THE .MICHIGAN DAILY

Saturday, October 19, 1968

THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, October 19, 1968

'

Vive la revolution

=theatre
at the Canterbury House


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-Daily-An
One of the bawds from the Mime Troupe's burlesque
~Manif red': NlATow we glfo back

By DANIEL OKRENT
In a prepared press release,
the San Francisco Mime Troupe
quoted a critical source who
referred to the group as "cheer-
leaders of anarchy." From the
context, it was implied that
this was an insult; in my con-
text, however, it is apt, fulsome
praise.
The Mime Troupe is leading
cheers indeed. Its members are
assuming roles of direction and
incitement. They are filling the
artistic gap in the forefront of
the radical movement. Just as
Sartre incited the troops dur-
JIng the Paris riots, these men
of letters are calling the moves
for future troops in the U.S.A.
Much of it, I suppose, is self-
congratulation: the profit motive
is castrated, the War in Viet-
nam is defiled, meter maids be-
come the target of anti-system
guerrilla warfare. None of the
audience at Canterbury House
last night needed to be prompted
on any of these questions, but
just as Martha Raye serves a
function for the USO, the Mime
ay sacks Troupe operates of and for the
Movement.
Once this very basic fact is'
realized, and once the viewer
adjusts his perspectives accord-
ingly, the virtues of the Troupe's
* * * materials and the talents of its
members can be appraised.
n is alone The Mime Troupe's stylistic
not make vehicle is hardly what one would
But the think fitting for revolutionary
the tor- art and politics: the broad bur-
all kinds lesque of Renaissance comimedia
irits and dell' arte at first seems not to
of the apply to Here and Now. But the'
ie dwell- Troupe successfully points out
ke for a that the touring minstrels- of
illed. To 15th century Italy were into
mbue the something that too few artists
sense of today recognize: that the true
communicative aspects of cre-
owl quite ativity are mostly ably forward-
Manfred, ed when performer-audience
peaks his barriers are abolished. This is"
taking it not merely to say that a phys-
A lot of ical stage and admission prices
elivery is (both of which the Troupe em-
straight- ploys at least on tour) should
iaps this be eschewed. Moreso, the lan-
Sis indig- guage, the emotions, the sensi-
ret it is a tivities , of both audience and
:raft well-,
ctions of performers are one.
is to lend So there is much vulgarity, al-
me. most an overabundance of local
that the reference, and some very broad-
ayers will ly stroked political flavoring.
nterprise that one could never presume to
s" where be subtle. The main number last
etween it night, The Farce of Patelin, is
ng aud- a grotesque blast at materialism,
ly. no question asked, no pause of-

fered. The actors-notably Jael
Weisman and Michael Alaimo-
make good use of the solid har-
mers of bawdy farce, and the
total effect of material and pre-
sentation is not unlike a bene-
volent blast from the stage that
titillates, rather than enrages,
the audience.
The second half of last night's
show--a puppet show mixture of
"Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and
Grand Guignol-is similar. The
content could have been created
by any clever member of the au-
dience as easily as it could have

'' r -+


Modern mastery


By DEBORAH LINDERMAN
Perhaps what the Lord Cham-
berlain's Players' production of.
Byron's Manfred tells best is
that there is such a thing as
literary periodicity. The very
convincing program notes by
Director Bert Hornback about
its universality notwithstanding,
-Manfred is bsst read immed-.
iately before you go to see it,
and then gone to be seen for
the pleasure of watching a lit-
erary museum piece come-alive-
before-your-very-eyes.
The company does it with a
kind of earnestness which is no
doubt meant to resurrect the
thing as a full-blooded Roman-
tic and "Byronic" drama, - in,
which the hero trades ordinary
manhood for the knowledge of a
things not dreamed of in heaven
4nd earth: he's had "enough of
day's already" and "can'bear inj
life what others cannot brook

to dream." Having superhuman
communion with Spirits and
Destinies, he longs for commun-
ion with his dead sister Astarte
(Sara Germain), symbol of in-
cestuous desires for his own
deeper half. Of course, even with
the help of said Powers That Be,
he cannot reach her, and fin-
ally with much torment learns,
heroically, to die, simply a man.
Though doubtless such a
theme can have its subtleties,
and for some its interest, seen
as a dramatic spectacle, its thin-
ness does not bear up. There is
always a large curious gap be-
tween the art and the matter.
One would like to suggest that
camp would be a good mode of
production for Manfred, if pro-
duced and dramatized it must
be. The company does, not ex-
ploit gothic eccentricities, and
seems intent upon focusing on
Manfred's "real torment" (ex-

been done by any member of the
cast.
So I'll let the San Francisco
Mime Troupe lead our cheers,
I'll let them lead our pagan rites
-we all know how badly we
need somebody to do 'this. But
there is still reason for hesita-
tion: If all the real talent avail-
able is busy exhorting the good
guys, who's going to explain
things to the bad guys? I guess
it's reassuring to know that Amy
-Levitt and Brooke Ha'rr'ow of
the APA were out on the floor
leading the applause for the
Mime Troupe last night.

emplary lines: "The lion
and so am I. I would r
but find desolation."'
lack of dimension in
ment, combined with
of comically literal sp
witches and figments
other world beyond th
ings of the earth, ma
stage which is unfulfi
fulfill it would be to it
production with some
self-irony.
As it is, the demons h
well; Donald Hall as:
clad in cowl of black, sl
line in good voice, but
all extremely seriously.
fun is lost because his d
not even dead-pan, but
forwardly heroic. Perh
was what pure Manfred
enously meant to be, y
mode which does not g
onto the ironic predile
Now,'even while it seem
itself to these all the 'ti
One hopes, however,
Lord Chamberlain's Pl
find its own, for the e
has a potential "in-nes
a fine bond of humor b(
and its literary-looki
lence would thrive nicel

By JOE PEHRSON
The 1968-1969 Festival of
Contemporary Music presented
the first concert of its annual
series last night at Hill Audi-
torium. The greatest diversity
of this program may be attri-
buted to the two compositions
"Stabat Mater" and "Threnody
for the Victims of Hiroshima" by
the modern Polish, composer'
Krzysztof Penderecki.
Usually, a program of con-
temporary, music is organized
chronologically,. with the earlier
composers and their respective
works first on the program, fol-
lowed by the works of the late
avant-gardists. Penderecki, how-
ever, in "Stabat Mater," has
composed a modern sequel to
traditional church music using
a 13th century Latin text. This,
of course, was the initial pre-
sentation. In using three four-
voice choruses which, in turn,
chant a diatonic Gregorian
motif and echo in .a descending
half-step pattern the original
themes; Penderecki, has created
an effect similar to three-speak-
er stereo, or three separate
choirs placed at opposite ends of
a cathedral.
This effect is best illustrated
in the second section of this
work, in which the three groups
whisper a -pitchless text in a
canon-like figure, imploring the
blessing of God. The ending, a
surprise major triad, shows the
intentional parallel between the
early classical "works and Pen-.
derecki's modern version.
The second Penderecki com-
D IA L 5-6290
4th and
FINAL
WEEK

position, played twice during the
concert, opened in a manner
similar to the later works of
Alan Hovhaness with a viola ex-
position followed, in turn, by'the
entrance of the other sections.'
Through the use of non-tonal
sounds (i.e., the sound of a
stuck sounding board) Pender-
ecki has evoked a bubbling
sound, a sound almost indica-
tive of boiling lava. This, of
course, is more than appropriate
in any musical study of the hor-
rors of Hiroshima.
Arnold -Schoenberg's "De Pro-
fundis," an' example of his later
attempts to deviate from his
previous twelve-tone formulas,
is a setting of Psalm 130. The
text, in the original Hebrew, is
illustrated musically and ver-
bally using Schoenberg's tech-
nique. of Sprechstimnime, or talk-
muisic.
Paul Cooper's "Concerto for
Violin and Orchestra" was per-
formed excellently, as were all
the other works' on the pro-
gram, and the lyric passages of
the Cooper piece were skillfully
presented by Prof. Gustave Ros-
seels on violin.

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PAULSEN-FOR-PRESIDENT
Gigantic Political Rally

IN PERSON

PAT PAULSEN

-Dailly--briePergeaux
Donald Hall in a leotard???
TONIGHTat 1421 Hill St.
8:30 P.M.
Frank Allison
(from Miami, Florida) singing blues, ballads, and'
folk-rock music accompanied by g itar. -
$1.00 cover includes free food!

Also Featuringt
The 1st EDITION.

BELLE,
dE
JOUR
~-.with
CATHERINE DENEUVE
Next: "Inadmissable Evidence"

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October 30th-8:00 P.M.
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59:20Grand River
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4th and
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****HIGHEST RATING!
"AN ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT!" --N.Y. Daily News
rac e, rachel is a double-barreled triumph! Joanne Wood
word is extraordinary-Paul Newman's direction is excellent. This is
Joanne Woodward's triumph and should make her a prime contender
for an Academy Award." -David Goldman, WCBS Radio

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G
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EXPANDED CINEMA is a revolution. A new way of seeing. A new way of thinking. A new
way of being The imageC is the idea is the word is the act.' Expanded awareness. A taste of
the essences. Expanded Cinemna says it. It says ;Revolution.
THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER with the DOORS-The Doors do their thing
GARDEN OF PROSERPINE by Ben Van Meter-latest film by this most talented cinema genius.
"Nymphs in the woods," "exotic," "sensual."
MYSTERY OF THE LEAPING FISH-Douglas Fairbanks in a hip silent comed classic. "An opium
eating detective on the trail of opium dealers." "Wild."
PLASTIC BAG by Wardall-parody on plastic American society.

0'Ol

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