FESTIVAL: Buffy communicates
By KENNETH CUMMINS Kansan Reviewer
Buffy Sainte-Marie has developed that rare talent that artists are always seeking—the ability to communicate with her audience. From her very first number Miss Sainte-Marie had reached her listeners Saturday night in Hoch Auditorium. They responded to her and she responded to them as she talked and sang her emotions and ideas.
Much of her material was political in content. The songs which reflect the tradition and history of the Indian, and his desperate situation, songs such as "Now that the Buffalo's Gone" and "This is My Land" are some of Miss Sainte-Marie's better material. They convey her intense sincerity and concern for her people. But her political comment covered a wide range of subjects, and much of this comment served to disguise some very poor material.
Miss Sainte-Marie, with her strong and vibrant voice, presented an exciting vocal performance. She is a talented guitarist and pianist with a good background in folk, blues and country and western music. The songs she does which are not excessively political, such as "Piney Wood Hills," are the best of her compositions.
But Miss Sainte-Marie's concerts serve more than just the single purpose to entertain. She uses her appearances to arouse the public's attention to the pitiful plight and treatment of the American Indian and the urgency of the situation. One of her comments Saturday night probably sums it up best for KU students. "If you want to learn about Indians, all you have to do is go down the road aways and talk to the kids."
FESTIVAL: dance in new light
By KAREN KLINKENBERG
Kansan Staff Writer
Refined, expressive body movements set to electric music turned out to be quite a different dance program from the syncopated, rhythmical dancers of Swan Lake days. The dance company of six and their leader Lucas Hoving presented dancing in a new light for the Friday night Festival of the Arts.
Once you got used to the reeb, drinkle and squack music and stopped trying to make the dancers keep to a four-four rhythm, beauty and words came from dancers arm swings and positions. Each dancers body was as expressive as, and perhaps more truthful than the spoken word.
One dance featuring Hoving, told the story of a son's struggle to break away from his father. A girl comes to capture the son's heart, but the father cuts off the relationship. The story ends with the son rolling with pain at his loss of the girl and failure to gain his freedom.
Another outstanding number was one with dramatic heavy breathing and screeching background. The story seemed to be an appeal for peace, especially the conclusion when the dancers drifted into the audience. It was like them saying, if you want it (peace), go and get it.
The final number included talking by the dancers to accompany the movements. Sometimes short stories were told and other times it was just words of wisdom, like "Life is good . . . like a mocking bird with a cavity."
Despite the lack of a published program and the long mood breaking pauses between numbers, the program was good receiving three curtain calls from Festival-goers.
BOOKS
By MIKE SHEARER Kansan Reviewer
NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH, a play by Edward Bond (Hill and Wang paperback, $1.50).
By the playwright who gave us Blow-up, Narrow Road is a deeply profound and sensitive look at politics and religion used as weapons.
Set in Japan "about the 17th, 18th or 19th Centuries," Narrow Road takes the poet Basho and dictator Shogo through a series of incidents showing the evil in men and the horrors in life itself. Poet Basho, who, like everyone else in the play, is both good and bad, is an observer through most of the play, making comments directly to the audience.
In many ways the play is superior to Blow-up. The characters are ingeniously used by playwright Bond to depict all facets of political, religious and social bigotry.
If Bond's view of man is less than favorable, his effective portrayal of the fugacious element in human nature is undeniably accurate and worthy of study.
* *
THE PASSIONATE PEOPLE: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A JEW IN AMERICA, by Roger Kahn (Crest, 95 cents)—A view by a Jew of the contemporary American Jew. Kahn discusses the
KANSAN 5
place of the Jew within industry and commerce, within intellectual and cultural life, within the whole of American culture, and shows how the Jew still is shut out in many circumstances. The book has much to say in a time when Jews are under attack quite different from the anti-Semitism of the past, a new, liberal anti-Semitism, in some cases.
Apr. 6
1970
Wilma Harrison had a wealthy husband. A big playboy lover. A beautiful home.
"BROKEN BLOSSOMS" (SUA Special Films)—D W. Griffith's eloquent little masterpiece about a poverty-stricken girl and her friendship with a gentle China-
"CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON" (SUA Special Films)—The famous Chinese sleuth solves another baffling mystery. (Woodruff Aud. 7 p.m. only.)
Tuesday
On campus this week
Best sellers
Fiction
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN—John Fowles
THE GODFATHER—Mario Puzo
TRAVELS WITH MY AINT. COOK
Graham Greene
THE HOUSE ON THE STRAND
MR. SAMMLER'S PLANET—Saul Bellow
SHOOT STRAIGHT--Jimmy Breslin
FROM HEAVEN-Mary Renna
THE INHIBITORS—Haroid Robbins
THE HOUSE OF BREED—Rumen
Godman
PUPPET ON A CHAIN—Alistair Maclean
THE SELLING OF THE PRESIDENT 1968 - Joe McGinnis
EVERYTHING YOU HAVE AL-
WAYS KNOW ABOUT
SEX- David Heubner
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS—Antonia Fraser
PRESENT AT THE CREATION— Dean Acheson
AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
William Morris, editor-in-chief
THE DEER SUNSHINE
KERR HUIH
THE GRAHAM KERR COOKBOOK
Galway Court
Wednesday
AMHERCY
CULTURE AND COMMITMENT—Mergersd. Med.
IN SOMEONE'S SHADOW—Rod McKuen
AMBASSADOR'S JOURNAL—John K. Galbraith
GOVERNOR'S TAKE
man. With Lillian Gish and Richard Barthelmess; 1919. (Woodruff Aud. 9 p.m. only.)
HONG KONG (UPI) — Sir David Trench, the governor of Hong Kong, receives a salary of 9,900 pounds sterling $23,760 a year.
"THRONE OF BLOOD" (Classical Films)—Violent and poetic translation of "Macbeth" into the Japanese idiom. A film by Akira Kurosawa; 1957. (Woodruff Aud. 7 and 9.)
ABBIE HOFFMAN (SUA Minor Opinions Forum) — The liveliest and loudest member of the Chicago 7. (Hoch Aud. 8 p.m.)
Thursday
"OPEN CITY" (KU Film Society) the pioneer of the Italian neorealist movement. Directed by Roberto Rosselini; 1945. (303 Bailey Hall 7 p.m. only.)
"THE BICYCLE THIEF" (KU Film Society)—Simple, powerful story of an Italian worker's search for his stolen bicycle. Directed by Vittorio DeSica; 1947. (303 Bailey Hall, 9 p.m. only.)
COMING SOON
All Week
"KYOGEN" (theatre production)—"Kamabara," "Busu," and "Donadaro" will provide the theatre-goer something different and interesting in the field of drama. (Experimental Theatre, 8:20 p.m.)
University of Kansas Theatre
presents
KYOGEN: Comic Theatre of Japan
EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE
Murphy Hall
8:20 p.m.
April 2 thru 11
Tickets $1.50
Students $.75