re Two-
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, February 20, 1969
I I
theatre
4 curtain
call of
OVER NATtONAL E'JFRAL COPOrAT'ON
H ELD FOX EASTERN THEATRES q
3RD WEEK FOR VILLBGE
375 No MAPLE RD.-769.1300
an. entertaining
bastard
The Theatre
Will Be Emptied
After 7:00 P.M.
Showing Fri.,-Sat.
By MICHAEL ALLEN
John Osborne's The Enter-
tainer, though written over ten
years ago is still fiercely con-
temporary. It rages at us; it
indicts us; it tell us we're sick
and tired and beaten; it tells
us that we're bastards; it tells
- us. that despite all this it's bet-
ter to know the truth than to
pretend that everyhing's all
right, when it isn't.
However, Osborne's rage is at
times also childish; it becomes,
a lower middle class tirade at
an establishment that no more
resembles the MacMillan one
than it does any other. The play
is accordingly, a curious blend of
bitterness and genuinely de-
structive energy. When it is get-
ting at the draft or the govern-
ment, it is surprisingly up to
date. but weak minded: when it
is uncovering the network of
family and personal tensions it
is as fierce as anything in
O'Neil or Albee.
Directed by Mack Owen, last
night's production by the Uni-
versity Players was fine: he
consistently controlled planning;
of each scene, for each actor
knew what to do. With a f e w
minor exceptions, he is to be
congratulated. Genuine dra-
matic tension was created and
maintained from start to finish.
Grandad (Richard Beebe) set
the standard from the begin-
ning with a wonderfully can-
tankerous, kind, bluff perform-
ance, veering from a bearish
sweetness with Jean (Mary
Joan Negro) to bearish rage
when ribbed by his son, Archie
(Jack McLaughlin). For the
whole of the first half he dom-
inated the stage from his cen-
tral armchair and made the
play around him. He is the real
entertainer; in him are united
the appearance and reality,
which are so tragically and
pathetically at variance in his
son. Jean is the idealist of the
family, but she also believes in
a realistic approach to change,
finally abandoning the world of
Trafalgar Square . rallies with
the pigeons for the job of look-
ing after Phoebe (Maureen An-
derman) after Archie is jailed.
These two women made an in-
terestingly contrasted pair; Jean'
was still; Phoebe fluttered and
flustered and groped and
screamed and hugged herself in
a performance in which initial
nervousness changed into hair-
raising neurotic energy. Both
women were completely convin-
cing and their handling of the
emotional' curves of the play
never degenerated into scread'
ing.
However,( it it Archie w h o
dominates the play. He has to.
The play stands or falls with
him. It is an enormously diffi-
cult role, and in some ways a
highly disagreeable one. Archie
is a, bastard; he is cruel to
Phoebe and grandad; he is a
failure who moans about life
without doing anything about it;
he is pathetically lecherous; he
is often dishonest; he smiles
and smiles and is a villain. But
he tries once or twice in the play
to be honest with himself, and
I suppose this redeems him.
His pr i va te life event-*.. ...
ually manages to break through
the tawdry of his public life
as entertainer and engage us;
when he leaves the stage in his
raincoat we miss him; perhaps
even in a way we admire him for
being able r to laugh and rage:
we feel he has regained his re-
sponses. Jack McLaughlin suc-
ceeded admirably in getting
most of this across. In'the stage
scenes he was a little limited;
he hadn't' got enough of the
professional tricks. But in t h e
world, behind the stage he was
very .real and switched, f r o m
jocularity to intensity with com-
plete naturalness.
derriere slapstick
PARAMOUNT PIC1TURES p~W~nut
A 6N F FILM
FRANCO ZEFFIRELUI
Pr'oduction or
ROMEO
'JULIET
Showings
Dcily
1:30
4:00
7:00
9:35
9
ZAZIE DANS
LE METRO
Directed by LOU IS MALLE, 1960
French, color
CATHERINE DEMONGOT
"There's something not quite innocent or healthy
about this fQ mn." -'osley Crpwther
7:00 & 9:00 y5 ARCHITECTURE
662-8871 AUDITORIUM.
-Daily-Sara Krulwich
7Black Comedy'
By LESLIE WAYNE
Remember George Burns' mag-
ical television set? With this set,
George would sit back in de-
musted delight watching . his
friends and neighbors trying to
pull the wool over his eyes but
never quite making it. As Gracie
and Harry Von Zel thought
their attempts to plaster o v e r
their wrong doings could gg un-
noticed, George's all-seeing, all-
ko wing TV set,.revealed their'
-farcical actions.3
And while the anonymity that
surrounded Harry and Gracie's
action proved illusory,' the "pro-
tective darkness" that both trig-
gers the dilemma in Black
Comedy and might have provid-
ed the needed solution similarly
proves illusory in face of the.
wrongdoings of the various
characters. t
Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy
milks all the laughs from an
absurd situation by keeping it
on an extremely simple and to-
tally absurd level. A power fail-
ure brings a strange group of
characters-a homosexual, an
artist, the artist's ex-girlfriend,
his fiance and the fiance's father
all into the same room.
Where, in many cases, the
basic situation in this type of
of a comedy can be pushed
aside by tricky plot ievelop-
ments, the basic simplicity of a
power failure makes this a
comedy of sight rather than of
wit.
While, the actors grope and
grov lin the dark, bumping and
thunping, the resulting mis-
taken identies and "guess-who's-
hiding-in-the-closet-effect" land
each character in the wrong
place at the wrong time. And
the tenuously arranged situa-
tion created by the artist to
meet his greedy ends falls in
shambles.
The hilarity comes from the
bawdiness of the sight gags and
their immediate reaction to
screech or surprise rather than
from any type of dialogue de-'
velopment. Girls walk around
with their heart-shaped, red-
pantied rears waving in the air,
the artist grabs at the chest of
the stogey old maid, neighbor by
accident, and the cast constant-
ly manages to trip over its dwn
" feet for the security of a chair.
, Sometimes this type of humor
1can get a bit tiring; the con-,
stant bumbling and tripping at
times becomes the only humor;
the dialogue is mainlysin reac-
tion to the sight gags .- and
often ignored in the wake of
the gags.1
range from the farcically hilari-
ous to the innanely silly. Slap-
stick manages to carry the eve-
ning-or most of it.
Just as Black Comedy was de-
pendent upon the extension of
a single gimmick, White Lies is
dependent upon a similar, single
idea. Yet while the success in
Black Comedy lies in a constant
return and a development of all
the situational absurdities of
this gimmick, the theme of
White Lies doestnot receive this
care in development.
More ''importantly their own
self-deception is laid bare. While
this is an intriguing idea in it-
self, it degenerates into pendan-
tic preaching.
White Lies becomes melo-
drama, a too-serious parody of
its principals. The heavy hand
of Shaffer's pen is oppressingly
obvious. Through comedy and
melodrama Shaffer attempts to
cut through the veneer that we
define as our identity and real-
izes the absurdity of efforts to
maintain this special coating.
DIAL 5-6290
TODAY Shows at 1:00-
3:00-5:00-7:05-9:10 P.M.
BOB SEGERSYSTEM
Original Charging Rhinoceros of Soul
Tea garden and Van Winkle
Fruit of the Loom
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28
8-12,midnight
TONIGHT
DISCUSSION
S.D.S.
and
NTERVARSITY
'U
1421 Hill St
I.-
4
1.
EMU BOWEN FELDHOUSE
Ypsilanti, Mich. Adm. $1
FRIDAY
and
SATURDAY
Playing Guitar with original
he incredible
rGYPSY
music it very original Humor'
TICKETS AVAILABLE: Discount Records, Ann Arbor;
Hudson's; Grinnell's; McKenny Union, EMU
. _ __
__ - __ .
t
Violence increases
on Berkeley campus
TODAY
2 SPECIALS
r Unclassified '
1 m
Program informations 18-6416
O AA D L
(Continued from page 1)
highway patrolmen, suddenly
charged the' crowd, driving them.
back onto the steps of nearby
buildings. The police swung their
clubs randomly at the crowd and
made several arrests. 'That set off
the melee.
After the trouble subsided, Wil-
liam Bouwsma, vice chancellor for.
academic affairs, sent a letter to
all departments warning t h a t
employes and teachers who par-
ticipate in any violence wduld face
dismissal.
The student strike demands in-
clude creation .of a college, of
ethnic studies, recruitment of
more non-white university em-
ployes at all levels, and admission
of more non-white 'students.
t In Madison, Wis., by a close
,vote, the University of Wisconsin
'faculty 'recommended that the
lthree students expelled from Osh-
tkosh State -University not he ad-
Tnitted to the Madison campus.
'Their admission had been one of
the request of striking students.
Students from more that seven
colleges in the Philadelphia area
are sitting-in at the University
of Pennsylvania's administration
building, protesting their school's
involvement in a science research
corporation. .
Three-hundred students entered
college hall about noon' Tuesday,
and their number increased to
more than 1000 during the night.
Less than 100 waited last night
for a special meeting offthe. Uni-
versity Pennsylvanis -trustees to
consider te issues raised.
The protest is directed against
the construction of a new build-
ing for the University City Sci-
ence Center (UCSC), a research
corporation jointly by nearly a
dozen colleges in the area but most
heavily financed by the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania.
But at other times, the co
bination of sight and line g
can bring out quick, one-:
burlesque humor. The ar
accidently grabs at the derr
of his old girl. frienda
screams, "Clea, I knew ita
you."
Yet the question remains h
long a gimmick can stretch a
still not sag.
Dependence on the immedi
sight gag makes Black Come
DM-
ags
line
tist
iere
and
was
how
WINNER
EST
OOI I ACADEMY AWAFDINLUDISwN
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COLUMBIA PIARAE FRED ZINNEMANNS
ALL SEASONS5
Fromdie playby ROBEBT BOLT -"II nW
" SHOWN AT 9:00 P.M. ONLY "
-----_" PLUS
COLUMBIA PicURES PRESENTS
IN THE' TUU iECII1UIJIIIYIIIWI
BUR U NIFFIREI IU A ROYAL FILMS
PfOOUctIO NOF INIERNAIIONAL/fAl
IFTE IntWs''
" Shown at 7:00 P.M. Only "
Next: "Rachel, Rachel" & "Heart Is the Lonely Hunter"
E'
I
NoI
1
'' 'E'
I
I
February 21, 22
MAGiNI-FICENT ,SEVEN
Yul Brenner
Steve McQueen
James Coburn
Eli Wallach
"MAGNIFICENT"-Rhone
*F0 F- FH-H A
COLOR ~by e
United Artists
G-General Audiences
Next: Cliff Robertson "CHARLY"
... ...
m
__ . ----
-
THE
DRAFT
A discussion with
Dr. Charles Donahue
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
PITY POOR PAXTON GUIGLEY
He went to college to learn about love.
Now he's locked in an attic with three
beautiful girls, who are going to
teach him, and teach him, and
teach him that too much
learning is a dangerous thing
I
AMERICAN
INTERNATIONAL
PRESENTS
U-M LAW PROFESSOR
Dr. Donahue.is involved in a lawsuit against
General Hershey. He is fighting to establish
I . J 1 . .L L IJ-1
Guess what the
self-appointed
dorm snoop
)'VETTE
Mi mi EU/
Vy
C+ OsroNFRJONEs,
Pei
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