Sevent-First Year .F:IZTED AND MANAGFD BY STUDENTS OF TIE UNIVERSITY OF MIChI1GAN Where Opinions Are Free UNDFR AUTIIORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBI ICATIONS, Truth wul 1Prevai.." STUi)ENT PUBI ICATIONS BI DG, * ANN ARBOR, MICH. * Phone NO 2-3241 Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily ex press the individual opinions of staff writers or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints. STRATFORD FESTIVAL: 'Henry VIII' Fine Theatre, History AS A PLAY, Shakespeare's "Henry VIII" is definitely not the thing, in part because it does not go very far in catching the conscience of the king. As theatre and as history, however, it is colorful and exciting - and so is the Stratford Festival production this summer in Canada. Much care has obviously gone into designing the production; Brian Jackson's costumes clothe the play in rich splendour, and in the final scene the audience is greeted with a dazzling show of gold christening robes. Henry VIII appears in four costumes, two of which reek of authenticity and all of which hold the eye and attention of SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1961 NIGHT EDITOR: RUTH EVENHUIS 'Retribution' Stalls Equitable Settlement T HE AMERICAN SEIZURE of a Cuban navy patrol boat near Key West, Florida is as childish an act of retribution as the United States has pulled off in a long time. The boat was ordered seized on behalf of a Miami advertizing concern that has a $429,- 000 court judgment outstanding against the Castro government. It -has been suggested that the boat might be returned to Cuba in exchange for the East- ern Airline plane that was hijacked last month and flown to Havana at gun point. The lawyer for the advertizing firm, how- BASEBALL FANS BEWARE! Rapidly threat- ening the status of this national pastime is a new and more thrilling game: airline hijack- ing. Soon all Americans will be watching the score in this game as avidly as they now follow major league standings. But perhaps it would be best if the United States and Cuba got together and set down some rules of the game. After all, the Cubans, despite their anti-Yankee revolution, still play baseball. In any case a scoring system is need- ed: so many points for a DC-6, so many points for a jetliner, etc. T HEY COULD even give credit for the amount of planning and sanity of the thieves. For example, if a psychotic steals the plane, it is five points more than if a mere neurotic takes it. Another thrill of the game would be the "we'll (invade, take it to the Security Council, sue you) if you don't return it." And each side would be able to gain tremendous propaganda advantages. In time, a plane hijackers hall of fame could develop. But above all, if the House passes the death penalty, the game would ,take on the spice of the old Roman Colliseum. -D. MARCUS ever, said self-righteously that "We will under no circumstances consider exchanging legally seized property for pirated airplanes." ONE IS CURIOUS as to the mental sleight- of-hand that makes our seizure of a patrol boat "legal" simply because the government has ordered it. The game of "you steal one of ours and we'll steal one of yours and then we'll trade back" is reminiscent of trading cards and marbles changing hands on an elementary school playground. Aside from general ethical considerations, it is inexcusable for the government to issue an order to pirate a Cuban ship for a private concern, particularly when it refused to dirty its hands with the exchange of tractors for prisoners, because such barter was unseemly for an agove-board government. RECIPROCAL HIJACKING seems to be grow- ing as fashionable as sniping across the Israeli-Arab borders and is likely to become infinitely more dangerous. It appears highly unlikely that the United States and Cuba will eventually "come out even" after they tire of the counter-stealing act, and no one but the Americans will lose face. After preaching the golden rule in inter- national politics, the image of the United States taking .such petty revenge is that of a giant losing patience with a flea that has been biting him and slapping at it ineffectually because he never has any idea where it is or where it will go next. It is typical of our policy of constantly re- acting and never acting, but the "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" policy was never an official part of American foreign policy. AT ANY RATE, it is unlikely that anything will make Castro give up his new game before he is good and ready to do so. Playing along with him will only encourage the sport and stall any possibility of a mature and equitable settlement. -JUDITH OPPENHEIM -Peter Smith HENRY VIII--Douglas Campbell (foreground) appears as the masked king in a scene from the beautifully costumed Stratford presentation of Shakespeare's "Henry VIII." IMMENSE SUCCESS: 'oriolanus' Poses Questions the audience. While pageantry has always been an important part of the history plays as pre- sented at Stratford, it has not within recent memory assumed the proportions it does this year in "Henry VIII" BUT THE PAGEANTRY is nec- essary, for the play is not always able to sustain interest in itself. "Henry VIII" begins during his marriage to Katharine and con- cludes with the christening of Anne Boleyn's child, Elizabeth. Episodic in nature, the ristory considers the fall from power of Buckingham, Cardinal Wolsey, Queen Katharine and Cranmer in turn. Nor is this a study of power politics, for all are not guilty of wishing advancement,. Only Henry VIII seems to stand above the play, not as a complex figure of a man, but as king, as England, as serenity and justice and the hope that is finally ex- pressed in the christening scene. As Henry VIII, Douglas Camp- bell again demonstrates a fine acting ability; his portrayal of the king seems to bring portraits to life. Kate Reid's Katharine is a proud, proud figure that is every bit a queen. DOUGLAS RAIN'S interpreta- tion of Cardinal Wolsey is limited emotionally, perhaps as befits a man of the church, but not very helpful to an audience for the most part unacquainted with one of the least-performed of Shake- speare's plays. Jack Creley as the Duke of Buckingham and Bruno Gerussi as Archbishop Cranmer, like the other members of the company, are good at posing - and it is in posing that some of their most telling performances are given. "Henry VIII,", like "Love's La- bour's Lost" and . "Coriolanus," Stratford, has no weak members. George McCowan, the director, deserves applause for maintaining the usual high level of perform- ance throughout "Henry VIII"; in less capable hands, the produc- tion might well have been some- thing of a bore. Instead, "Henry VIII" at Stratford is beautifully acted, beautifully costumed, and a fine evening of history and theatre. -Vernon Nahrgang B ritish Systen Autonomous "TORIOLANUS" is one of a small number of Shakespearean dramas which leave the spectator overwhelmed with questions rath- er than answers. Although certain- ly a tragic play, it departs fur- ther from the Aristotelian norms of tragedy than "Macbeth," "Oth- ello," or "Lear," while ambiguities and flaws within the play itself allow varied and almost contradic- tory interpretations of its action. For the fatal flaw in the char- acter of the hero is less clearly delineated here than in the other plays. The damning sin of Corio- lanus is apparently pride, but it is a sort of pride which often seems justified and which, in places at least, can be interpreted as a kind of intellectual honesty, an abhor- rence of pretense and a refusal to participate in the two-faced po- litical machinations of civilian government. In the heights to which his arrogance rises, Coriolanus is far more deeply flawed than the usual tragic hero, yet one is robbed of the poetic justice of a villain's end by a compulsion to admire the very weakness that causes his ruin. The impact of the play is consequently rather diffuse, and its power depends largely upon the sensitivity of the performers' interpretation. * * * WITH this rather frightening responsibility taken into consid- eration, the Stratford company's production of "Coriolanus" is an immense success and one of the best productions of the past five years. By choosing to set it in the period of -the French Revolution, the director committed himself to an interpretation in which the hero's flaws and virtues are more closely intertwined than usual, for the Jacob in dress of the rabble, the target of Coriolanus's latred, brings with it from history a sense of power and terror, and to defy the masses when the masses are bloodthirsty seems a nobl thing to do. The immediacy of modern history makes the action lumin- ously relevant to the present time. Paul Scofield's "Coriolanus" is also luminous, and his restrained brilliance seems to dominate the play. Quite similar in mannr to Christopher Plummer, a former Festival star, but far less emotion- al, his coolness and his air of conscious self-control provide ex- cellent foils for the strange pas- sions which surround him. , Volumnia, the hero's mother, and often the most important character in the play, is played down by Elinor Stuart in this pro- duction and her obsession with valor, rather than dominating the character of Coriolanus, gives depth and explanation to it. * * * THE WARMTH which is lack- ing in Scofield is more than made up for by Douglas Campbell's Menenius. This amazingly versa- tile actor seems to have made Elizabethan English his own, for he manages to draw the audience into the humor and pathos of the poetry almost without their knowing it. Whatever Scofield lacks, he-as a spectator of the personal tragedy-provides, and the wholeness of the play results from th balance which the two between them maintain. The play manages beautifully to cohere and to impress, and Coriolanus himself somehow man- ages to seem like the first modern man, torn by the conflicts involv- ed in the rise of proletarian pow- er. Whether the spectator agrees with the Canadian interpretation or not, it is seldom one has a chance to see a production so clearly thought out and so con- sistently sensitive that the most negligible line can be important and the most insignificant char- acter can cast light on the mean- ing of the whole. -Jean Ashton THERE IS A LESSON to be learned from the British method of financing higher educa- tion. According to Prof. W.H.G. Armytage of the University of Sheffield, higher education is not viewed there as the political football it has become in Michigan, with each side maneuvering for political advantage without the least thought of the consequences of their actions. Take for example the question of appropria- tions. In England they are granted on a five- year basis; every university has its five-year plan. And, in addition, the opposition party IT Wapald Bons g2noagj Av o of lasg spulq it comes into power. Five-year plans are based on both capital outlay, on which the British have spent some 200 million pounds, and on the five-year pledges for operating funds. Certainly, this is a far superior system to annual appropriations which hamstring Michigan universities with the inability to make definite plans from year to year. THERE IS ALSO another aspect of educa- tional financing to which the state Legis- lature ought to pay close attention: British politicians simply do not dictate how money, either for operations or capital outlay, is spent. ANDREW DOWNIE ... Frederick Appropriations for education are made to the University Grants Committee by the Treasury. All public money for universities goes to this committee, composed only of educa- tors, men from various disciplines and institu- tions on a rotating basis. They appropriate all money. No accounting of how they distribute the money is made, nor do any of the individ- ual colleges have to make a public accounting either to Parliament or to any other body. The universities do not even have to follow their own master plans if they wish, though they do usually. PERHAPS this is autonomy carried a bit too far; traditionally, Americans have main- tained a system of checks and balances among their public institutions. And the public does have a right to know how its money is being spent. But it does raise a few valid questions. How are the legislators qualified to decide on edu- cational questions? How can a university de- velop if it must move continually between feast and famine at the whims of a body variously sympathetic and hostile toward it? The legislators and colleges of the state ought to take a good look at the British system. -DAVID MARCUS TALENT EVIDENT: clove 's Lab ur' N Soviets Face Test WHILE PREMIER KHRUSHCHEV threatens . the world with a monstrous superbomb to get his way on Germany and Berlin, President Kennedy chose to reply to him with utmost and "decisive" effort to ascertain whether the two probing actions the results of which should go far in determining our further policies. He announced that he is sending Arthur H. Dean, our chief negotiator at the test ban restraint at his press conference but also with conference, gack to Geneva to make one final Soviets are ready to sign a test ban treaty or not. If they are not, if they continue to insist on "control" by a "troika" team with a built-in veto, the President will make "appropriate decisions." WE STILL BELIEVE that these decisions should not be in the direction of resuming the tests, Khrushchev's monster bomb not- withstanding. Our own bombs are effective enough to meet all military needs. But the pressure for resuming the tests is mounting, not only in Congress but also as a result of a secret report which, president Kennedy said, t r trttr tt1 e has convinced him that without the inspec- tion system proposed by the West "no country in the world can ever be sure that a nation with a closed society is not conducting secret nu- clear tests." The other probing action will seek to as- certain whether any promising basis- can be found for peaceful negotiations regarding Ber- lin, Germany and Central Europe. To that end it will seek to get a "more precise defini- tion of the phrases, words and thoughts" ex- pressed by the Soviets, especially in Khrush- chev's recent contradictory speech. IN THAT SPEECH the Soviet ruler again pro- claimed his determination to sign a separate "peace" treaty with his East German agents to nullify the wartime agreements on "access" to West Berlin and to make further "access" dependent on agreement with East Germany. But in the same breath he renounced any in- tent to "infringe upon the lawful interests of the Western powers," whose primary "interest" is their right to stay in West Berlin and have access to it. Nor did he repeat his previous insistence that the "access" agreement with East Germany must be made by the Western powers, and he ruled out any blockade of West Berlin. THE TALENTS of one of the finest repertory companies in North America are very much in evidence in this summer's produc- tion of "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Canadian Stratford Festival, now in its ninth season. The comedy, one of Shake- speare's earliest, makes merry with play on words and the af- fectations of a large company that includes Spanish don, French lord, English schoolmaster, curate, and nobles; it suffers not at all from the individuals who may have been subjects of Shake- speare's caricature or satire being no longer known to a modern audience. *' * * IN BALANCE with the carica- tures of the old and "wise" are portraits, often more subtle, of the young and naturally shrewd. Among the latter perhaps, the character of the Princess of France seems to hold the balance between youth and age, sense and affectation; around her the play achieves its final realization of humanity. Add to the lively, ultimately moving comedy of Shakespeare an attractive setting: Tanya Moisei- witsch has designed this produc- tion of "Love's Labour's Lost" with a minimum of stage proper- ties and a maximum of the rich, colorful costumes that have come MICHIGAN: 'Naked Edge' Becomes COmic Catastrophe THE ADVERTISEMENTS say that nobody will be seated during the last 13 minutes of "The Naked Edge." If you're lucky you won't be seated during any of the other 107 minutes either. The main problem with the movie is that it is not at all the sus- pense thriller it is billed as. If anything, it is hilariously funny in an unintentional way that only points out its faults. First, the story: Gary Cooper is an American in London. His em- ployer is killed. Coop's testimony puts an innocent man away for life. At the same time, Cooper makes a "killing" in the stock market that sets him up in a big way for life. * * * J L ost SIX YEARS LATER, he gets a letter that has been delayed five years in transit accusing him of murdering his employer for his money. Wifey (Deborah Kerr) sus- pects that hubby has been up to no good and starts believing him guilty whereupon . . . Well, there's no sense revealing the ending. In fact, there is no v-: sense in revealing the beginning -'fEeither. Actually, nothing in the film makes any sense. 'Everybody knows that Gary is a good guy; and everybody knows that Debby is just having unwar- ranted doubts, about him. And after all, it must have been the butler (of sorts) who did it. ADDING TO THE film's sus- pense is Eric Portmann as the mysterious character. Every such film has a mysterious character. Totally irrelevant to the plot is Hermione Gingold who simply by acting delightfully stupid brings the film to some of its best mom- ents ("locked bedrooms make me feel guilty"). s Don Adriano de Armado speaks All the producers had to do in a tratford company's merry and film like this is produce a good Labour's Lost." story; but they fail abysmally. It is incredulous, and the viewer can- of Don Adriano de Armado the not even suspend his credulity. comparative reserve of the Eng- * * * lish stage -that demands a less THE ACTING doesn't help. outwardly emotional type of act- Cooper acts very stiffly and his ing, one that is however effective whole presence is incongrous with in his interpretation of Armado as the plot. Kerr is melodramatic. an old man much given to re- And the others? They're just hang- flection. ing around for the standard ac- gPiates' Ref reshing', THE ETERNALLY refreshing element of Gilbert and Sulli- van operettas is perhaps their ab- surdity. Like Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear; W. S. Gilbert was a master of nonsense, and nonsense in- dulged in for its own sake seems to have a greater lasting power than the bitterness of mere sa- tire. It is nonsnse and absurdity, in any case, which set the mood of the Stratford "Pirates from Penzance" and which insure the company the right to vary from the traditional the tone of per- formance. THE STRATFORD production is characterized throughout by a high level of precision and pro- fessional competence. All of the principal characters played in last year's "Pinafore," and they per- form this year with the same con- fidnece and vitality. The one ex- ception, Howell Glynne, comes to his role from grand opera and brings to it an exceptional bass voice and a comically deadpan face and figure. * * * ANDREW DOWNIE sets the tone of this year's presentation by playing Frederick, the reluctant pirate, as if he were mocking W. S. Gilbert's mockery of the ro- mantic hero. Usually played as sweet and rather stupid, Down- ie's Frederick is a poser and a fop. The rather brilliant exaggeration of his performance logically shifts the emphasis of the play away from Major General Stanley, or- dinarily the principal comedian of the play, but the change is an amusing one, and involves no dis- tortion of the script. If this year's "Pirates" is less successful than last year's "Pina- fore," it is because the play itself -an immediate follow-up by Gil- bert and Sullivan to the consid- erable success of the still new Pin- afore-is less inspired than its prototype and a little too closely imitative of it. THERE ARE FEW flaws, if any, however in the Stratford perform- ance, and the company's arrival here next fall promises to consid- erably brighten the local dramatic scene. --Jean Ashton I CONVERSATION-Paul Scofield as with the pageboy Moth in the S rollicking interpretation of "Love's] quick to swish William Needles (as the terribly dull curate, Sir Nathaniel) for a careless infrac- tion of Latin rules; and Eric Christmas, Mervyn Blake and Kate Reid are equally brilliant in other character roles as uneducated rus- tics. i i 7 j Task "M3EN IN MASSES are gripped by personal troubles, but they are not aware of their true mean- ing and source. Men in public con- frnn icctac nti *ha0,, n, .wa n~ro