Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY w ThursdQy, October 15., 1970 Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, October 15, 1970 theatre Cactus Flower. Classical-fa rce By JAQUES The Ann Arbor Civic Theatre production of Cactus Flower opened last night at Trueblood Theatre. Abe Burrows" delightful comedy based on a play by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, is a classic farce complete with multiple sets, eachcontaining at least three doors, and multiple characters each with at least three lovers. More about the plot cannot be said without spoiling it for you-suffice to say that Cactus Flower is a very enjoyable evening. I was astonished by the number of settings achieved on the Triieblood stage. Designer Dwight Stevenson deserves credit for, great ingenuity in putting them all together, for the Trueblood stage has not only an apron, which is an excellent device for bringing the action of the play out into the audience, but also a second level about six feet back and three steps up from the regular stage level. For productions such as Shakespeare and the epics of Brecht, the floor plan is very suitable. It lends itself to pageantry. But it seems a needlessly limiting device upon those who,.would use this fine theatre for other styles of production. See Cactus Flower as an example. (While we're on real estate, is it not possible for the University to place a few lights in front of the Frieze Building to suggest there might be a theatre within?) The performance started off a little roughly. Robert Reinhart in the leading role insisted on punching his lines until they began to cry for mercy. They are funny and play well of themselves, if al- lowed. I would also suggest that- another night's run should tight- en up some of the timing which was about half a beat slow. Judy Levitt as Toni Simmons is delightful, but I think the part plays better with more naivete and innocence. She is an idealist, impractical and whimsical. As such she is set in sharp contrast to the solid Miss Dickinson. In this performance, she came out far too bitchy which destroys the essential humor of the situation. Betty Ann Gould as the nurse grew better and better as the evening went along. Her metamorphosis in the second act was breathtaking-costume credit here-arid one hopes that after the strain of opening night, she will relax a little more and enjoy it. Michael W. Bott as the writer, Igor Sullivan also started slowly, but in the end did a commendable job. Farce demands, precision of -character and precision of tim- ing. Civic's Cactus is still a little prickly on these two points. The humor comes primarily from the situation in which the char- acters unnaturally find themselves in. This is in the script or should be. In performance, the actor makes a mistake to think of his laugh lines as isolated instances, for when the audience is slow he tends to lean too heavily on the lines and away from the character which debilitates the humor even further.. This play is somewhat misleading to the amateur, for Burrows has in- eluded some lines which are genuinely funny in. and of them- selves. But a play is not a series of one liners strung to the end. There are many would-be playwrights strung end to end along Forty-Fourth Street as proof of that. A play is people reacting to a situation. It is the actor's job to make these people come alive. And for the most part, in Cactus Flower, they do. r re Oppenheimer combines relevance and repertory music- Stanley Quartet dispas unity By DONALD SOSIN The string quartet is perhaps, the most delicate relationship that exists in music, and to achieve a sense of unity in quar- tet playing is a difficult feat. To do so, moreover, when there has been a recent change of person- nel, poses problems that can- not be solved in a short space of time. The Stanley Quartet, which gave their first concert of the season last night in Rackham Lecture Hall, never- theless seems to have overcome many of these problems. Edwin Grzesnikowski has tak- en the position of first violin More Arts coverage on Page 6 which had been held by Gil- bert Ross, who founded the quartet in 1949, and just re- tired last term. One can only be amazed at how quickly the oth- er members. Gustave Rosseels, Robert Courte, and Jerome Je- linek have apparently adjusted to their new colleague. T h e playing throughout was precise and the quartet always func- tioned as a whole, with never the feeling thathone member was dominating, except, of course, when required by the music to do so. The program consisted of three works, the first being the Quartet in F, Op. 77, No. 2, by Haydn. The work is n o t particularly distinguished, but is pleasing and the Quartet's playing was assured and equal to the virtuoso writing. As us- ual, Haydn comes up with some surprises, in this case in the Scherzo, which contains rhy- thmic elements that look f a r ahead to the corresponding I4 movement in Beethoven's Op. 18, No. 6. The Andante is serene, and interesting in the fact that the theme appears in a work of P.D.Q. Bach (1807-1742). Leslie Bassett wrote his Five Pieces for String Quartet for this ensemble; it has become well-known in America and abroad, and is an effective work. Each movement follows basically the same pattern, beginning tensely, building to a climax, and dying away; this gives a unifying feeling to the pieces. The, repetition of various ef- fects irl combination from movement to movement also un- ified the piece: trills, pizzicato and setting off one instrument at a time while the others pro- vided a tense accompaniment. The endings of the pieces, al- though similar, were always poignant, 'usually fading into high harmonics. Once again, the feeling of true ensemble play- ing was all the more amazing considering that Grzesnikowski probably had a very short time in which to learn the work. Finally, William Walton's Quartet in A minor demanded the most concentration. It changes frequently in mood from lyrical to frenzied, but is always dynamic and powerful. The four movements are well organized, particularly the bril- liant Scherzo, played with a precision seldom felt. One criticism of almost all School of Music concerts is the lack of program notes. As knowledgeable as the Ann Ar- bor community may be, many people would undoubtedly ap- preciate knowing something about works which they have not heard before. At present, only Contemporary Directions c o n- cert programs have notes. The Quartet will give three more concerts this year and one can hope for continued growth in their new partnership. National General Theatres FOH VILLGE 375 No. MAPLE RD. "7694300 ENDS TUESDAY Mon.-Fri.-7:00-9:15 Sat.-Sun.-2:00 4:30-7:00-9:15 Barbra Yves Streisand / Montand 0On A 0iearpa the place to meet INTERESTING PEOPLE... BACH CLUB presents "P UCCIN: MAN AND ARTIST" a talk by WILLIAM LICURSE A A Fresh Idea Use Daily Classifieds L 71 TONIGHT AT 8:00! THIS WEEK ONLY! THE'NAVTRSF MCOMPA INTRODUCES IN inrofjtr ert "ENTHRALLING{ BRILLIANT!"OpE he mer OCT. 13-18 Do something different for dinner this Sunday I is Spaghetti Dinner T ime A great deal for only $1.25 OCT. 18 5-8 P.M. 1405 HILL, near Washtenaw I V I N AA C imo hi AIi The performance of Heinar Kipphardt's play, In the Mat- ter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, was a marvelous reaffirmation of the reasons why universities should support repertory com- panies. Michigan's Professional Theatre Program has, of course, been doing this for ten years, and the debut of The Actors Company put another feather in the PTP cap. Surely we m a y wish this new company as much success as WTP's first foundling, the APA. One of the major reasons, for assembling a 'company to play together- overan extended per- iod is to achieve "ensemble act- ing." This goal is to have each performer react on stage almost instinctively to his' fellows. It is such long associations which give -the final penache to the superlative performances of such groups as the Moscow Art Theatre and the British Nation- al Theatre. That this ensemble has not_ been achieved by The Actors Company should be no real disappointment, for their first effort results in a fine ev- ening of theatre. I was totally engrossed by the play and sur- prised at the end that we had been there three hours. The scene of the play is the 1954 hearings on the security clearance of Dr. Oppenheimer and presents an intellectually fascinating counterpoint of ideas. The theme is a scien- tist's responsibility in a world where the nature of his discov- eries force a division of loyalties between his government and mankind. In the course of the discussion about limiting one's personal freedom for the sake of the government was a very significant kernel which w e n t almost unnoticed. Do not gov- ernments have a similar respon- sibility tplimit their own sov- ereignty where matters of hu- man survival are at stake? Oppenheimer speaks at t h e end of the play of a re-evalua- tion of his life's thrust as it has played before him during the security hearing; he will change this pattern as a result of the experience and "study war no more." All this is well and good, but we do not see this decision ,See A DOCUMENTARY, Page 6 I I l f State & Liberty Sts. I3 I p f~ al Regents' meeting and demand more housing. In the New Ad. building TODAY -L"-E FOOD rn- " m eU CAMPBELL'S CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP 102 OZ.,CAN . . 15c WHITE OR ASSORTED KLEEN EX FACIAL TISSU E-200 2 PLY . .22c QUART . .49c 1 1 I STUDENT RATES 4c to 2c Econocopy 1217 S. Univ. 761-0087 I Joseph ELevnepresens An AvoEmbassy ff Tme peophi next door STUDENT ACTIVISM A World Wide Phenomenon a five-week Thursday lunch series of the Ecumenical Campus Center, 921 Church THIS WEEK-OCTOBER 15-12 NOON "Student Activism in Technological Societies" Speakers: GIACOMO, COSTA, Italy GABY ESPENSHADE, Germany DANIEL OKIMOTO, USA-Japan is an international "student culture" developing? Does the world wide movement have common roots? LUNCH RESERVATIONS: 662-5529 CREAMY-CRUNCHY SMUCKER'S PEANUT BUTTER KRAFT MIRACLE WHIP . . . . , STOK E LY CATSUP 14 OZ. BOTTLE " !. 0 0 6 ! 0 0.0 . . 16c 18 OZ. JAR 0 49c REG. 98c PLANTER'S MIXED NUTS 13 OZ. CAN * * * 0 * . 69c 2nd WEEK! OPEN 12:45 P.M. SHOWS AT 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 P. CHICKEN OF THE SEA CHUNK STYLE TUNA 6 OZ. CAN . 0 00 0 0 *29c .... l Ann Arbor Civic Theatre presents "CACTUS FLOWER" by ABE BURROWS October 14-17, Trueblood Theatre Ticket Prices: $2:00 -$2.50 Box Office Open Mon. & Tues., 10 A.M.-5 P.M.; Wed.-Sat., 10 A.M.-8 P.M. 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