KWSAN REVIEWS
PLAYS: Miracle
By JONATHAN JORDAN
By JONATHAN JORDAN
In our rushing world we tend to take most things for granted.
How many students have taken a few minutes from their daily schedule to gaze from Mt. Oread to the Wakarusa Valley? If the reader will do it he will see a thing of beauty that is often looked at, yet taken for granted.
In a similar sense we take our hearing and sight for granted. We never consider what life would be like without the use of our eyes and ears. Life without sight and sound is shockingly and brilliantly portrayed in "The Miracle Worker." Written by William Gibson, "The Miracle Worker" is playing at the University Theatre until July 18.
The play deals with Helen, who is blind, deaf and dumb, and the efforts of Annie Sullivan, her teacher. The play also spotlights the conflict between Keller and his son James. A more basic conflict between the antebellum South and the modern America that was emerging in the 1880's is also presented. Keller, defending the values on which his upbringing was based, declares; "Cleanliness is next to Godliness," to which the practical Annie, a product of the industrial North replies; "Cleanliness is next to nothing."
The difficult role of Helen is played by Dede Clark. The amount of skill required to portray a character who sees and speaks just as we do is quite large. The amount of skill required to portrait a character who can neither see nor hear must be many times greater, yet Miss Clark handles her role with aplomb.
Riley Austin was superb as the son, James. James can't conceive of his father's world and is in
constant conflict with the older man. Finally James tells his father that it is he who is out of step, and not the rest of the world. This sets the stage for the breakthrough that teaches Helen what the real world is.
The role Keller, excellently played by Steve Gilham, Pratt senior, is perhaps the only tragic character in the play. He longs for a world that is no more. He seems incapable of realizing that the South did lose the Civil War. His refusal to accept the world as it is leads to conflicts between himself and his wife and son. Only when Keller sits down under his son's admonition is Annie Sullivan given the chance to bridge the darkness that separates Helen from the real world.
A word of praise must also go to Rhonda Plymate, Topeka senior. Miss Plymate, who last appeared in "Luv," handles her role of Annie Sullivan with great skill. Annie, torn by the belief that she failed her dead brother, seeks to redeem Helen. The ease with which Miss Plymate portrays the torment that plagues the soul of Annie Sullivan leads this reviewer to feel that Miss Plymate will perform at many larger and important theatres after she leaves the University of Kansas.
In this prepackaged Instant Breakfast world of modern America, the reader may not desire a long essay on the meaning and worth of a play and may rather just want a single statement telling him what to do or think towards a play. To the reader who wants a short comment I can only say that if my review of "The Miracle Worker" were limited to two words, those two words would be "See it!"
Last Time This Summer
THIS SATURDAY-JULY 18 8:00 p.m.
RED DOG INN
TOGETHER!
TOGETHER!
One liners...
United Press International
HOLLYWOOD (UPI)—George C. Scott was signed by Universal Pictures to co-star with Joanne Woodward in "They Might Be Giants" filming in New York.
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HOLLYWOOD—"They shoot Horses, Don't They?" is a forerunner of two other equine titles: "A Man Called Horse" and "The Fifth Horseman."
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HOLLYWOOD—Robert Fosse will direct Lawrence Turman's production of "Burnt Offerings."
2 KANSAN July 17
1970
NEXT WEEK
July 20-24 at 8:20
RAIN
Main Stage Arena Murphy Hall
FOR TICKETS CALL UN 4-3982