THEATRE: Three student plays
By BOB BUTLER
Kansan Arts and
Reviews Editor
May 1
1969 KANSAN 5
Biddle took some liberties with the story, emphasizing the role of Satan by making him a narrator, talking directly to the audience as if addressing his congregation. I felt his initial introduction of the townspeople as evil hypocrites, however, was a mistake, weakening the impact of their sudden participation in the witches' sabbath and the uncovering of their evil souls.
"Fantastic" is the only word for the three student-written one-act plays currently being presented in the Experimental Theatre. I left the theatre shaken by some of the best work I've ever seen in a KU production.
The play has some extremely fine moments, including a prologue in which Satan climbs upon a rock while the house lights are still on and just stares gloatingly at the entering audience. An evening prayer in which Goodman Brown and his wife are drawn, almost against their will, into the swaying movement of the kneeled congregation and the wild meeting of the coven in the woods are also expertly handled by director Elizabeth Cary.
The evening opens with Stephen Biddle's adaptation of Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." Of all the short stories I know this would be the hardest to bring to the stage. Hawthorne wrote in ambiguities. His Satan had a staff which seemed to writhe like a snake, Young Goodman Brown seemed to hear voices in the forest and he seemed to see a witch's sabbath in the New England woods. It is the relationship between Hawthorne's printed words and the mental images of the readers' mind which brings out the horror of the hidden evil in men and the overriding condemnation of Original Sin. I had always thought to present this story visually would ruin it. I was wrong.
For the most part the cast is excellent, and James Hawes set is perfect, from the obnoxious red wall tile to the Springfield toilet paper dispenser.
Standouts among the cast are Art Sloan as Deacon Gookin, Jane Frazier as Goody Corry and Ellen Lippman as Goody Cloyse.
The second offering, "John John" by Doug Wasson, is a very funny play about a girl-shy young man who flees from a disastrous date into a theater restroom and decides to stay there, forever free from women.
The only problem with "John John" is that the play is a little too long—the audience has to wait between confrontations and gets a little restless
John Ingle, as John, is excellent as he passes the time away making faces in the mirror, reading the graffiti, playing with the toilet paper and talking to himself about the world outside and his inner insecurities.
The best moments come when he is interrupted in his musings by a crew which could have come from any mens' room in America: a motorcycle greater, some hippies, a superstud preening in front of the mirror, a lethargic fat kid who breathes asthmatically and keeps hacking in the toilets.
The final play, Lannie Fellers' "The Day the Fish Came Out," was wisely saved until the last. The emotional impact of this hour is so great, the characterizations so perfect that it's hard to concentrate on anything afterward.
"The Day the Fish Came Out" is set in Vietnam in 1964 in an orderly room at Tan Son Nhut airbase. It is one of the strongest indictments of the military I've ever seen, ranking with Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory."
A staff of typists overseen by a tough sergeant with 20 years in the Army (David Miller) receive a combat-weary soldier (John Young) for a rest and relaxation leave. The man is obviously neurotic and badly shaken by his three years in the service. He has put in request after request for psychiatric help, only to be called a "mama's boy" by the sergeant. He is berated for having a wrinkled uniform, for sleeping late (after all, it is an R
& R visit) and for leaving his clothes on the floor.
The approach to the play is almost neorealistic. The boredom of the soldiers, their idle talk of the whores to be had in Saigon, the dialogue, the gestures, the tacky office-all are 100 per cent Army.
Finally he breaks, grabs a rifle and tries to shoot the sergeant. He is overpowered and carried away screaming. What will happen to him? Recent happenings at the Presidio give proof that this work isn't as fictional as we'd like to believe.
away. The same happened to the neurotic soldier—when his mind couldn't hold any more it overflowed, carrying his stability away.
The effect is shattering and director Robert Sandmaier deserves special credit for bringing excellent characterizations out of his actors.
All in all, it's an evening well spent, and one of the nicest things to happen to KU theater in a long time. Let's hope the speech and drama department gives young playwrights more exposure in the future. They deserve it.
Lebanon-Israel border scene of new fighting
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Reliable semiofficial reports here said fighting broke out yesterday between Lebanese army troops and anti-Israel Palestinian guerrillas only six miles from the Lebanon-Israel frontier.
The Lebanese government of Premier Rashid Karami fell a week ago after clashes between security forces and demonstrators advocating government support for guerrilla groups based on Lebanese soil.
The reports in Beirut last night said several hundred guerrillas trying to set up bases in southeast Lebanon near the Syrian and Israeli frontiers clashed with units of the Lebanese army.
The clashes yesterday which took place at Marjayoun seven miles from Husbayh, were described as an extension of that action.