Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, October 13, 1968 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, October 1 3, 1968 ~ -U theati Living Frankenstein': By GAYLE LENHOFF After four years of exile, theT6 e ' I Living Theatre has returned to The 1968 Frankenstei New York to create on the stage of t he Brooklyn Academy of Act IThe Old and the Music a mute and terrifying A mediation the purpose of which is to lead to hammer. monster. levitation.m Julian Beck and his wife, Ju-H dith Malina, founded the Living If it succeeds the play is consummated. How can we end hum Theatre in 1951. Sets were built If it fails it becomes a victimization. The Capitalist speaks of string, rags and scrap lum- ber. Actors were the radicals The net is thrown, the coffin is brought. The Oracle prophesie of the Eisenhower-crewcut era. "We were broke after our sec- Someone says NO. The Body reversed. ond production," admits Beck. Each new theatre was success- A procession begins. The Generals, the ively closed by fire regulations and accumulated debts. Others say NO Workers and the ex No large 'foundation ~would Automation. Noparge foundaion would They are hunted, they are electrocuted, they are support them because Beck could not afford to pay his ac- gassed, they are guillotined, they are racked, The laboratory is con tors Equity rates. The F o r d they are hanged, they are garrotted, they are The Cabalists build t] Foundation said if Beck could beheaded, they are crucified, they are shot. not finance professionalism, The Doctor implants they would not finance Beck. They plead for their lives. Body on the laborato Finally, in October 1963, the Two survive. Internal Revenue Service en- Foot, brain and eye a tered the theatre and declared' A storm rises. -that the building w a s seized. The failure of the hea The Becks had not been able to Prof. Frankenstein takes the heart of The afford income tax. Victim. Paraclesus appears a *Judith Malina asked the IRS tidee if she could ga into their dress- The Dead Shall be Raised. eud apears and or ing room for a small personala item. IRS refused. Julian Beck Burial by Church and State. Norbert Wiener app tore the door off its hinges ac- They lower the Hanged Man. electrodes. tors and crew, planted them- , selves inside the building and re- The Body is painted. The electrodes are at fused to come out. Beck called it "anarchist direct action.". The Workers scream. The Creature moves. The Becks were jailed, releas- ed, and opened up under a new name. of press dispatches, riots and the theatre 300 members of Stu- sac But, they had seceded from "scandales." dents for a Democratic Society sky America. In 1964, the group The Living Theatre returned protested, demanding to be let Ap went to Europe. For four years to New York on guarantee of a in. So the Becks agreed to give bo the Living Theatre, renamed 'le round trip ticket and opened an extra performance. Most of en Living,' toured the continent, vith Paradise Now. The climax the SDS delegation sneaked in suf drawing alternate applause and of the play occurs when actors through the stage door anyway, attack. and audience troop out into the condemning the Living Theatre uli The disciples of Artaud saw streets. The people loved it. The for not breaking the regulations wo them as ultimate actors - that police descended, and the Becks of the system. po is, sacrificial victims, immo- et al were arrested for indecent But the Living Theatre breaks pa lating themselves by their art. exposure. the system itself. Frankenstein, set They were ejfected from the The police demanded cancel- which ran for six days at the in Avignon Festival. They became lation of the next performance. Brooklyn Academy of Music I a legend fabricated by a welter But the show went on. Outside earlier this month presents a her NO 2-6264 The collective scream SHOWS AT 1 :00-3:00-5:00 7:10-9:10 Win a Aj m My ciam libretto Poor come with snow and an suffering. . The Marxist march, Capitalists, the Marxists, explanatory Voice speak of structed. he Golem. s the Victim's heart in the ry table. re grafted. art. and directs the graft of the ders the sexual graft. ears and advises the use of tached. rificed, Icarus falls from the y, the Four Horsemen of the pocalypse ride by, the Word is rn and the police arrest the tire cast who break jail and ffer death by fire. At one time, the program sim- taneously included the entire irks of Ibsen. This is made ssible by the use of a com- rtmentalized scaffolding for a t. A separate action can go on each unit. The performance is incompre- Tnsible without a libretto pro- am which lists each action. he action is a cross between a schian circus ; and the Span- Inquisition. Any suspense must be main- ined by the physical feats of t actors. But aside from three four moments when the rhy- im and spectacle are breath- king, the acrobatics are clum- and ill-coordinated. The act- g - when any conventional ting occurs - is painfully amateurish. The cast has no training and it shows. There is no art in the Living Theatre, and this is precisely why they are so remarkable. You have to see them. They are a le- gend. Their theatre is them- selves. They don't want your money, they want your soul. The Living Theatre proclaims themselves as a "collective scream." They are welded to- gether in a Frankensteinian commune by frustration, hun- ger and a fantical devotion to, their work. "The price t h e y pay," ob- serves playwright Kenneth Brown, "is often a loss of per- spective, a collective insanity, an Artaudian madness that fills a theatre with hollow fore- boding and shattering pretense." And they reveal a fundamen- tal truth. There can be no true theatre in American society. By true theatre I mean acom- pany in which there are no "stars," a troupe trained from youth in mime, physical dex- terity, combining Meyerholdian dynamics with emotional truth. A troupe containing within it- self technicians, and a. director who has the gift of creating each succeeding play in its own organic form. That does not and has not e v e r existed in this country; I don't believe it ever will. The Living Theatre is the closest we have come. We lost them. Europe had this in the twen- ties in the Russian theatre stu- dios of Stanislavsky, Meyerhold and Vakhtangov. Berlin had it with Brecht's ensemble. And be- tween huge time gaps, now and Phone 434-0130 EM Uaa CARPINTER ROAD then, theatre will live. But those times cannot be preserved as old films can be hunted up and re- vived. This is the tragedy of the Liv- ing Theatre, for although they are the closest we have come to total drama, they do not live beyond themselves. They go through rites, death rites -last rites of the theatre? After 3%/ hours of Franken- stein, the stage darkens, and a man cries out, "Thank God. I can't believe they've finished." The audience laughs and ap- plauds him. The stage lights flare. ,The actors applaud the audience. 4 Plus "PLrANET OF LIFE" "NO ONE Admitted Under 18 Unless Accompanied By A Parent" WHAT ?YOU'VE ONLY SEEN F"T HE G RA DUA TE" ONC E ? ? * NEW FUOS! There comes a time when you have to take a stand for peace, against war for love, against hate for freedom, against blind force for sex, against puritanical fascism for me, against you ACADEMY AWARD WINNER BEST DIRECTOR-MIKE NICHOLS J 'I I/ JOSEPH E. LEVINE P"ENTS A MIKE NICHOLS-LAWRENCE TURMANrouvCW This is Benjamin. He's a little worried .abot his futur'e; rid THk GRADUATE TICOLOR PANAVI$IOrt SUNDAY 3-5-7-9; Mon. and Tues. 7-9 The Fugs have a new record.. It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest RS 6305 monster formed of Freud, Par- acelsus, Norbert Weiner and victims. Our society has created these people who lift the mas- sive limbs of Frankenstein to- ward the audience. They fright- en us; they are thin and mus- cular, young and hard. They have lost their innocence, and they remind us that we too have lost what innocence we possess- ed - and replaced it with a lie. They want to form us in their image, and we, in turn, demand that they rebuild themselves. Frankenstein is not a play. The dramatic confrontation- is between 'the audience and the actors. It 'is a silent battle and it lives. The plot is a collage of vio- lence and mythology. Between; the creation and the liberation of the monster, Cabalists build the Golem,' Daedalus learns to fly, Zeus rapes Europa, the Min- otaur is born, more victims are gra Th Bo ish tai the or thn tak sy in ac I F +' :- JR[fAfN{s EU6[ AND.. d iscount r300 S'.STATE, 1235 S. UNIVERSITY. I STARTS WEDNESDAY Marcello Mastroianni in Albert Comus' "THE STRANGER" SUBSCRIBE TO THE MICHIGAN DAILY 1-1 HILLEL 1429 H ill St. Today at 5 P.M. Deli House Members $1, Non-members $1.25 II If i "THE FIG TFOR *; k Boschian circus, Spanish Inquisition Dial 5-6290 i iii SHOWS AT 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 P.M. I T co .. r Y ..; . d4 °S : GUILD HOUSE' 802 Monroe Monday, October 14 NOON LUNCHEON-25c "CITIES, URBAN PROBLEMS" (Speaker to be announced) Tuesday, Oct. 15th NOON LUNCHEON BILL SCOTT Series: "Anti-Intellectualism and the University" HIGHEST RATING! "AN ARTISTICT ACHIEVEMENT!" rachel, rachel is the best written, most seriously acted American movie in a long time." -N.Y. TIMES * fl XY"EL __0h NEXT FRIDAY, Oct. 18--"BARBARELLA," BILL BAIRD Founder and Director of * Parents Aid Society Expert on Contraceptive and Devices V -_ _ -- -- - - I RUSS GIBB presents in Detroit BIG BROTHER and THE HOLDING COMPANY with JANIS JOPLI N One Nite Only TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15 GRANDE BALLROOM Grand River at Beverly I Saturday and Sunday LOS OLVIDADOS D t Directed by Luis Bunnel, 1950 a Other Alternatives HILL AUDITORIUM _. . r. { F T DA 2:00 pen. I Y ftft I TICKETS $1.50 on sale Hill Auditorium Box Office Open Sunday at noon Open Reception after program at Kappa Sigma Fraternity,806 Hill St. . " I, . , I !I I 3 [I, 4 ;