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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, Dec. 10, 1964
'Doctor' Offers Prescription Of Slapstick for Audience
By Karen Lambert
Hippocrates' ghost may have had some agonizing moments if he had watched the opening of "The Doctor in Spite of Himself" in the KU Experimental Theatre last night.
But for the audience, the 17th century slapstick comedy, spiced with some risque jokes, provided what many physicians prescribe as the best medicine—laughter.
Every seat was taken in the theatre, and the audience chuckled, gasped and guffawed as convolutions of double talk and shady jokes were tossed from the stage in rapid succession.
The Experimental Theatre is small enough to resemble a drawing room in a home rather than a theater. The actors began the evening's entertainment by making the audience feel at home and welcome. They escorted the first nighters into the theatre, saw that everyone had a seat, exchanged greetings with several of the audience, and distributed programs and oranges to everyone.
THE PLAY began with a prologue by the theatre manager.
"The Experimental Theatre now joins the Illustre Theater, the Palais Royal and the Petit Bourbon (famous Paris theaters)," she said. "I charge you to enjoy the play, a 17th century comment on medicine."
in the span of an hour, the actors whirled across the stage in Keystone Cops chases, spanked each
other with slapsticks and joked with the audience.
The audience saw the "doctor" get roaring drunk, but he recovered enough to conjure a magnificent cure for a deaf-mute (which didn't work). Not only did he prescribe cures for any and all ills, but he developed a sudden attraction for pretty girls, and pursued them fervently, if unsuccessfully.
SLAPSTICKS, light wooden paddles designed to make a loud noise without hurting the actors when
they are put at the receiving end were the order of the evening.
Occasionally the actors had to interrupt a scene briefly to grab a new slapstick from a container set in the orchestra. Immersed in their roles, they delivered vigorous blows which not only produced loud noise, but also broke the sticks.
COSTUMES ranged from gaudy and opulent velvets and satins to shabby workman's garb. One grandee was a 17th century predecessor of Ringo Starr—he wore a ring on each finger.
Library Displays U.S. Literature
Examples of literature produced in the western United States this year are on display on Watson Library's second floor, as the Rounce and Coffin Club's twenty-third Western Book Exhibition.
ers, and contains fifty titles chosen by a three-man jury.
The exhibition includes the work of twenty-two publishers or print-
Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ
University and private presses, photograph volumes, facsimile reprints and miniature books are also included in the display, which will remain in Watson through Friday.
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