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[[bold]] Good [[italics]] is desperately disturbing――but nobody walks out [[/italics]] [[/bold]]

he says, "like, to my mind, the Devil or God or Christ or anti-Christ, whatever it is; and that terrifying susceptibility that human beings have, knowing it's in them to play either role.
     "There are lots of easy answers and difficult questions. It's only through having those questions constantly pushed at you that there can be any hope of responsibly and intelligently approaching the beginning of an answer. Taylor zooms right in on our contradictions. He puts Halder in tight corners for two solid hours. I 
[[imge: color photograph with caption: [[italics]] Alan Howard as Professor Halder [[italics]]  ]]
think [[italics]] Good [[/italics]] is the best contemporary play I know."
     Performing Shakespeare, to his mind, requires more physical energy; yet he finds [[italics]] Good [[/italics]] exhausting. "The probing is precise. Halder is a monster. So is Richard III, but a different kind. He says 'I hate people and I'm going to kill them.' Halder's quite the reverse. "I don't want to hurt anybody, I love people,' he states. This guy is indecisive, trying to keep balls juggling in the air. He's a contemporary anti-hero, using many disguises and much armor to convince himself and us. One knows he will be nailed in the end but he wants to see what he can get away with. That's so like Faust, as well."
     Howard was conceived in repertory when his mother, Jean Compton Mackenzie, was appearing in Cheltingham. Howard's father is comedy actor Arthur Howard. His uncle was Leslie Howard and his lineage includes five generations of two celebrated theatre families. In hearing him describe his childhood, being shunted from one relative or friend to another――"I lived in Surrey for a while; I lived either in schools or other people's playgrounds"――one feels his pain. He also had to contend with his parents' periodic poverty. Never attending acting school, Alan started out as a "carrier of sets" at the age of 20 with the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Eventually he joined repertory as assistant stage manager, bit part player and leading man at the Royal Court, Mermaid, Nottingham, Chichester theatres. He also did "bits on telly" and a few films.
     Intensely expressive, attractive and thoughtful, Howard clearly is a man of labyrinthine introspection. His answers to questions are slowly and carefully considered. "[[italics]] Good [[/italics]] is desperately disturbing," he admits. "I've seen people in the front row obviously upset by it; but it's a play where nobody walks out. It's profound."
     During the performance of [[italics]] Good, [[/italics]] Howard's hands are in constant motion. His fingers run through his hair as he attempts to rationalize the act of murdering the Jews, as his voice rises to a scream. When he suffers onstage, he fiddles with his fingernails. He repeatedly folds and unfolds his hands, using them expertly to accentuate his lines. Now and then he touches his wire eyeglasses, entwines his fingers, using his dextrous hands to underline his feelings as he sits alone on a chair. His body constantly is
[[page number in bottom left corner]] 8
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