UDK Theatre Review—An Evening with Dylan Thomas
An evening well-spent
By GARY MITCHELL
"An Evening with Dylan Thomas" opened last Friday evening in the Experimental Theatre.
The program is director Pat Melody's ambitious theatrical underataking "to provide, not a recitation of favorite works, but a dramatic portrait of the searching, singing spirit of Dylan Thomas." as her program notes explain.
THAT THE PRODUCTION fails to convincingly convey Dylan's searching spirit can be somewhat excused for succeeding to capture much of his singing spirit.
John McGuinness ably handles the physical representation of the poet; he has mastered the inflections and the physical attitude of Thomas to an amazing degree, but one cannot help feeling that much of the acting is on the surface, that the real struggles and searchings have not been adequately explored by the director and the actor.
Deficiency though this surface acting is, it nevertheless conveys Dylan's humor, earthiness, humanity and tragedy. The point is this earthiness, humanity and tragedy should and could have been more deeply realized. "Interesting man, Dylan," one feels when the house lights come up, "but not really profound." And the truth is, he was.
A GREAT DEAL of research obviously went into this production. The first part of the evening sketches Dylan as a child, a young man, and a Welsh poet before his trip to America. Fragmented and disconnected, this section left me vaguely unsatisfied, possibly because there was no sense of direction—what is all this telling us? where is Dylan going? what does he want, need?
Part two described Dylan's experiences in America. Here, detail clearly centers around his material success as a poet-lecturer and his growing illness.
Acting throughout was keen. John Morgan, Jack Hurley, Parmelee Bates, Gwenna Steffan, and little Steve Shumway stayed consistently good. Words often got lost in the rich complexity of Dylan's construction, but polish will surely come as the play continues its run.
CHERYL BURNET as Mrs. Thomas in the scene from the play "Dylan" gave a splendid portrayal. This girl has fire, compassion, bitterness, stubbornness, and melancholy at her command. She was more than a match for the acting ability of John McGuinness in this scene; here she conveyed a more profound awareness of her character than he of his, a fact that tended to unbalance the scene.
The "Under Milk Wood" section demonstrates virtuoso ensemble reading. The Thomas dialogue sparkles, and each little character vignette shines, especially those of John Morgan, Parmelee Bates, Gwenna Steffan, and Cheryl Burnet.
Effective use of lighting, costuming and sound must be applauded. The set design itself was used well, but I did not understand the symbolism or the reasons behind its grotesque-ness and color. As a kind of natural background, it worked; but as a vehicle for representing Dylan Thomas as a poet and a man, I am not so sure.
All-in-all, "An Evening with Dylan Thomas" is an evening well-spent. The play runs March 21, 22, and 28 through 31.
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Official Bulletin
TODAY
Festival of the Arts: 8:00 p.m. Lecture on film-making, producer-director Lionel Lonneri; Hoch Aud. University
University Windwind Quintet, 8:00 p.m. Swarthout Recital Hall. Student Peace Union Open Meeting, 7:30 p.m. Kansas Union.
TOMORROW
Lecture, 7.30 p.m. dm. Dr. James Wochol, KU Univ. Lutheran Church.
KU Moslem Society, 8:00 a.m. IDAL-ADHA prayers. Room 306, Kansas Union.
Festival of the Arts, 8:00 p.m. "The
Aria Animation," Chuck Jones.
Hoech Aud.
Washington Experimental Theatre, 8:20 p.m.
Marat Sade.
Daily Kansan
Monday, March 20,1967
2
"Fair Is Fair----We Recall Some More Cars, You Recall Some More Safety Standards"
NEW BOOKS
SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?, by Harry Golden (Crest, 75 cents)—Still one of America's most delightful journalistic figures is Harry Golden of Raleigh, North Carolina. And here is another collection of his work. He reflects profoundly and entertainingly on a variety of subjects—being the only Jew in a southern community, feeding and clothing people rather than worrying about over-population of the universe, sex in America, much about segregation, Goldwater as the first Jewish presidential candidate turning out to be an Episcopalian, and of course LBJ. Golden is one of America's first citizens, and this volume, on top of his recent critical illness, makes us even gladder that he's around.
THE OUTSIDERS, by Robert Carson (Crest, 95 cents)—Now comes one of those big dynastic novels, this one a family in Los Angeles, the Brennans, who grew with the big sloppy city on the west coast. Carson has written extensively of southern California a book about Hollywood called "The Magic Lantern," the screenplay for "A Star Is Born" 30 years ago. Though considerably cleaner than the works of Harold Robbins it has some of the story telling force, and a good many people are likely to be reading this one in months to come.