Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Saturday, September 5, 19701
Characterizing 'The Merchant'
FOH VILLGE
375 No.MAPLE RD.-769-1300
Tues.-Fri. 7:25 & 9:45
Sat.-Mon. 1 :00, 5:10, 7:25, 9:45
Director Jean Gascon's Mer-
chant of Venice at Stratford,
Ontario is enjoyable to say the
least. Compounded with amaz-
ing charicatures and an inter-
esting study of Portia, Shylock
and Antonio it is even better,
but it is essentially studies of
each character and scene that
makes t h e production hang
loosely together; not an homo-
genous whole. -
Donald Davis as Shylock, the
Jewish money lender w h o is
more interested in his ducats
than his daughter, plays t h e
role without the often applied
stereotypes - no forelocks or
large hooked nose. He plays him
greedily ferocious and under
Gascon's guide the aspect of the
Jew is shunned for what Gascon
believes to be the basic moral in
the play, ". . . generosity - the
sharing of life's riches with oth-
ers."
We are introduced to a new
Portia in this production; one
who no longer judiciously de-
feats Shylock with her "quality
of mercy" speech, but with her
wit. Maureen O'Brien acts like
a young girl who happens to be
just slightly more clever than
the others around her. Artistic-
ally she downplays the 'Mercy'
speech so that the audience
hardly knows t h a t one of
Shakespeare's speeches is ap-
proaching. According to M i s s
O'Brien, she had discovered on
tour that her first approach, the
traditional judicious Portia, was
not well received - that the au-
dience became alienated from
her, so she dropped it all and
played it her new, much more
effective way.
Slightly effeminate Antonio,
played by Leo Ciceri, is portray-
ed with casual grace bringing
out the full understanding An-
tonio has for his own life and
situation and the compassion he
has for his friends.
Though each of these char-,
acters are f r e s h and new to
Shakespearian audiences they
remain individual. Interaction,
though necessarily p r e s e n t,
stops the moment t h e actors
leave the stage. This technique,
however, allows a new singular
development for the characters
and is marvelous for the set of
sketches of Portia and her for-
tune's many suitors.
Artistic designer P e s m o n d
Heeley has taken these scenes
and made them tableau images
in black and white elucidating
Gascon's charicatures. Powys.
Thomas, as the Prince of Mo-
rocco, enters in an a r r a y of
black-black bodyguards, black
costumes, black flags and black
skins. White surrounds Thomas'
face and his thin crook of a nose
stares, almost as a third to his
white eyes, over-dramatically
but humorously out at the au-
dience. Just a movement of his
head creates a totally new
study in black. And then . . .
In a flounce of white appears
the foppish Prince of Arragon
(Eric Donkin) typifying the
English mood towards the gen-
tlemen of Spain in the time of
Shakespeare. To complete the
tableau, he is surrounded by
men of the Catholic C h u r c h
who pray continuously in their
white purity and piety.
This production of Mer-
chant is a wonderfully enjoyable
display of Jean Gascon's ability
to bring a new creative inter-
pretation of Shakespeare to the
stage.
L. H.
1,
ELECTIONS '70
..
l
'I
PROF. JACK WALKER, Instructor
Course in contemporary political issues which will
include work in the.1970 election campaigns, lec-
tures by University dnd non-university authorities
and discussion groups.
-Douglas Spillane; Stratford, Ontario -Douglas Spillane; Stratford, Ontario
Kenneth Welsh and Maureen O'Brien
in 'Cymbeline'
Maureen O'Brien as Portia and
Powys Thomas as Morocco in 'Merchant'
T-Th. .3-4
Nat. Sci Aud.
By LAURIE HARRIS
Shakespeare's Cymbeline is a
concoction of every gimmick and
motif the bard ever utilized.
Director Jean Gascon has taken
it as such and measured into it
carefully applied humor plus
each trick and style the Strat-
ford stage has ever used before.
The creation? - fantastic.
Start with two brothers, sons
of King Cymbeline, stolen from
court twenty years earlier. His
daughter, Imogen, is jailed for
marrying without his permis-
sion. Add the conniving witchery
of the new queen, the daugh-
ter's virtue falsely exposed dur-
ing her husband's banishment,
a potion that doesn't quite work
in the manner prescribed and a
7basketful of mistaken identities.
It all comes together with a
'happily ever after' ending that
sounds like Jewish Geography
placed in ancient Britain, (so
you're related to .. .). That
is Cymbeline and it takes Jean
Gascon to make it a polished
web of riotous nonsense.
King Cymbeline, Powys Thom--
as, is a ferocious and yet laugh-
able bunderer, blessed o n I y
with the authority of his crown,
who banishes his daughter's
husband because he is a com-
moner.
Prompting him in this action
is his second wife, Pat Galloway
as the wicked, flame-haired
queen who desires -to secure the
throne for her son Cloten by
marrying him to Imogen, the
king's daughter.
Cloten, Robin Gammell, is like
the twenty year old who is still
going through adolescence -his
voice changing, charmingly
clumsy and boisterously Ibreten-
tious.
Leo Ciceri is the wily Italian
who cons Posthumous, Imogen's
banished husband into a wager
over her fidelity. Clever Iach-
imo falsely proves Imogen's in-
fidelity so Posthumous orders
her death. She is taken to the
woods and discovers the tender,
masculine Belarius (Mervyn
Blake) and his two adopted sons
who actually are her long lost
brothers. And the plot goes in-
tertwiningly on.
Gascon has left nothing out
as people creep in and out of
trunks, die and reappear - or
maybe they don't die at, all. Even
/the lovely Imogen (Maureen
O'Brien) makes love to a head-
less, bloods corpse who, of
course, isn't who it seems to be.
The scene is at first repulsive
and slowly becomes comical as
one is taken in by the absurdity 4
of the entire situation.
Designer Tanya Moseiwitsch
has carried the fairy tale into
her incredible costumes a n d
sets. The witch of a queen wears
a thorny crown that reaches up
Poli. Si. 300
Div. No. 450
4 credit hrs.
no prerequisites
Plus Discussion
Sections
TheArk
(off ehdouse
Welcomes You
Back to
Ann Arbor
With another
semester of
fine traditional
music
Read and Use Daily Classilieds
...
-
"It is beyond all question a major
work by one of the few true masters
the film form has yet had. Visually
it is a tour de fdrce, a feverishly
brilliant succession of grotesque
and macbre images which make the
fantasies of '8%2' and'Juliet of
I
the Spirits' seem
as child's play"
-=Los Angeles Times
141 Hill $STT
SATURDAY t
The Queen of Cymbeline (Pat Galloway) lectures Imogene
(Maureen O'Brien) and Pisanio (Bernard Behrens)
like fingers covering her turban
of bright red hair. (Walter Kerr,
of the Times, says to see the
show if only for the costumes.)
But the climax to this fantasy
comes with the thundering en-
trance of a silvered Jupiter a-
stride a golden eagle seemingly
as large as a Boeing 747. Clouds
of billowing organza smoke fill
the stage making the viewer
realize Cymbeline is only as ab-
surd as our most believable
dreams.
It is no wonder that Cymbe-
line is rarely produced. Often
thought to be among Shake-
spear's worst, Jean Gascon dis-
cards this taboo with skill, as
though he had dreamt it all up
himself.
The Michigan Daily, edited and man-
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Summer Session published Tuesday
through Saturday morning. Subscrip-
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GET YOUR MAN'WITHA
Want -
Sept. 5, 6-Sat., Sun.
SHOOT THE
PIANO PLAYERI
dir. FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT (1961)
STARRING: Brooklyn's French
gangster CHARLES AZNAVOUR
Half thriller, half parody, one of the Greats
of the New Wave, and a lot of peoples'
favorite movie.
Sept. 7-PILOT PROJECT
WEEKEND.
dir. JEAN-LUC GODARD (1968)
7 & 9:05 4Architecture
67 &29:0575c Auditorium
I
Rome.
Michael.
TwCooney
young men proved to
be both natural show stoppers
and serious performers of rare
skill. Bob Dylan and Michael
.-San Francisco
Examiner
"Cooney drew a standing ova-
tion until he reappeared."
-Tucson Daily Citizen
' .in proceeded to amaze
. other words one doesn't
talk about M.C., one lIistens
to him."
-Mich. Daily
$1.25
4-0
Before Christ."
After Fellini.
0
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141 Kill STREET
1615
"'
UNIONSEAGUE O
SHO'
'70
"If you see with innocent eyes, everything is divine"
-FELLINI
F
presents
CAN-CAN
An ALBERTO GRIMALDI Production
"FELLINI SATYRICONi
SAT. 1 P.M.
(AFTERNOON)
FREE
Woody
Guthrie
Workshop
by Guthrie biographer
DICK REUSS
SUN. 8:30
Bob Franke
composer of songs good
annh to1- Ic Ihn,,arnntia rl 4the
SS
EETI
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starring
MARTIN POTTER . HIRAM KELLER - MAX BORN - SALVO RANDONE - MAGALI NOEL
ALAIN CUNY.- LUCIA BOSE - TANYA LOPERT. GORDON MITCHELL with CAPUCINE
andeyy by FEDERICO FELLINI and BERNARDINO ZAPPONI
COLOR by Deluxe* PANAVISION* Unud Ar hsts
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