PAGE TWO
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
THURSDAY. QEPTKIVMIF*R. q!1 74a«t'
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theatre
APA's P
By ANDREW LUGG
The APA Repertory Company
has opened its new season with
Michel de Ghelderode's "Panta-
gleize." This play is a difficult
play to perform in, to direct, to
watch and, not least, to review.
It is not difficult as far as its
content is concerned (indeed it
has a simple storyline and a very
thinly disguised thesis). The prob-
lem lies in the manner of dealing
with this content. The APA pro-
duction was too good to allow a
rigid criticism of John Houseman's
and Ellis Rabb's direction. It would
be presumptuous to suggest a radi-
cally different conception than the
one that they presented.
On the other hand it was not so
good that the problems were mask-
ed. Toward the end of the per-
formance when the play really
came alive and presented some so-
lutions it also high-lighted the
difficulties which the directors
seem to have encountered with the
earlier sections.
The story develops along the
following lines: Pantagleize makes
a casual remark which sparks off
a revolution; he becomes, through
this chance statement, the leader
of an odd band of revolutionaries
--an anarchist, a professor of po-
litical science disguised as a
waiter, a poet, a Jewess and a
Negro-who constitute the hier-
archy of the insurgent forces.
He then falls in love 'with the
Jewess, steals some (fake) treasure
from the State Bank, is found out
by the authorities who are also
duped into thinking that he is the
leader and is executed. All this has
taken place withni a day, the play
starting as Pantegleize gets up at
six in the morning and ending at
midnight with the government
forces celebrating the return of
the status quo.
During these eighteen hours
Pantegleize, the philosopher-im-
becile, is made by the Gelderode
to prance through a whole set of
incongruous roles. At one time he
is in "vaudeville," at another in
an activity bordering on the
"haute-melodramatic" and during
a third he is expected to be no less;
than a Beckett-like Cartesian Cen-
taur.
Thus we have Pantagleize ~on
revolution: all successful causes;
are good causes. In love: I shall
shear sheep and you shall make
butter. On philosophy: I shall re-
quisition eclipses.
Pantagleize has to move con-1
sistenly between two impossible
states-of-being. When he con-
fronts the Jewish girl, who he
thinks is asleep, Pantagleize says,
"I will place the butterfly of my
kiss on the flower of her brow."'
But then he realizes that "there is7
a smell like a butcher's shop," thatI
she is dead "My deepest sym-
pathy. I hope we meet again." '
The problem of Pantagleize,
which is also the problem that is
antagleize Uneven,
'Schizophrenic'
Conolly, in her hysteria, attempts
to disprove this. She plays the
stereotype in such a brash fashion
to build up a dichtomy between
character and "flesh-and-blood"
that her tirade (and her acting)
become unacceptable.
The integrity of the scene has
been sacrificed for effect. A direc-
tion for this scene might be to play
it within its own "reality" so that
the absurdity flows from that real-
ity and is not forced onto it.
.X *The second example comes from
the same scene. Ellis Rabb, who
plays Pantagleize, indulges in a
hackneyed "bit" in order to get a
laugh. Rachel, who is on his lap,
Smoves slightly and this prompts
"the - hand - mechanically - grab-
k bing - at - thigh sequence." This
"reference" further broke up the
scene, because the "burlesque" had
no relevance to the play, at that
particular moment. This expected,
Rabb played Pantagleize with
great honesty and hence, remark-
able success.
Trimester Support Wanes
Among Faculty Members
(Continued from Page 1)
The conclusion of both reports
was that the University should
return to a two semester program
with an enriched summer session.
Variations of these plan were dis-
cussed by both schools.
A plan with the semester be-
ginning before Labor Day and
ending before Christmas was
slightly less popular than the old
plan of beginning in mid-Sept.
and ending with a lame duck
session in January.
Considered unfeasible along
with the current trimester system
were a four quarter system, and
a two semester and a quarter
system. The LSA report objected
to these systems on the basis that
a large number of faculty would
have to be brought in to teach the
summer session. The report felt
that the University had neither
the space nor the money to do
this.
In regard to the compressed
term claim, Smith pointed out
that actual class time has been
cut by only one week. To him this
was not a significant cut espec-
ially since a number of other
schools such as Harvard Univer-
sity operate successfully with even
fewer weeks per semester spent
in the classroom.
Smith also emphasized that the
trimester seemed to be very pop-
ular with the students. Although
he could give no specific figures,
he felt certain that the majority
of the student body liked the pres-
ent system.
He cited the Hay committee re-
port on the calendar, which poll-
ed a section of student body and
concluded that, students preferred
the plan.
The Hay report recommended
that trimester be retained with
alterations. It also concluded that
both faculty and students felt
that "students get significantly
less out of taking a course" now
then under the old semester cal-
endar.
Smith felt that any investigat-
ing committee should give heavy
weight to student preference when
considering any calendar.
He welcomed the investigation
of the problems of trimester by
SACUA, although he has no plans
to consider the problem in depth
at this time. If the results of the
SACUA study call for further ac-
tion, he would consider taking
measures.
Smith felt that the trimester
had not been given a sufficient
trial period to prove itself. He
thought that five years should be
the minimum trial period., After
this time he thought that a com-
mittee for a review of the system
should and probably would be es-
tablished.
Across
Camp us,
Prof. Wells Goodrich will lec-
ture on "Four Patterns of Early
Marriage" at the second psycho-
logy department colloquium at 4
p.m. Friday in Aud A.
Violinist Gilbert Ross and pian-
ist Marian Owen will give a free
public concert at 8:30 p.m.
Thursday in Rackham Lecture
Hall. The duo, faculty members
of the School of Music, will fea-
ture works by Mozart, Prokofieff,
and Prof. Paul Cooper of the
music school.
The University of Michigan
Blood Donors Association will
hold its fall clinic on Tuesday
from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. in the
small ballroom of the Union. The
association is open to all regu-
larly employed University staff
members, full or part time.
Staff members wishing to join
the association should obtain an
application from the personnel of-
fice, 1028 Administration Bldg.,
764-7286.
I
I
-Daily-van Williams
WORLD CHANGE and revolution ushered in by a vaudevillo trio and the most casual of remarks,
"It's a beautiful day." Disunity and confusion characterize this play about a revolution led by an
imbecile.
written into all the other parts,
is simply that there is no consist-
ent level on which the drama can
be played out. It has elements of
the burlesque, the farce, the melo-
drama. It has at times a very real
seriousness, but this is soon to be
followed by the banal, the un-
natural, the trite. Each small sec-
tion appears disjunct from what
preceeds it and from what we are
expecting it to develop into.
And here the problem becomes
much more explicit: namely, how
many events which differ in tone
and importance can be welded into
a unit. To integrate the pieces in-
to a whole, the director must find
a center or a structure on which
to build. A handful of iron filings
sprinkled over a magnet at random
all tend to line up in one direction.
What is required in the play is a
magnet.
The APA, creditably, has made
things even more difficult for
themselves than Ghelderode him-
self intended. They add to the
disjointedness of the play by using
some props that are modern and
others which are pre-World War I.
The costuming is also schizophre-
nic. The anarchist looks for all
the world like an Hell's Angel. The
poet comes on like a flower child.
The policeman, Creep, looks like
a second-urate gangster from a
Bogart movie, and the Jewess is
resplendent in a mini-skirt.
No you are probably saying (as
does some "study material" that
the APA sent me) that all this
adds up to no more than what we
should expect from "absurd"
drama. But this is not so. The writ-
ing of Beckett, Lonesco or Pinter
has a built-in structure. Consider
Pinter: the language, the char-
acter-types and the mise-en-scene
all add up to give a single direc-
tion or pattern for the play.
No, rather than foreshadowing
these playwrites (the play was
written in 1929), de Ghelderode is
merely closing a period that began'
with Jarry. That is not to say that
Pantagleize is an "Ubu Roi." Only
that it has a similar discontinu-
ous sequence of events. We remove
from our considerations reference
to more dramatists for helpin get-
ting to the bottom of de Ghelde-
rode's style.
As I have said, the first half of
Tuesday's . performance was un-
satisfactory. Let me give three
examples to illustrate why this
was so. At the end of the first
act, the Jewess, Rachel (acted by
Patricia Conolly), counters Pan-
tagleize's overtures of love with
hysterical "revolutionary" slogans
such as "action first, words later"
and "before anything else I love
humanity."
In "The Essence of Theatre,"
Henry Gouhier says something
like: the stage welcomes every il-
lusion except that of the physical
presence of the actor. Patricia
Lastly, at many points in the
play scenes were played "too hard,"
and this was emphasized by music
paralleling the action. Lyrical mu-
sic accompanied "tender" scenes.
Perhaps the music should have
been a counterpoint. This would
have enhanced the continuity -be-
tween scenes and enriched the dis-
continuity within the scene.
Above all, the actors must act
as though they meant what they
are doing and the action cannot
drag. It was these two factors that
made the last quarter so worth
while. The absurdity of the events
developed out of the total thea-
trical spectacle and was only in-
directly in the acting. The fault
of the early sections was that the
actors tried to be absurd.
The absurdity became apparent
from the events in the play and
was not imposed by acting. The
actor played out. his reality, the
audience added the slogan "ab-
surd." Lacunary threatre works
when the actors respect the inte-
grity of their parts. This gives
unity and structure to the play.
V
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CINEMA II
PRESENTS
HAROLD PINTER'S
THE
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(British title:
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ALAN BATES
ROBERT SHAW
DONALD
PLEASENCE
"A fascinating, funny,
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-THE NEW REPUBLIC
"BRILLIANT!"-N.Y. POST
"BRILLIANT "-N.Y. TIMES
FRIDAY and
SATURDAY
7 and 9:15 P.M.
Auditorium A
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."r.. ..".swa ?a . . v ," Y"f'.r' "t.., . ,,..?..."r. :" . ;r ; ".v. ...s....
ORGANIZATION NOTICES
;Y.;":{..YLrr ti r. . ..;"r,,,4y}.,:? tr';' ":.;'C"Y:Y.:::}jr7,:?;'r r':;fi;::\: i"..'.+iy"rsY.;"::?:;;:i'?};i 'F.5:+":"; Y"Y'.itifit
THE MIRISCH CORPORATION PRESENTS
JULIE ANDREWS
MAX VON SYDOW
RICHARD HARRIS
in THE GEORGE ROY HILL-WALTER MIRISCH PRODUCTION of
"HAWAII"
USE OF THIS COLUMN FOR AN-
NOUNCEMENTS is available to officially
recognized and registered student orga-
nizations only. Forms are available in
Rm. 1011 SAB.,
Baha'i Student Group plans Informal
discussion Fri., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., 520
Ashley. Call 662-3548 if you need trans-
portation. All interested welcome.
Concert Dance Organization is hold-
ing modern dance classes every Tues.,
day 7:30 p.m. and Thursday 8:15 p.m.,
at the Barbour Gym Dance Studio.
Classes are held for men on Thursday
at 7:30 p.m.
* * *
Christian Science College Organization
weekly testimony meeting every Thurs-
day, 7:30-8:30 p.m., 3545 SAB.
* * *
South Quad Council, Smitty's Tea-
tures Peter Bowen, Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m.,
G103 South Quad.
* * *
Southern Asia Club, Bag lunch meet-
ing today at 12 noon in Room 1 of
Lane Hall. Prof. Roger Smith of the
political science department will speak
on "Research Problems in Southeast
Asia." Anyone interested is invited to
attend.
* m
Voice Work committee meetings:
Draft-Sept. 22, 2 p.m., Guild House;
Labor-Sept. 21, 7 p.m., Union MUG;
War Research-Sept. 21, noon, Union
MUG; Internal Education-Sept. 21,
8:30 p.m., voice Office; Mobilization
and War Protest-Sept. 22, 6:30 p.m.,
Guild House; High School Organizing-
Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m., Union MUG; Dorm
-Sept. 27, time and place to be an-
nounced; JJC to be announced. Infor-
mation, 663-6610 or 761-7613.
WOIA
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a whole is tight and constructed with wisdom as well as skill. It rushes to a bloody climax, which hits hard!
A MAJOR ARTISTIC ACCOMPLISHMENT!" -o. ...s.a
"AN AMERICAN WORK OF ART-POSSIBLY THE
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WHAT'S
AN 8ATES
IERRE BRASSEURj
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