Townspeople gather to watch a small tragedy which will provide fuel for gossip in the days to come in the Iowa town of Eldritch. "The Rimers of Eldritch" is the next production on the Experimental Theatre stage running tonight through Feb. 21. Cast members are: (from left) Karen Klinkenberg, Basehor; Betsy Miller, Glenview, Ill., sophomore, Kathy Sheldon, Ottawa freshman, Barbara Allen, Lawrence sophomore, Ron Shull, Haven senior, and Linda Flatten, Topeka junior.
Play describes hypocracy in small midwestern town
By MARILYN McMULLEN Kansan Staff Writer
Described by director Bill Meikle as a pointallistic play, "The Rimers of Eldritch" opens tonight at the Experimental Theatre and runs through Feb. 21.
Meikle, assistant instructor in speech and drama, said the plot is developed through a series of vignettes which occur in illogical time sequence.
"The play is presented as a series of flashbacks and previews of events which occurred around a central bizarre incident," he said. "It is a perspective of truth, myth and hypocracy in a small midwestern town."
Written by Lanford Wilson, a native of Lebanon, Mo., "The Rimers of Eldritch" won the New York Drama Critics Circle award for the best off-Broadway play of 1967.
"I'm sure Wilson was writing about his hometown," Meikle said.
The director explained pointallism as a technique through which a series of isolated events are used to form a complete idea or story. The first act of "The Rimers of Eldritch" comprises 41 scenes. It is a long play, lasting for almost $21 \frac{1}{2}$ hours.
According to Meikle, the play "kicks the tar out of white Anglo-Saxon piety. It is a story of small-town people who hide behind their concepts of divine intervention.
"A rimer is someone who covers the truth with a myth," Meikle explained. Therimers of Eld-ritch justify their actions as manifestations of God's will."
The play explores the mind of the midwestern white-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant. Audiences are
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Feb. 12
1970 KANSAN 5
required to perceive the various distortions of truth which people choose to believe. Almost every character has buried a lie.
"It's a tremendously religious irreligious play." Meikle said. The cast is interested, and has put a colossal amount of thought into characterizations."
Meikle said that although there
are 18 members of the cast, there are no lead roles.
"The town is the lead character," he said. The play is about us. Audiences will see themselves or people they know. They'll observe the state of mind which can alloy lynchings and witch-burnings in the name of Christian piety."
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