Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, April 6, 1969 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunda...... A 7 ri.h.. . 1969 . theatre * Much Ado': A resplendent royal pageant By DEBORAH LINDERMAN The Royal Shakespeare Com- papy of England is, happily, in Detroit, with two offerings. One is Dr.' Faustus and the other Much Ado About Nothing. Beat- rice and Benedick of the latter being what they are, I was al- ready laughing -to myself before they came on stage. The sight of. someone laughing at an empty stage with a single piece of set on it made the people in C-1 and C-3 next to me look sidelong pointedly. Once the play *as well and crisply launched, however, everybody around be- gan. to laugh. But I, to my sur- prise, found my hugely raised spirits begin to taper off. The reason for this was, oddly. that the production was too profes- sioial. ,A professional production is a thing one sees rarely in these parts. Its being professional means that no mistakes show through, that talent does exude not only when the actor hits it right, but always has skill and stamina as its guarantor. The company's being on tour ap- parently demands no economy of either talent or energy, to say nothing of money. There are five different set changes in Much Ado, and several costume changes among (not between) the principals. Claudius is the only one of these who, appear- ing from beginning to end, re- mains in the ,same suit. The ef- fect of this, with all the others having wardrobes, is to make' one suppose that he needs a; change, that his old clothes are getting stinky. Since there are no rough edges at all, the per- formance is amazingly polished, but also well-methodized so that vigor gets removed from its source. Having no built-in scale to show off the moments of spontaneity and flair, one is left perversely wondering what it must be, like to do a matinee and evening performance of the same play the same day and whether the players weren't ab- solutely haggard with the toils of road touring. This is a subjective reaction and probably an unfair grabber, especially if it turns a positive into a negative. The man in his mansion, however, predictably comes to ,long for the ,modest cottage (wherefor the current vogue of beamed ceilings and distressed wood) suffering a nostalgia for the look of a thing in its rawer structures. The pro- duction, however stylish, seems a little overdressed. To "make do" with a couple sets, one cos- tume a person, and less hammy business, would throw the real facility of some of the company into sharper focus. The point is that the best spots in the per- formance are the least "tech- nical." The baton of the director, Trevor Nunn, is evident every- where. No one acts but he is reacted to, every jape and ges- ture counts. The result is a stage in perpetual, motion, which never has any still corn- ers. The set changes are all' done by the actors moving things on and off in open view between scenes. The scene changes are always punctuated by interesting sounds suggest- ing the Italian Renaissance town -clock-tower chimes, lute and mandolin harmonies. The per- iod sets, plentiful as they are, are- quite light, the two m o s t engaging of which are a big stone-like round bench for a town place, and some metal chairs cut to look like thrones on which the court people lounge casually in the first two acts as they enjoy Beatrice, now Benedick, holding nimbly forth. To watch these two play to each other is a pleasure. T h e parts are difficult because each part is so clever that the lines could easily upstage the actors. The trick is to make it drama- tically clear that all this word play is really sex play. Though they sound vicious, the frightful, anti-erotic tiffs are only "merry war". For example: Beatrice: I wonder that you will still be talking Signior Benedick. Nobody marks you.. Benedick: What, my dar Lady Disdain! Are you yet living? This flirtation of put-downs, in which each preserves some of his defenses, goes on till the end and the players (Janet Suz- man and Allan Howard) never let it get stale. For they do it with all good relish and seem to be thinking, not mouthing. In this game of getting' the last word, they become lovers only by having themselves talked about. Of the two, Beatrice is better. She manages to be genial and womanly, and with all the re- partee, never seems a feminist or a bitch. Benedick is dashing and it is funny to watch him fall with rueful insouciance ("When I said I should die a bachelor, I did not think I should live until I were mar- ried.") But he makes too much of looking uncomfortable and too often appears to be playing for a laugh. He over drama- tizes his lines by punching them with little jokes of face and body, like curling his lip and double-taking at his own words. Thus he turns into him who plays buffoon, instead of him comically helpless before na- ture's rule that the "world must be peopled." The heros of the play talk all the time, so the villain Don John (Terrience Hardiman) is "not of many words." But he is well- played by being well-planted and well-dressed (not in black). With no remitting of the melo- drama, his costume is red and magenta, his hair a kind of car- rot orange, his delivery affect- less and his face pasty with the look of a man that has enjoyed many funless hours. He broods over most gay scenes with a morose delectation. Borachio, his tool, is by contrast, florid and unabashed. With an extra- ordinary handlebar moustache, he nudges and back-slaps-a real trouble-maker. Anothercounterpoint to the generous teasing of the heros is the Dogberry crew. They ai e scruffy, dressed in greys, and hold themselves earnestly to high moral uprightness ("They that touch pitch will be de- filed"). Their scenes are very good. Ralph Cotterill plays Dog- berry as a decent, humorless, self-loving philosopher. The 605 E. William 769-1593 COMMANDER CODY and his lost planet airmen EASTER SUNDAY 8:30 P.M. to 1:30 A.M. $1.25 downstairs commoners that he is training to police concentrate doggedly on his "profoundities" and Ver- ges with pointed crown and white pallor, echos everything he does and says. In the scene when these apprehend the rogues Conrade and Borachio, they crawl up on them like beatles, and their - being more scared of the "criminals" than the criminals are of justice, is very funny. The scene also has its deeper dramatic rightness- the confrontation of "vigitance" (sic) and license forecasts that the comedy, threatened by the Hero-Claudius affair, can't fail. These "officials" indeed keep possibility of enriching the script the comic peace. Probably Director Nunn is the star of the play. If you like professionalism - i. e. don't tire of it - then it is a virtue of the production that there is not the faintest clanking of machinery to betray it. The di- rector has mastered the art of bringing together functionally on the stage, a large number of people. No possibility of enrich- ing the script goes unfulfilled- there is dance, song, drum-rolls and bugles, and gratuitous pa- geantry, all of which tell you that this is nothing if it is not on stage. No exchange is left unaccented. When for example Claudius and Hero are f i r s t united, their speechlessness in the script is dramatized by em- barrassment on the stage. They sigh, laugh, shrug, and finally clasp hands as Beatrice, impa- tient with Claudius' silly lover's apology - "Silence is the per- fectest herald of joy" - orders them to "speak." The scenes in the orchard are arrangements in themselves, especially the men's scene: Leonato, D o n Pedro, and Claudius talk to each other but look at Bene- dick's hiding place, all of them breaking up in fits at their own double entendre. All of the company know how to sit, stand, and turn. Though there are too many costumes, they are authentic (the design- er, Christopher Morley, has not been looking for new ways to perform Shakespeare) and at- tractive. The motif is Renais- sance - ruffs, cavalier boots, bodices, capes. The colors are worked so that there are either matches or complements among any group on stage at the same time, a feat both artful and un-! obstrusive. The music is nice, and though the Fisher Theater itself is fairly garrish, there are times when you cap feel you are enjoying a crackerjack evening in it. The Michigan Daily, edited and man- aged by students of the University off Michigan. News phone: 164-0552. Second Class postage paid at Ann Arbor, Michi- gan, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. Published daily Tues- day through Sunday morning Univer- sity ,year.gSubscription rates: $9 by carrier, $10 by mail. -Alleviate tensions between gen- ertions in the community by in- volving young people in the deci- sion-making process. (Paid Political Advertisement) 0 IMP14F OL Program Information: 662-6264 I Shows at 1, 3,57, 9 Feature 20 Minutes Later Also "WET & WILD" :I I I THIS SHERIFF IS HUMAN -TOO HUMAN- .: tit) - mmmmoommmo" ca.i...1 0 by mail , cinema Joanna': ice spare, parts _F-' ; , ! I, PETITIONING for two vacant seats on By GORMAN BEAUCHAMP Joanna is not a very good film, yet despite (or more ac- curately because of) its short- comings, I enjoyed it. It is much too shallow, much too slick, and much too eclectic - almost everything 'in it is borrowed from someone else. Imagine a film with the tempo of Godard, the camera work of Lalouce, the script of Tony Richardson, the playing around with time se- quences of Renais, and a sing- ing finale out of Jacques Demy. You will then begin to see what Joanna is like. Perhaps a really good director might be able to combine such promiscuous bor- rowings into a unified-and per- sonal-whole. However, Michael' Sarne is not that director. It is tempting to believe that he is really parodying other directors -a funeral out o f 'Bergman, a' Jeanne .Moreau a la Antonioni walk through the city-but I fear that he was serious. The filmis just a lot 'of bits, some ' funny, some anot, some more effective, some less. Yet, in the end, 'Joanna is less than the' sum of its parts. One is ,,t a loss to say exactly what sent the middlebrow -movie establish- ment-Judith Crist, Hollis Al- pert, -Time-into such parox- ysms of ecstasy. It would have to be a year of pretty slim pick- ings for Joana to be on any- one's Top .Ten.. Yet, for all this "collectiig," it was a film I enjoyed. It was irreverent, offbeat, wacky-and seldom boring. Although it tries too hard, it often succeeds in being funny. Joanna herself (Genevieve Waite) grows on you; that horrible squeaky voice of her takes on a curious charm. When the wife of a man with whom she is sleeping turns up one morning, suitcase in hand and children in tow, Joanna lifts ,her frazzled head from the pillow and pipes, "Oh-been away?" The acting is, on the whole, just right for this type of film - more caricatures than charac- ters-the whole Swinging Mod Generation bit. Glenna Foster- Jones, as Beryl, Joanna's friend, is enjoyable as a good time girl, repleat with two Afgans and a knack for living offuthe fat of the man.- Donald Sutherland, Beryl's brother and Joanna's lover, Gordon, comes on strong, sexy and strange. To talk about their affair as an inter-racial one seems irrelevant, although the film itself plays up the ra- cial angle forlaughs: in a fan- tasay sequence (lesbian) Beryl appears in an outlandish maid's uniform; or Joanna says to Gor- don, "I wish you were white. I think I'm falling in love with you." The film has some fun with the cliches of black-white relationships, but it is far too concerned with sex to take any- thing else seriously. The message of Joanna-de- livered with embarassing ex- plicitness in a 'Moroccan sunset --is live, live, live. You know, eat, drink, and be merry, for to- morrow. Have babies, not abor- tions. That sort of thing. With- out quarreling with his view of life, one may still regret having it hammered on so hard. It's more fun to watch-or do- than to talk about. Joanna is better when it is doing than when it is talking. But even the doing seems too effortful at times. m-m--m-COUPON-.-.m I I THOMPSON'S I PIZZA 761-0001; ,r r rOn a large one item (or more) r 'pizza. One coupon per pizza. u - Pick UpOnly I 211 E. Ann St.-Next to r the Armory r Expires April 15} Pmmm-mmmmmmm-- -gmg--. SG C Applications are available at 1546 SAB. Sign up for interviews and return applications by Wednesday, April 9, 5 P.M. M it I HELP FINb WART! Lost Tues. morn., vicinity Huron and Thayer. Information, please call Grace, 769-1280 or Dave, 665-4780-REWARD The American Friends Service Committee* (*a Quaker-founded group for service and social change) WILL HOLD ON-CAMPUS INTERVIEWS THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 9-5 at the SUMMER PLACEMENT OFFICE 212 SAB (downstairs), for: 4I l 11 CHANGE IN SCHEDULE ANN ARBOR RESISTANCE presents: Pasolini (Italian Marxist) The Gospel According to St. Matthew TUESDAY, APRIL 8 Canterbury House 7 P.M., 9 P.M., 1 1 P.M. (NO ADMISSION: contribute what you can) 1 NOTICE NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH All speakers of English as a second language* are invited to take part in an experimental test of English language proficiency to be given in AUDITORIUM A, ANGELL. HALL AT 7:15 P.M. ON THE 9th OF APRIL. You will receive $5.00 for approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours of Vour time. If you are interested you must call and register at thie following number 764-2416 on or before April 8th. SUMMER, PEACE & COMMUNITY RELATIONS WORK{ (caravans, group projects, placements) COMMUNITY SERVICE IN LATIN AMERICA OVERSEAS (E. & W. EUROPE, etc.) WORKCAMPS Some aid available for projects that cost. Applications welcomed from everyone, Those interested may register with Mrs. Cooper at the Placement Service (764-7460) or just drop by. Jnforma- tiQn and applications also available weekdays at the AFSC office (1414 Hill; 761-8283) * 1 ------------ * ;,s Ui:::'. - ' "NO ELI STUDENTS CURRENTLY TENSIVE ENGLISH COURSES ARE AT THIS TIME. ENROLLED IN THE IN- ELIGIBLE FOR THE TEST NOW SHOWING FEATURE TIMES -' ''I I 2 I C Help Bring Good Speakers to Campus. Be a Treas- urer, Publicity Chairman, Symposium Chairman, Winter Lecture'Series, and Individual Programs, and, Campus Coordnator. 4 I U U pI F 0