THE N11CH1GAN DAILY Tuesday, January 27, 1970 THE MiCHIGAN DAILY Tuesday, January 27, 1970 . theatre A hidden By JOHN ALLEN 'Criminal' cinema A Hitchcock of another game FRE ! H EA JAN. 31 7 30 P.M. NQ CHARGE! Reading the Cuban revolution into Jose Triana's The Crim- inals might be a pleasant past- time for amateur politicos and vest-pocket revolutionaries; but it' isn't a necessary activity of theatregoers. Or at least it shouldn't be. Neither history nor propaganda looks its best in costumes, makeup, and light- ing. Drama, of course, can wear anything, including history and propaganda, so long as its es- sential elan is not utterly buried. These are at least moments in The Criminals when that elan peeks through the veifs of rhe- toric and histrionics, moments when a genuine sense of the dramatic and the theatrical coalesces on the stage and makes the evening worthwhile. Such moments are perhaps too few; but taken together they infuse the play with a nervous kind of energy and a definite sense of Fpromise. Very briefly, the play is con- stituted of a series of conflicts acted out by three children- two girls and a boy-who have holed themselves up in the attic of their home, apparently after killing their parents. The ythree characters in search of an iden- tity imagine their way into vari- ous roles: aunts, uncles, the par- ' ents, a prosecuting attorney, a 3ud wge. The characters themselves remnain .somewhat ill-defined in this flux of identities, yet the sense of tension is not thereby dissipated. What remains constantis an aura of crisis, a submerged - threat of chaos always on the verge of erupting into irration- alty and sustained violence- yet somehow held under and channeled into ritualized ag- gression. One suspects that the invisible parents are not actual- ly dead: that the fiction of their slaughter is perhaps a fantasy that fuels the games the child- ren have chosen to play in the atic as an alternative to any genuine action and responsi- bility. What is chiefly lacking from the play, however, as any im- mediate sense of movement in a particular line, any shaping force capable of elevating inten- sity to clarity, of elevating a heavy-handed "meaningfulness" to significance. It is not even " that these things are absent so much as that they seem, on first ==viewing, at any rate, to be large- ly unrealized. We are perhaps .";-told mre than we are shown, . and told it isin fashionably non- sequential _way. But mere state- ment is the busness of history and propaganda; what is neces- sary for drama-or any part--- is not statement but expressive- ness. And that is what appears htostoouncertainly embedded in the histrionics of The Crm- inals.. The cast is limited to three, all of whom aire young and all of whom are on stage the entire time. Given such circumstances and the play's own imbalances and unrealized possibilities, it is understandable that the pro- duction itself is not as uniform as one might-wish. It is perhaps also fair to give the performers credit for tackling the truly awe- some task of trying to enliven characters that are intentionally frayed and fluctuating. Of the three Miss Linda Sel- man was perhaps the most sue. cesful in giving substane to a role that is, at best, a shifting conglomeration of lights and shadows. Barry Primus as the boy was perhaps too conscious- ly "on stage" the whole time and Penelope Allen as the other girl spOke her lines with a heavy stage accent that seemed to call kinto question the closeness of ;".her kinship with the other two characters. The rather breathy lady baritone enunciation s h e gave to her lines was not cal- culated to create the most cred- ible of characters, to say the least. David Wheeler's direction was at least valiant, nicely shaped tp the claustrophobic atmosphere dfthe play and the set.- the latter by James Tilton. We do not seem to be living in a period particularly pro- ductive of exciting new plays or playwrights; yet The Criminals suggests that a playwright of strength and energy is alive and well - or as well as can be ex- pected - somewhere in Ha- vana. It would be pleasant to see something of his that seem- ed more fully a metaphor rath- er than a product of a pres- sure-cooker. By NEAL GABLER Alfred Hitchcock is undeni- ably a master film craftsman, fery probably unrivaled in the art of audience manipulation. Just when the viewer expects him to deliver the fatal blow... nothing. Then, at the most un- expected moment, blamC Sur e enough, he catches us off-guard. And, realizing that it is near heresy in our alienated society, I admit that I go to Hitchcock films precisely to be manipulat- ed, to become a pawn for his skillful manuveurs. Most of grew up during two periods of Hitchcock's career. In the first period, pre-1960, the films were all poured from the same mold. The protagonist, whether he be James Stewart or C a r y Grant or Henry Fonda, was an Everyman caught in a inextricable web of intrigue, forced to vindicate himself be- fore the mocking unbelievers. Though it was seldom evident, one ingredient in the suspense was our attachment to this av- erage Joe struggling against sinister forces. We cared about{ him, feared f o r him, and breathed a huge sigh of relief when he succeeded, as we knew he must. But in .1960, the master chang- ed the script. Since then, his films have suffered from t h e same malady. However, it is by no means an uncontrollable vir- us but rather the direct result of two quirks in the Hitchcock nature. The first is his notor- ious hatred for performers and, from the looks of his last few films, the feeling is mutual. The second is the indifference with which he approaches his ma- terial. He has proclaimed pub- licly that he held Leon Uris' Topaz in no special esteem but ... Topaz now playing at t h e State Theatre, like The Birds, Marnie and Torn Curtain, gets hit by both barrels. The unfor- tunate result is that the movie is peopled with manikins, not flesh and blood. I, for one, miss t h e vibrance of Redgrave in The Lady Vanishes or of Cary Grant in North by Northwest. The story, ill-suited to the Hitchcock style, complements the acting. It does give him an - opportunity to display t h e flourishes at which he is so adept. But where is the little man, someone with whom we can identify? Therein lies the major fault of the film. This is not the adventure of a man;' it is the unravelling of a process - a fictional account of how CIA-style intelligence , is gath- ered. I don't need* to tell you how difficult it is for a process to win our admiration, much less our affection. Topaz tells the story behind the headlines (quite literally at the picture's end) of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Defectors. Spies. Reconnaissance. Castro. T h e scene shifts between the Amer- ican intelligence network head- ed by Michael Nordstrom (John Forsythe) and the French net- work where Andre Devereaux (Frederick Stafford) is nominal- ly connected with the American effort. While it seems highly improbable, t h o u g h knowing this country, not impossible, the Americans need the Frenchman to Journey to Cuba to corrobo- rate information on the pres- ence of missiles. The plot-line is no great shakes, but I was carried along by the sheer momentum of the AFRO-AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAM LECTURE Ma r thing and, as a matter of fact, for all its faults I really liked it. It certainly isn't Hitchcock's best, but it isn't his worst eith- er. And I was very pleased to see so few of the shoddy process shots that have blemished his other recent films. There are enough little touches here to show you his genius, but he has forgotten a lesson he once knew well - a film cannot live on suspense alone. If I may say a word about Oh! What a Lovely War now playing at the Campus Theater. I reviewed it when it played on Moratorium Day and was dis- appointed. It is an error in con- ception rather than in execu- tion. Somehow in all the fun and games, my moral sensibilities were never shaken. I don't need so graphic an illustration of war's insanity as a dancing gen- eral. What e v e r happened to subtlety? (Black Panther Party) HILL AUDITORIUM Presented by CONFERENCE ON REPRESSION Ticket Soles - - - --Begin b2 UNION LOBBY $2.50 3.00 3.50 Sponsored by inter Cooperative Council 4 """"" Barry Primus: A criminal of sorts musicy-- Beyond Hog Farm psychedelia Dial 8-6416 ENDS WEDNESDAY. ;;Wf ARA T PmwIacr *Thursday@ "NANAMI" I TON IGH T AT 8:00! THE UNIVERSITY.: OF MICHitGAN O*QQQiO*@ PRFESSIONALI By JOE PEHRSON Live performances of elec- tronic' music are few and far between. The idiom is new, and normally good pieces for tape are simply not available. Con- temporary Directions, the School of Music's forum for contem- porary works, devoted a full pro- gram last Saturday night to this particularly type of new music, and clearly showed its poten- tia4for use in mixed media. Good mixed media is also hard to come by. Usually no one bothers to coordinate sound and visual effects, and most performances degenerate to Hog. Farm psychedelia. The perform- ance of Bulent Arel's Capriccio for TV was; something quite dif- ferent. The stage of Rackham Aud. was converted into a gigan- tic movie screen on which flash- ed carefully staged movements of the human form. Video tape presents a possibility for mul- tiple imagery, and since this was a film transcription of a work. done for tape,. images could se- perate and become transparent .imitations of the original forms. All this was done ..in colors which changed with the mood of the tape material. The elec- tronic sounds were somewhat too dependent on the TV ma- terial, but this is the first time I have ever seen an attempt at this type of synthesis. The pieces for electronic tape were of varying quality. The first piece presented - On by Robert Morris was a disappoint- ment. The electronic music stu- dio at the University is not elaborate, and perhaps this ac- counts for some of the simplic- ity , of this work. Electronic sounds were presented - and only that. Electronic music is .not quite that new, and the "groovys" and "heavys" that Morris must expect after each new sound were simply not present. Burdock Birds by Jon Apple- ton was perhaps the best com- posed electronic piece heard in this concert. High-pitched mod- ulated sine waves, imitating birds, served as the central fo- cns of this work. Every sound was well integrated in the com- position, and although the piece was only in stereo (rather than four-speaker) Appleton has a fine sense of spatial possibili- ties. Appleton is currently the director of the Electronic Music Studio at Dartmouth and this woik is an extremely r e c e n t one (1969). Originally perform- ed out of doors (where it ac- tually belongs) it forms a strange electronic antiphony to natural bird songs. Cambrian Sea by P e t e r Klausmeyer was composed last year at the University's facility. Although the wor1 is overstated in places, Klausmeyer has man- aged to evoke an image of an active i sea, breaking against electronic b a r r i e r s. Staccato sounds suggest a bubbling lava flow and we are certain his sea would be less enticing to bath- ers than Lake Michigan. Time Being by Russell Peck was the second mixed media work presented in the concert. It included both a live performer (Joseph D'Onofrio -violin) and a dancer (Linda Ellis). All the taped sounds were amplified imitations of the performed vio- lin sounds, and it seemed as if D'Onofrio's pitches became ex- tended through space to the four corners of the auditorium. The movements of Linda Ellis were constrained-she seemed as an- xiodis to escape from her body as the sounds were anxious to escape from their central-source, the "violin of O'Onofrio. All in all, a very thoughful work in many media. Schaum by Terence Kinkaid (also composed on this campus) ssemed to lack character. Some of the sounds were unusually well done, but the work was tedi- ous. Kinkaid hopes to add other media to this work Perhaps when this is completed his purpose will become clearer. Golden Wedding by Gerald, Plain combined concrete sounds (a music box and banjo) with sawtooth waves-which if prop- erly taped will resemble a string sound. Unfortunately, this was not a happy marriage - unity was lacking. Leave it to William Albright to out-freak anything on any program. As vocalist for Robert Ashley's The Wolfman, Albright yelped an accompaniment to a mono tape which dwindled in comparison. This Listerine de- livery was somewhat marred by Albright's irritating gasps for breath, but we can expect little more from a composition with no bite and so much bark. JANUARY 26 -31 I Prefe alwnsl remierI I U Jos TRIANA'S BACH CLUB presents DAVID LIPSON (genius/prodigy) speaking on "BACH'S SUITE MUSIC" with LIVE PERFORMANCE on Piano Refreshments and FUN afterwards WED., JAN. 28, 8 P.M. 1236 Washtenaw (at S. Forest, near S. Univ.). Everybody wet- come! (No musical knowledge needed). For transportation or further info. call 761-7356, 665-6806, 769-2003, 761- 4260. I S "First Play from Revolutionary Cuba I" "Rebellion of Youth Against Aged~ "Guerrilla War Against socie.1ty "Social Revolution Against Tyranny!" I London Times r Directed by DAYD WHEELER . TICKETS AT PTP BOX OFFCE WEEKDAYS: 10-1, 2 - P.M. 1 i. r. NO 2-6264 H ELD OVER! 2nd WEEK.. . SHOWS AT - 1 :00-3:05-5:10-7: 15-9:30 Prof. Charles V. Hamilton Columbia University Co-Author with Stokely Car- michael of Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America "Institutional Racism in America'7 Tes., ian. 27 8:00 P.M. Rockham Auditorium The Most Explosive Spy Scanidal of the Century! ,, H'7CUCOCKS a~ A('VRSLPCUR /EHNCLR He1lgdl I i 11 l I TU ES.-WED. I. I ¢ , d:, t' i - ~ f~ /11 American Studies Film Nights U 1 I = iii '°TE i 6s.L.......,m r -U . ... I I, :.V x OFFICE HOURS CIRCULATION - 764-0558 COMPLAINTS -9 a.m. - 11 :304a.m. SUBSCRIPTIONS - 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. CLASSIFIED ADS - 764-0557 10a.m. - 3 p.m. DEADLINE FOR NEXT DAY - 12:30 p'm. DISPLAY ADS - 764-0554 MONDAY -9 n.m. -4 .m. Te Geeral Buster Keaton "If the Cinema is an Art, who is the art- ist?" U RADICAL FILM SERIES TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK Presents I ,;., _ E 4 2 5 S A THE WORLD Directed by: SERGE EISENSTEIN (also known as OCTOBER) SILENT 1928 F'OX EASTERN TEATRES FOX VILLBG 375 No.MAPLE RD. -7691300, MON.-FRI.-7:15-9:15 SAT. & SUN.-1 :30-3:20- 5:15-7:15-9:15 " . among the movie offerings . . . indisputably the most significant . . , replete with magnificent scenes of mass movement, with amazingly observed characters, and with extremely striking and beautiful camera shots . . . a brilliant director."-Nation "...,epic substance . .."-TheatreArts Ten Days That Shook the World is a film classic. It portrays the Russian Revolution as seen by Eisenstein, himself a participant in the Revolution, who in the years which followed became the foremost film director in Russia. It was made as an "intellectual film" -an example of Communist art. "TL. .-- c.n rf n.a k rrs urt, ti nnurctic one: it nurpose is solely to produce convictions and to lead to actions. Dur- I R I I I U I II' ®E