i/ THE MICHIGAN DAILY Wednesday, September 18, 1968 . . ,, , , theatre I a HIt"iow SHOWS AT 1:30 & 7:30 TICKETS AVAILABLE AT F I romps with sophisticated pM Misa nth rope BOX OFFICE AT SHOW TIME rnnmwsrcecn splendor...Th nmos magnificenf picture ever! By M.J.B. ALLEN Youthful Savonarolas can be' very funny, especially when they're in love with sweet, co- quettish blondes; and one good way of taking Moliere's many- sided Misanthrope, is to make Alcestg's love funny to everyone but himself. The APA production' last, night did just this: it succeed- ed in making a play which is one of the most sophisticated and arch 'of all comedies into a romp as well Directed by Stephen Porter with an excellent sense of pace. and with a wonderful splash of Louis XIV costuming, this pro- duction is pre-eminently a tri- umph for its translator, Rich- ard Wilbur. He has given the actors a gorgeous -sequence of heroic couplets which allows them time and again to point. the rhyme and to pause in 'mid- line with telling effect. What's more, he has reproduced much of Moliere's own stylistic varia- tion by giving Alceste some, superbly blunt, colloquial lines, and by offsetting these withthe, mannered] hyperboles of Acaste and Clitandre. Alceste (Richard Easton) is delightfully rendered as a young man who's "jealous of all the world" and "unfashionably sin- cere." However, this is not the serious man who is cruelly mocked by rogues, the Alceste, whom Rousseau and the psycho- logists after him saw in almost a tragic light as a virtuous mis- anthrope. On the contrary, Richard Easton plays him as a boyish boisterous lover, a lover w h o s e b l u n t awkwardness, whose adolescent veering to ex- tremes gives a lightheartedness to the comedy, and his Interpre- tation is convincing. The end- ing leaves us, as perhaps Moliere meant it to leave us, not with a sense of finality, but with the sense that this is all going to start over again the next morn- ing. In fact, one of Easton's most marvellous moments is h i s "meanwhile" as Philinte (Syd- ney Walker) and Eliante (Pa- tricia Conolly) declare their love for each other. Celimene (Chris- tine Pickles) was a fine foil' to Alceste, cool when he was en- raged, on fire when he had cool- ed, and she was equally fine when she sat between Acaste (Brian Bedfords and Clitandre (Joseph, Bird) while they nib- bled her hands with obsequious delight. These two, and particularly - Acaste, provided the polar con- trast to Alceste and it was their -finely phrased flattery and their voluptuous complacency which delighted me again and again:' I remember Acaste's "and as for courage, I seem to have it," and his oily, mincing, supercilious all-meaningful smile. Oronte (Keene Curtis) also provided some amusing moments and. his malleable face conveyed almost as much as Acaste's smile. Indeed, all the males in this play are strong and deftly va- ried in their movements, in their diction and in their timing. The only weak spot, last night was the scene with - Arsifloe 'and Celimene, where Arsinoe just didn't seem to respond convinc- ingly to the insults Celimene was so delicately offering her. This scene could be one 'of the most intriguing, one of the most acid, one of the most amusing scenes in the ,whole play; as it was, it was rather flat. The Misanthrope is built on paradoxes. Fob' its first aud- iences it was alive with possible refeences to people they knew, and yet at. the same time it was impossible to pin down with any certainty. In some ways Alceste is a young Cato railing at the decadence of the times; in other ways he is an immature hothead who has yet to learn the social graces. Sometimes his misan- thropy strikes p h i o s o p h i c chords; sometimes it seems sheer pigheadedness. Sometimes we want Alceste to be more of his time and place, and at others we are glad that he stumps out of both of them ostensibly to find his rural wilderness far from the madding crowd. But this production softens these two-way tensions of the play by emphasizing Alceste's love for Celimene and by delib- erately pointing up her love for him. By doing this it creates an evening which is, above all, live- ly. The APA is to be con- gratulated. -- DIAL 8-6416 "A SIZZLER FROM FRANCE- (/r1 " I --I/i wRADLEY MJ!VrUe:R WILL BE THE MOST TALKED-ABOUT MOVIE AROUND! --WINS }r. l1yV1 lull hi ' LE SL I lO1ARC Friday and Saturday $ 5 Eves. and All Day Sunday-$ 5 -W inner of Ten Academy Awardsk lO$her $ 00 Performances # --- " TONIGHT and EVERY WEDNESDAY at A HOOT with Pamela Miles, Bob Franke, Jack Quine, Christopher and Sara, Paul Siglin, Paul Johns, and many others. FRIDAY 1421 Hill St. 8;30 P.M. Curtis, Walker, Easton (L-R): A lively Misanthrope' records WIy the Beatles really stink The following article was sub-S initted by: aDaily reader who differ with not only the view pre sente4 b~y Ralph~ J. Gleason i his analysis of the Beatles" "Revolu- tion" (published here last week), but-also with some prevalent at- itudes about the group itself- Ed. 11y .J ROMAN BABIAK I The Beatles are a group of sec- ond rate musicians. They need the help of large orchestras and 70-two-track overdubs to make a song sound good. The Beatles need George Mar- tin to rework their crude ideas into the refined middle-class taste-teripo that is easily playable on rock, country and western, easy listening pop and light classical. music stations. In other words their music is the lowest common denominator. hardly an indication of great creativity. The Beatles 'produce, not create, a semi-nothingness that everyone from Paul Bunyan to Tiny Tim find reminiscent of Mother and childhood diapers. The Beatles are the radicals' and teeny-boppers' tie to home They are the non-system group who made it in the system. (But were they ever non-system?), Could they- be the personalization of our $uppressed desires to get a job like dad's? The Mothers, at least, had the courage to say "We're in for the money." The Beatles put us on with ex- cellent publicity, great manage- ment (was Brian Epstein's con- science bothering him and getting in someone's way?). and apparent innocence. Someone's pulling a ,Techniques of Persuasion" act, and the world better wake up.: The flick, Privilege, showed how an establishment could control' a public and pressure it into con- forming by using a pop hero and the mass media. The parallel with the Beatles' career is frightening. Though I find it difficult'to think in terms of great conspiracies, something similar and deplorable is happening. Review the cheering crowds, the blind worship,the seeming rebel- lion followed by a repentant trip to India, the dispensing ,of free merchandise like pop corn to the pigeons of St. Mark's square, fol- lowed by the release of songs like "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" and one begins to wonder if LBJ isn't the real owner of Apple.\Next we will hear a direct statement from the Beatle godhead, ordering all American males between 18 and 22 to go directly to Vietnam, do not pass go or collect a career card. Why is it so hard to let a hero fall? Why must a secondary mouth like Ralph' J. Gleason, the super critic who can't tell black from, white, humbly list the Beatles' virtues and adnonish us for ques- I tioning their wisdom? Is his repu- ' tation and job at stake? The- Beatles wish tar mesmerize us into a world ofidiotic irre-. levance-which has always been their forte. A world where every-, one walks about repeating "love" and "it will be all right" for seven minutes to lull themselves into a false sense of 'security and well being.. "It will be all right" as long as, we have nuclear weapons and so- cities to prevent the proliferation of -nuclear weapons; universities and' free-universities; university built machihes who will go to work for Apple; free-university' built machines who will spend the rest of their lives wishing they could work for Apple. Regular season shows like Jackie Gleason and summer replacement shows like "The Prisoner." Everyone will work to - improve the economy, spread deep philosophical thought like "love . . . it will be all right." and help lull each other to sleep in the semi-nothingness of their childhood diapers. Why is it so hard to let such heroes die? BOB FRANCE and GENE BANKIN ' singing blues, ballads, contemporary and original folk music-playing 6 and 12 string guitar, banjo and harmonica. SATURDAY CUSTER'S LAST BAND (Jug) '(A massacre in progress) returns by overwhelming popular demand Want t see the Sandpipers. They're coming with ThebBobHope, Show SAT.UR DAY, SEPTEMBER 21 8:30 P.M. University Events Building Ticket price $3.00 Ticket Sales in the lobby of the S.A.B. and at the door on performance night Presented by Michigan Fraternities and Sororities vi FI v GUILDHOUSE FALL RETREAT' SATURDAY, SEPT. 21 At Saline Val ley Fa rms "The Challenge of America." Speakers and Resource People from the Economics Dept.-Examination of the influence which America exerts, particularly eco- nomic, in Europe and also in the developing nations. We shall attempt a critical examination. Meet at Guild House, 802 Monroe at 8:30 P.M. for travel to location, Good food-Recreation. Cost $2.25 ENDS TONITE Lose Something?. Find it with a Classified I - - a a s a a a a a p a a nr w w - -- - w w - -w - - CINEMA II "SHOP ON MAIN STREET" Dir. KADAR Academy Award as Best Foreign Film OCT. 4-5, FRI.-SAT. Aud. A-75c-ID required 1 / DRAMATIC ARTS CENTER Present SIXTH ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL-WINNERS AND HKHLIGHTS OFFON (Scott Bartlett) FILMPIECE FOR SUNSHINE (John Schofill) THE BED (James Broughton) SOUL FREEZE (Bob Cowar) LIBERATION OF THE MANNIQUE MECHANIQUE (Steve Arnold & Michael Wiese) RELATIVELY (Ed Emschwiller) Tues. & Wed. ARCHITECTURE 7-100 & 9:15 AUDITORIUM 662-8871 I. Gaily w, a 0 z 'T .:k : ~ - }r'1$,--t~A K- - - - &X11 1 h 1 ~ 3 K~- --I r 1 i l ' ., F d I STANLEY DONES ' TWO THEiROAD ELEANOR BRON -WILLIAM DANIELS- CLAUDE DAUPHIN NADIA GRAY - STANLEY ONEN * FREDERIC RAPHAEL -".. -HENRY MANCINI Ponovson* Cotoc by Detuxe 'NRGRNAI SOUNDTRACK ABUA AVALRE ON RCA VIC!CR RECORD$ 3r \ r it ICIIS AM "ABOUT.* Suede is the story here-combining with wool in John Meyer clothes with a proper country air. Their thoroughbred tailoring makes any rural scene. Pierced suede edges the brushed shetland cardigan $21. And suede binds the pockets of the Port Ellen plaid skirt with front pleats $19. Button-down oxford shirt $6.50. All in brilliant colors. At discerning stores. 4 I i iw i t 1. .1 I Y "" T I amm"Nada" CONTROVERSY "68" UNION-LEAGUE, 3OND, A. C. POWELL, FRANCOIS MITTERRAN D 1.