'Country Wife' audience teaches actor
BY GENELLE RICHARDS Kansan Staff Writer
"I think I would never have been an actor in the Restoration period. It was tougher then, because no one would listen to you," said William Kuhlke, associate professor of speech and drama.
Kuhike, who appears as Mr. Horner in "The Country Wife," finds that having been raised in the realistic school of theatre, one tends to develop inner realism and to experience emotionally the part he plays. In movies and television this is especially true because the camera closes in on the actor to show his emotional expressions. This makes him self-indulgent as an actor.
"But, a Restoration actor fought against the audience, which was
there to be seen as much as to see," Kuhlke said. "He competed against Orange Girls who sold their goods in the aisles, prostitutes who also sold their goods in the aisles, and wits who competed with the actors in their actions. So, there was a high level of noise and all these activities competing with each other."
The actor must hook the people, capture their attention and hold it. He must plant the plot line at the very beginning to prevent losing the audience in the middle of the play, he said.
Kuhike feels that one must share with the audience in the dramatic irony. The actor not only plays with the others on stage, but he also plays with the
audience which acts as a kind of third person, he said.
Kuhike found at the beginning of rehearsals, "We worked, developed and learned the techniques to capture the pretend Restoration audience, (present during the play) and realized it could be done with great satisfaction in exercising the actor's craft, that craft being to capture the attention of the audience and then to lead it through a theatrical experience."
It is probably similar to a nightclub performance where one knows the audience, adjusts to it, reads its mind and turns unforeseen events to its advantage.
KANSAN REVIEWS
PLAYS: 'Wife'—vigorous
By R. L. BAILEY Kansan Reviewer
"The Country Wife" by William Wychlerly, as directed by Dr. Jack Brooking, means a full evening of bawdy entertainment.
Dr. Brooking has taken a play and added a period audience resulting in production that is stimulating and enjoyable. The play itself is vigorous, but the addition of the period audience gives it the meaning and validity that makes it more than a showpiece.
Seeing this production makes one wish that this type of theatre still existed. There are no messages or attempts at messages. Yet beneath the gaudy posturing, the elaborate language, and the dazzling plumage, there exists a visceral quality eroticism that is as vital today as it was then.
The cast, for the most part, sustains these qualities through a rather lengthy performance (too long a performance for many theater-goers I'm afraid). There were four performances that particularly stood out in my mind. William Kuhike, as Mr. Horner, did an admirable job of acting. His performance was strong and convincing. Irene Ballinger was charming and vivacious as Margery, the Country Wife, Gene Casassa, as Mr. Pinchwife, humbled and lumbered most believably as the cuckold who in trying to protect his honor, lost it. Mr. Sparkish, played by Earl Trussell, is a delightful egotist, so caught up in his vanity that he becomes a laughingstock.
As for the technical aspects of the play, the costumes by Mr. Chez Haehl provided a color and authenticity to the production, furthering the level of quality. The sets, lights, and music consolidate the atmosphere of a seventeenth century performance.
All in all, "The Country Wife" is a delightful and cogent interpretation of the theatrical style of the past.
BOOKS
THE TRUMAN PRESIDENCY: THE HISTORY OF A TRIUMPHANT SUCCESSION, by Cabell Phillips (Pelican, $2.65)—A history now three years old that is likely to stand as one of the more valuable documents about the Truman administration. Cabell Phillips covered Truman as a member of the Washington bureau of the New York Times, and that should serve as substantial credentials by itself. From that shocking day in April, 1945, when Americans greeted the news of Roosevelt's death with gasps—"My God, Truman will be President!"—until January, 1953, when the Golden Age of Eisenhower came a-dawning, Phillips tells the story. It is a time that students already are recognizing as one of the great periods in history, and the Phillips history is an authoritative one.
ASSIGNMENT PEKING, by Edward S. Aarons (Gold Medal, 60 cents); OPERATION FIREBALL, by Dan J. Marlowe (Gold Medal, 60 cents); STRANGE LEGACY, by Ann Barron (Gold Medal, 75 cents)—A trio of thrillers. There have been 28 so far in the "Assignment" series, and this is the new adventure of dashing Sam Durell, who becomes—hold it, now—Major Shan Tze Peng, master spy for Mao Tse-tung. There's a nudish type available, of course. "Operation Fireball" is about Earl Drake and
Dec. 11 1969 KANSAN 5
Kuhike finds working on the play gives a "together kind of experience." "Afterwards the actor feels more personal and direct to the audience and that he has a frank, open relationship with it," he said.
his adventure in hunting a $2 million cache in Cuba. "Strange Legacy" is a new Gothic tale, about a young widow and her return to a waterfront mansion called Five Fingers.
NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH, by Edward Bond (Spotlight Dramabooks, $1.50)—A new play set in Japan "about the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries." The author is the screenwriter of "Blow-Up."
*****
"It is a magnificent play and different from any other play I've done. There are certain similarities to 'Cyrane de Bergerac' because Cyrano's wit is from the same school, and the language is similar because the actor loves words," he said.
With the play now in performance, Kuhlke thinks it is a "great thrill to work on this play with this style—to develop the actor's craft."
"The Country Wife" by William Wycherley opened Thursday and runs through Dec.14 on the stage of the University Theatre.
"BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID"
11TH WEEK
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Adult $1.50
OFFER GOOD THRU DEC.