’s reprising his 1989 performance of Italo Calvino’s “The Night Driver,” reports that he still hasn’t gotten the performance rights for the piece, “but I’m working on it. The Italian Cultural Institute knows we’re doing it, and we have their blessing. I’m still trying to get ahold of Mrs. Calvino--to get the rights for an eventual full evening (program). But she knows we’re doing this now and doesn’t think it’s a problem.”

CRITICAL CROSSFIRE: Artificial Intelligence’s environmental theater piece, “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding,” recently made its West Coast debut at the Mid-Wilshire Park Plaza Hotel.

Said Dan Sullivan in The Times: “ ‘Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding’ is so brilliant a piece of site-specific theater that it can move its site 3,000 miles without significant damage. It’s as much fun (here) as it was in Washington Square.”

Noted the Daily News’ Daryl H. Miller: “It’s great fun, but it isn’t always great theater. Most frustrating are the long periods of dead time that occur while waiting in the reception line or waiting for photos to be taken. These lulls occur at real weddings of course.”

From Tim Gray in Daily Variety: “The high-spirited goofiness is contagious, and some of the guests get so exuberant and friendly it’s hard to tell if they’re performers or real guests. . . . Whatever Artificial Intelligence is selling here, it’s hard to resist.”