PA+GET O ,
THE MICHIGAii DAILY
WEDNESDAY. APRIL 12.1987'
PAGE TWO THE MICHIGAN DAILY
" + L 4:ia3 L7L'$, Al 1lil1J 1 i 1 JU
4
THEATRE
Anouiblh's Masterpiece: 'A Vision, Dream'
As Performed by Meadowbrook Players
Salisbury Criticizes Govt. Asian Policies,
Reviews Vietnam Travels in Recent Book
By THOMAS SEGALL break the production down into its
component parts. Director Robin
The John Fernald Company at Ray has made of them a unity,
Meadowbrook Theatre, Oakland so skillfully has he and his actors
University, has staged an all-but- breathed life into this vision of
tiansparent production o° Aro- Anouilh's.
ulh's "Waltz of the Toreadors." Successful Man
That's a funny kind of compli- Let's make a tentative attempt
ment. at visisection. The play is about
Robert Edmond Jones, the an outwardly successful man who
famous American stage designer is inwardly lonely and cowardly.
(O'Neill's designer), once said that General St. Pe (Joshua Bryant)
each play is a vision, a dream, has never given his all in life or
which belongs to everyone, and to love, and longs to. He can't bear
which the actor must remain to make people suffer, but doesn't
t r a n s p a r e n t. He must move realize that by not doing so, he
through it gracefully and silently will make them suffer a great deal,
so as not to upse its rhythm, not and will suffer a great deal him-
to break its spell. For the proper self. He lives in the past and is
job of the actor is not to describe, unable to see the present for what
present together? An amused ex-
pression, a slow, measured step
backwards, and we begin to real-
ize that he is cleverly passing the
romantic buck by playing the
daughters against one another.
They square off"and slowly build
to a cat and dog fight. With the
audience knowing what to expect,
one awkward move would ruin
everything. The fight was danced
as cleanly as it had been choreo-
graphed.
As so often happens in real life,
we do get one glimpse of the man
himself, as the General and his
wife (Angela Wood) trade des-
tructions. In this one scene Ano-
uilh manages to do what took
Albee a whole play in "Virginia
Woolf." The General has stayed
with his wife, not out of a sense of
honor, but because of his own fear
of life. She is in her sickbed; he
sits in her wheelchair. Two In-
valid souls. It is a pathetic and
terrifying glimpse. Just like Aris-
totle said it ought to be.
The lie has been given to the
General's aphorisms. Life is not
one long family lunch, to be per-
formed according to a long-estab-
lished ritual. What Anouilh, Robin
Ray, and all the Meadowbrook ac-
tors are saying to us is that you
must not play the little games if
they aren't worth it. You must
have the courage to hurt and be
hurt, to love and to give your all.
Life goes too quickly for anything
else.
The crusty and wise Dr. Bon-
fant (Booker T. Bradshaw, Jr.)
has the last word and the only
stated moral in the play: that
one must never try to uhderstand
life, or it will be the death of him.
One must lead life like a cavalry
charge. What a gift, to be given,
instead of a performance, a vision
and a lesson. This is what theatre
is all about.
"Waltz of the Toreadors" will
run through April 30. For the
theatre box office, phone 338-6239
in Rochester.
but to reveal, bit by bit.
Rare Occasions
it really is.'
Isn't this the lesson of tragedy:
On the rare occasions when a that the terms of life are ruth-
theatrical company is able to do lessly simple and the terms of our
this, as the Fernald company haf, imaginations ruthlessly complicat-
what is the audience left with? ed; that life is never exactly the
They age left face to face with the way we think it is? Yet the piece
playwright's vision and with the is hilariously funny and is played
reality beyond, which the vision as broad farce. What makes this
reflects and refracts. And when broad farce work is careful plan-
such a vision touches you some- I ning and bold execution. Let's take
where deep inside and moves you, one small example of how actors,
as does Anouilh's at the Meadow- and director can conspire together
brook Theatre, you can feel it, but sorcleverly as to become trans-r
you cannot always understand. parent.
We might say the play "works." Two Daughters
that semi-literate and wholly The General has two unattrac-
mystical comment that theatr e tive daughters (Jill Tanner, Pau-
buffs enploy whentthey can't an- lene Reynolds) who are both in
swver.the q u e s t i d n "How?" love with his handsome secretary
Well, it does work. But it is diffi- (Curt Dawson). How, asks the
cult to talk about the production! young man, can he give attentions
and the play separately, or to to either when they are always
Wiseonsin Students Protest
CIA Interviews on Campus
r
.7
NEW YORK R)-Even a settle-
ment in Vietnam will not banish
the problems of Southeast Asia,
Harrison E. Salisbury says in a
new book critical of Washington's
viewpoint toward that area.
"Establishment of neutralized
regimes in Saigon and Hanoi
would only be the start," the New
York Times correspondent writes
in reviewing his travels to North
Vietnam and nearby areas.
"It seemed to me that Laos rep-
resented an equally dangerous
problem. Laos had become a mere
fiction, a land which was in the
hands of an uncertain number of
guerrilla operations, some spon-
sored by the United States, some
by the Communists, some of!
purely Laotian origin.
"Unless Laos could be quieted
and sanitized, the whole theater
of struggle might simply shift
westward from Vietnam, with the
warriors of the CIA and the Chi-
nese International going at it
hammer and tongs.
"This would undermine thearea
dangerously. Cambodia had man-
aged to stay out of the war, but
it needed economic and probably
political support as well. Thailand
would be in trouble if it lost its
burgeoning war boom prosperity.
"Many considerations dictated
the creation of a strengthened in-
ternational control commission
with a broader mandate and gen-
uine powers not merely to police
these countries but to aid and
guide development. What political
DIAL 5-6290
form this might take I did not
know, but it should not lie beyond
the competence of American di-
plomacy to establish a structure
in Southeast Asia which would
make the region a going concern.
"This was the chance which
had been created by the unex-
pected developments in Peking and
their repercussions in Hanoi. It
might well be the chance of a
century.
"But I was not certain that
Washington could grasp the op-
portunity. Washington was tired
and Washington was stale. Wash-
ington, I feared, was filled with
too many men who had committed
themselves to so many past mis-
takes that they lived only for
some . crowning disaster which
would bury all the smaller errors
of the past.
"Perhaps those generals were
right who believed that the only
way to deal with China was to
atomize it. Bu I hought that there
must be another way."
Salisbury, one of the few.Amer-
icans admitted to North Vietnam
in recent years, pegs his book "Be-
hind the Lines-Hanoi" to his
visit there Dec. 23-Jan. 7. It is
published by Harper & Row.
He says he believes he got a
visa because Hanoi authorities
"had decided that the time had
come for active exploration of the
possibility of peace by negotiations
in Southeast Asia." He adds: "I
departed from Hanoi with that
TATE
Dial ,NO 2-6264
suspicion transformed into posi-
tive conviction."
His findings on the effects of
American bombing and his inter-
view with Premier Pham Van
Dong were previously reported.!
Dong asked Salisbury if he agreed!
with Charles de Gaulle's view of
the war and the French president's!
call for American withdrawal.
Salisbury says he replied that he
agreed in general.'
He speaks of "perhaps the fatal
fallacy of our whole bombing pol-
icy" against the North. "When
you totaled all the 'military ob-
jectives' in North Vietnam, they
didn't amount to much," he con-
cludes. "The best of them from the
military standpoint were the roads
and railroads. We were hitting
these with a tremendous amount
of muscle. But the supplies for the
Viet Cong and North Vietnamese
forces in South Vietnam still went
through.
"North Vietnam was paying a
tragic price in order that the
architects of our bombing policy
might prove its validity. But I
wondered whether, in the end, the
heaviest price might not be that
paid by us Americans for our
stubborn pursuit of a military
theory which seemed to have little
connection with reality."
He expresses belief the war can
be ended immediately by secret
negotiations if the United States
takes the initiative.
4,
SW
4 W V V . V VY T Y iTWV y yV t y w w yw wy
14
s s pS
, 1 1 1 1 ! 1 S i
The Pit' Portrays Man's
Neglect of Fellow Men
THURSDAY, APRIL 13
2:10 p.m.-The Center for Rus-
sian and East European Studies
will present a seminar led by
Leonard Schapiro, professor of
political science at the London
School of Economics and Political
Science on "Changes in Soviet
Party and Government Since the
Fall of Khrushchev" at the East
Conference Room of the Rackham
Bldg.
7:00 and 9:05 p.m.-The Cinema
Guild will present Herbert Biber-
man's "Salt of the Earth" at the
Architecture Aud.
(Continued from Page 1)
The CIA had originally been
scheduled to conduct its interviews
at a motel in downtown Madison
but was given space in the moot
court room of -the law building
upon its request to hold the in-
terviews on campus, according to
the-Daily Cardinal representative.
Later the place of the interviews
was switched to law building
classroom 231.
Interviews Rescheduled
Haslach indicated that the CIA's
interviews had been rescheduled
from the downtown motel whenE
officials learned of,. a full-scale
student march to the hotel that
had been planned.
Robben W. Fleming, recently
named to succeed retiring Uni-.
versity President Harlan Hatcher,
was not available for comment. He
had told student teach-ins in the
wake of the Do. sit-1n crisis ear-
lier this year that he defended the
right of students to be interviewed
by any prospective employer.
Dow Sit-in
During the Dowsit-in, several
students were arrested for dis-
orderly conduct when they block-
ed the door of the room in which
Dow Chemical Co. representatives
were interviewing prospective em-
ployes. Students 'were not able to
enter the office as a result of that
sit-in.
Fleming put up bond personally
for the arrested students. They
are presently challenging the con-
stitutiality of Wisconsin's disor-
derly conduct laws in federal
court. -
After last night's rally, a meet-
ing of the demonstration's ad-hoc
steering committee met to decide
what the protestors would do to-
day. The CIA will continue its in-
terviews in the law building.
According to one source close.
to the demonstration, the steering
committee is expected to recom-
mend that demonstrations be re-
peated today.
'Tremendously Successful'
The three learn-ins conducted
so far have been termed "tre-
mendously successful" by their
sponsors. Over 400 students at-
tended the learn-in held yesterday
afternoon after the rally. The sub-
jects of the learn-in were the
"actual and ideal role of the CIA"
and how the CIA ties-in to United
States foreign policy. CIA recruit-
ers were invited to address the
rallies but did not accept the offer.
Paul Sogrin, a member of the
National Student Association stu-
denticommittee read the protestors
a telegram from NSA National Ar-
f airs Vice President Ed Schwartz
in which Schwartz "regretted"
that he "couldn't be with you to
question CIA recruiters.' Schwartz
said he thought the university was
"an open forum" and that stu-
dents should have a chance to ask
questions of the CIA recruiters.
Ann Arbor playwright Norman1
Hartweg's bizarre one-act playt
"The Pit" will take the stage in
Trueblood Auditorium at 4:10 p.m.
Thursday, April 13. From it will1
erise a commentary on man's at-
titude toward his fellows in thes
world today. The admission is free.'
Playwright Hartweg received his
BA from the University of Tulsa
after spending three undergradu-
ate years at the University in the-
atre. He returned to the Univer-
sity speech department for his
graduate work and received his
MA in 1959. Hartweg worked as
the artistic director 4or the The-
atre Event in Los Angeles until
1966. He has also produced several
films.
"The Pit," under the direction
of University student Fritz Lyon,
'68, will be presented by the Stu-
dent Laboratory Theatre. "The
message," says Lyon, "concerns
man's unwillingness to take re-
sponsibility for his fellows. We
follow the hero through his trials
of trying to find someone to help
a little girl out of a deep pit into
which she has fallen; and after
successive appeals to a passerby,
the police, the newspapers and a
congressional investigating com-
mittee, he is arrested as a crimi-
nal, having threatened society's
conscience and disturbed the!
policy of non-involvement."
"The Pit" was published in the
Tulane Drama Review, from which
it received the John Golden Award
for Drama in 1965. It hasrbeen
done "all over," in Hartweg's
words, including radio dramatiza-
tion and an educational television
production in Boston.'
Hartweg views his work as a!
statement on the attitudes of peo-
Cinema II
presents
RITA TUSHINGHAM
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FRIDAY and SATURDAY-
7 9 & 10:30 P.M.
Angell Hall, Aud. A
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