PAGE TWO THE MICHIGAN DAILY TNTTR..gD Ate' ftC "rnRV.R. 19 10901 PAGE TWO THE MICHTGA1td'.L1 ZI .A.~D~A' ~ J' A A L)£".3L0A 1., AJ A~tAPrsAn l, In theatre APA 'Superb' in Performance Of lonesco's 'Exit the King' Former Daily Editor Ejected at LBJ TalkI music By ANDREW LUGG First off, congratulations to the APA for bringing Eugene Iones- co's "Exit The King" to America. On Tuesday, the tumultuous ap- plause that the play received in Mendelssohn Theatre indicated that this was appreciated. But, further, it was the res- ponse deserved by the play itself and to a slightly, very slightly less extent by the performance. "Exit The King", at its simp- lest, deals with a king's very per- sonal reaction to his own im- pending death. It is, however, not so much a description of the last decades (or minutes) of the4 death of Berenger, the king, but a re-creation of the experience of dying. Levels We might explain this by des- ,ribing the levels on which Iones- co has constructed his play. From the earlier plays we expect three sorts of verbal exchange, and each of these levels is in opera- tion in the early part of "Exit The King." First, there is talk of the the- atre itself: "You are going to die in an hour and a half. You are going to die ' at the end of the play." Then there is conceptual or philosophical r e f 1e c t i on: "We haven't time to take the time." Finally, there is the insistent trivial banter of everyday life. Thus, when the king asks for someone to change places with him, Marie, his young wife says: "Let him try-anything once." We see in all this a brilliant display of mental-verbal gymnas- tics. Ionesco deploys logic to des- troy itself. Each statement turns in on itself. It is discussed from all points of view, reminiscent of T. S. Eliot (as-he-did-not-see- himself), Eliot-as-clown. No Thesis Now Ionesco does not present' any sort of thesis. Instead, he u s e s dialogue to "oscillate around a central idea. Every at- tempt at getting a focus-a few key words-is frustrated ("that you can't find the answer is an answer of itself") both by Iones- co's- open logic structures and by his emphasis on plays-as-theatre. We learn during the first part of "Exit the. King" that the king is about to die, that his empire has crumbled. As his doctor im- plores him to die with dignity, he realizes that he is no longer above the law.. Accepting this, the king still tries to escape the fact that "there is no more time." He returns to childhood; he extorts -"let them remember me"-and raves. Then the king announces, "I'm trying to tell you-I'm dying. It sounds like a comedy." Such ob- tuseness which should drive us out of the play-especially with the next line from a Brecht-like guard: "His majesty finds some consolation in comedy"-in fact, draws us into it. I We find a similar thing hap- pening when the play's duration is stressed. We accept completely the change of the king from mid- dle-age to senility. Ionesco, by stressing the theatrical aspects in his plays, gives Berenger the "realness" of Lear or Oedipus. Liturgical Element When the other characters pre- sent begin to incantate "help, him," a fourth element or level is added to the play, namely the liturgical. W i t h this Ionesco brings out into the open what he implied in the earlier scenes. Ber- enger is not a mere king facing death, unbelieving and without style, but he is one of a long line of tragic heroes-Oedipus, Ham- let and Hamm. This tragic hero, however, does not search out the truth, he hides from it. "Exit the King" starts with the austerity of Ionesco's own "Chairs" or "The Lesson" but ends with the passion and mythos of Patchen's "Journal of Albion Moonlight." Thegrand mechanism of Shak- espeare's histories is reborn in the play. ("Exit the King" para- llels the fall of Richard.) Beren- ger, like Richard III, is king and clown. He has reached the end; his world crumbles away; the universe snuffs out. "Useless agitation, wasn't it?" states his older wife, Marguerite. Nothing any longer has meaning. Everything has taken on heroic proportions. Indeed, one of the most heroic scenes is the king's anecdote about thedneighbor's cat being killed by a dog. Like Sophocles' or Shakes- peare's plays, "Exit the King" is a play on many different levels. It is allegory, it is the experience of one man dying, and not the least it tells of the playwrite's dilemma: the impossibility of cre- ating drama, of believing that non-existence is inconceivable. On this tact, the first part of i "Exit" describes Ionesco's past' work, and the second half is a reflection on his "ludicrous" out- put. The play, then, can only be' compared with the great works of drama. As Peter Brooks said of Shakespeare: "His plays are great because they have more in them for your money, minute by min- ute." The APA's performance was beautifully faithful to Ionesco. Richard Easton was a remarkable Berenger. He controlled the many facets of the character without hystrionics, without resorting to a single simple trick to alleviate the immense difficulty that any interpretation of Berenger pre- sents. Clayton Corzatte, the guard, also did everything right. The others were more than adequate, excepting Patricia Con- olly's Queen Marie. That old school of acting, Rosemary Harris et al, sounds terribly arch these days. The scenery was splendid. One of the best uses of sets made from plastic that I've seen! A final word for Ellis Rabb's direction. Practically all the ac- tion took place front stage. This gave the performance the urgen- cy that was required and also al- lowed for some telling counter- points when the "action" was temporarily shifted backstage. Another fine feature was Rabb's use of the "Pause". In this "Exit," silence, move-' ment and dialogue were finely in- tegrated. And this, perhaps, is the key to the APA's excellent performance. WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (CPS)- Robert Johnston, former editor of The Daily, said Sunday that Secret Service men forcibly ejected him from a room where President Johnson was about to speak to a conference on "the world crisis in education." Two more college editors left the room and all three were not per- mitted to return and hear the speech. The three were discussing a walkout by themselves and oth- ers in response to the speech John- son was to give. Johnston, now with the United States Student Press Association, said he was talking with a student member of the conference staff. He said he was pointing to a section of the President's speech which read "Shame on our leaders" when a Secret Service man came up to him and asked "What are you going to do at that point in the speech?" To Walkout or Not Johnston replied "nothing," to which the Secret Service man said "I don't believe you." Johnston said they had talked about walking out at that point in the speech but decided not to. . Johnston says the Secret Service man then grabbed him by the arms. and pushed him out the door. The agent told another agent that Johnston was not to come back into the room. However, the conference staff intervened, according to Johnston, and he was permitted to re-enter the room. He then left again with two girls -Kitty Caporella of the Temple University News in Philadelphia and Kathy Burke of the Down- tower at St. John's University in New York. Johnston said he had decided to leave before the speech rather than walk out during it and did not plan to go back into the room. The two girls intended to return to the room and were standing in the lobby just outside trying to persuade Johnston to return with them and go through with the walkout when a group of Secret Service men came up to them and told them to leave. The three then' left "with an escort" according to Johnston. George Eager, assistant to Cor-! nell President James Perkins and director of the conference, called the whole thing "ridiculous" and aE "big nothing. There was no evi-' dence in the dining room of any protests. Nothing disturbed our session and the President gave a fine speech." Johnston said Eager was not in a position to see any of what hap- pened to him. He emphasized that the conference staff was not in- volved. Eager also doubted that the Sec-' ret Service men would have treated' Johnston so roughly, since they had instructions to treat the dele- gates courteously. Surveillance But Dave Peterson, former edit- or of the University of Denver Clarion and USSPA executive di- rector, said a Secret Service man, stood within 10 feet of him during Johnson's speech. "Other observers on the floor said it was obvious that he was watching me," Peter- son added. Peterson was one of several others who had considered walking out but decided not to "because we didn't know what was, going on. Miss Burke said they decided to{ walk out after they saw an ad- vance copy of the President's speech, which she described as+ "hypocritical." She pointed to his use of World War II-rather than Viet Nam-to depict the "animal- ism" of war as an example of this hypocrisy. Compose Avant Ga By MICHAEL BEEBIE Tonight at 8:30 p.m. a compos- ers' forum- will offer five avante garde compositions at the School of Music recital hall. The pro- gram notes describe the charac- teristics of these far-out sounds: * The basic materials of Kurt Carpenter's "Cloy" consist of a 12-tone row and two extended rhythmic ideas which are pre- sented in a loosely structured op- ? ' FV.o *iV TT4 V T 'P YW 4 rs Forum To Offer irde Music Program ening. As the work progresses an attempt to achieve the seren- hints of the climax appear, but ity and depth of feeling found in when the climax appears it is Indian and Japanese music. Rely- "cloyed" almost to a point of no ing on the western techniques of return. A thick piano chord halts harmony and tone color, Morris the hectic motion and restores or- uses aggregates of sound and the der. The denouement is recapitu- phonetics of the text to produce latory and the piece ends as qui- a mosaic-like effect. etly as it began. 0 "Four Haiku Settings" by 0 The work for chamber en- Thomas Tyra makes use of the semble and soprano by Robert distinctive verse form of the hai- Morris, "Forgotten Vibrations," is ku. The haiku used for the text are "And So," "Clinging," "The broken Resolution," and "Weight IAcross Campus ' : y 3; s t as s s z44± ± ±rA± ± 4±a t 4± *y Prof. T. David Prins of the speech department is the new pre- sident of the Michigan Speech and Hearing Association. The as- sociation is composed of profes- sionals working in public schools and private and community clin- ics throughout the state, as well as members of college and uni- versity programs in speech path- ology and audiology. The organi- zation is concerned with matters pertaining to therapy resources for those with speech and hear- ing handicaps and for the edu- cation of speech clinicians. * * * Opening the sixth annual Dance Festival at the University, the Harkness Ballet of New York will perform at 8:30 p.m. Friday in Hill Auditorium, under the auspices of the University Musi- cal Society. The program will be "Night Song," music by Alan Hov=: haness; Feast of Ashes," music by Carlos Surinach; Zealous Varia- tions" by Schubert, and "Time Out of Mind" by Paul Cheston. * * * the Rackham Galleries. The dis- play, open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays through Oct. 31, in- cludes paintings by Guy Palaz- zola, Chet LaMore, Richard Wilt, and Albert Mullen; sculpture by Thomas McClure; photographs by David Reider; ceramics by John Stephenson and Fred Bauer; lith- ographs by Emil Weddige; etch- ings and engravings by Frank Cassara; industrial designs by Aarre Lahti; interior designs by William Carter, and advertising designs by C. F. Korten. of the Past." " Thomas Schudel's "Sonata for Kiolin and Piano" was written for two young friends of the com- poser and was completed in June, 1967. The first movement is made up of two basic ideas, one dynamic and the other flowing. * Gerald Plain exploits the percussive possibilities of the double bass in "Music for Double Bass and Percussion." The composer's forums period- ically present premieres of con- temporary compositions written by student composers. One com- poser said of contemporary music that "in the past two decades music has become completely di- versified so that the concert goer always expects to be surprised." ......... . rORGANIZATION NOTICES USF OF THIS COLUMN FOR AN- Philip Coates, 763-1668 or Greg Arm- NnUNCEMENTS is available to officially strong, 665-2866. recognized and registered student orga-' * * * nizations only. Forms are available in- Guild House, Friday Noon Luncheon, Rm. 1011 SAB. Mrs. Wyona Howard, G.R.O.W.: "Com- * * * munity Organizing and the Riots." Oct. UM Chess Club meeting, Oct. 13, 13, 12-1:00, Guild House,(802 Monroe. 7:30 p.m., 30 Union. Also Friday eve, dinner (at, cost) and S* * program, 6 p.m. Paintings, photographs, ated by art members are sculpture, prints, and ceramics cre- department faculty on public display at We are now proudly presenting HELD OVER! CINEMA II PRESENTS JASON ROBARDS JR. in A Thousand Clowns SHORT: CHAPTER 3, FLASH GORDON FRIDAY, SATURDAY AUDITORIUM A land 9:15 P.M. ANGELL HALL 50c \ ..- ....,..- 11 I Engineering Council, meeting, Oct. 12, 7:00 p.m., SAB 3511. * * * Southern Asia Club: bag lunch today' at, noon in Lane Hlall. Prof. :Rhoads Murphey will speak on "Colonial Ports and Their Impact on'; Asian Societies." * * * Members of the University Commun- ity interested in Objectivism, the phi- losophy of Ayn Rand, whowquld like to form a discussion group, please call: Christian Science College Organiza- tion, weekly testimony meeting, every Thursday, 7:30-8:30 p.m., 3545 SAB. * * * Le Baratin, meeting every Thursday, 3-5 p.m., 3050 Frieze. A meeting of the Libertarian League -Ayn Rand Society will be held Wed. evening, Oct. 18, at 730 p.m., in Room 3D Union. All students interested in. Objectivism are invited to attend. SIDNEY POITIER JAMES CLAVELL'S . 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