N The Michigan Daily--Wednesday, June 28,1978-Page 5 Devils and Chekhov at Stratford By OWEN GLEIBERMAN Special to the Daily Aldous Huxley's book The Devils of Loudon has served as the source for two adaptations: a Ken Russell movie, and the play by late British playwright John Whiting. Both play and film are slick, sensationalist surveys of man's poten- tial for wanton evil and degradation, and in both, there is considerably less than meets the eye. Yet the Russell film, despite its repulsive and graphic The Devils by John Whiting Stratford, Ontario Mannoury . ........... ............. Eric Donkin Adam......Frank Maraden Ninon .. .......... ....... Alicia Jeffery Jean DArmagnac .......Rodger Sartnn Guillaume De Cerisay. roert Rattan Father Urban Grandier ........... Nicholas Pennell A Sewerman ..................... Richard Monette Louis Trincant .................... Robert Benson De La Rochepozay ........Douglas Rain Father Rangier . ........ Gregory Wanless Father Barre ...................... Max Helpmann Phillipe ............ . .........Barbara Stephen SistereJeanne of the Angels .......... Martha Henry Louis XIII......John Wojda Cardinal Richelieu................ ... Rex Southgate Prince Henri De Conde ............... Douglas Rain Father Ambrose....................... Rod Beattie Robin Phillips, director; Daphne Dare, ser designer; John Pennoyer, costume designer; Berthold Carriere, music; Michael J. Whitfield, Lighting Uncle vanya by Anton Chekhov Avon Theatre Stratford, Ontario Professor Alexander Serebriakovc.. Max Helpmann Elena Andreyevna... . ...... Martha Henry Sonya Alelxandrolvna .............. Marti Maraden Ivan Petrovich (vanya) .............. William Hutt Maria Voinitsky ...................Mary Savidge Dr. Mikhail Astrov ......... . Brian Bedford Waffles ............................. Mervyn Blake Marina .......................... Helen Carscallen Yefim......F. Braun McAsh Robin Phillips and Urjo Kareda, directors; Daphne Dare, designer; Berthold Carriere, music; Michael J. Whitfield, lighting scenes of violence, sustains an un- deniable emotional fervor that is sure to have one either on the edge of his seat or scrambling for the nearest exit. The problem with the Stratford production-due in large measure to the weaknesses of the material-was its failure to incite much emotion on even this primitive level. Where the play's dialogue never rises above glib ironies, The Devils lacked the visual flair and intensity that might have compensated for its inherent failures of will. DIRECTOR ROBIN Phillips tried, in mismanaged spurts, to charge the production with the same gaudy, flashy surrealism that pervades the movie, but this added up to merely an erratic assortment of theatrical gimmickry. The performance oscilafed wildly from stylized sensationalism (including strobe lights and raucous organ music) to tight-lipped, pseudo-literary dialogue that was heavier on flavor that sub- stsnce. The play, based on historical inciden- ts, chronicles the downfall of Father Urban Grandier (Nicholas Pennell), a worldly and very temporal vicar pur- sued by Cardinal Richelieu when he fights the state's demands that the walls surrounding Loudon be torn down. Grandier is a sophisticated, ur- bane man of the world, and righteous in his conviction that he may attain divinity through human love. His political entanglement with the heads of state is deepened when Sister Jeanne (Martha Henry), a hunchbacked nun who is prioress of her convent, becomes obsessed with his image as an outlet for her twisted sexual repression. She feigns being inhabited by a demon, and her nuns, wallowing in the same sexual repressiveness, are transf or- med into frenzied, animal-like creatures, claiming that Grandier has violated them. Grandier, pursued not just by Richelieu's agents but by the townspeople who are in an uproar over his sexual promiscuity, is tortured and burned alive. AS YOU MAY have gathered, this is whose inexplicably self-destructive nature allows him to die by the senses, since he has lived by them, is left up in the air. Pennel put forth a commanding presence, and his world-weary Gran- dier, the only sympathetic character, provided the only sane reference point mlChiganDAILY in a play crowded with violence so deliberately executed that it seemed other worldly. Despite Pennell's best efforts to embue his scenes with a sem- blance of realistic torment, the effect of the play was stilted-it is hard to care about one whose end comes at the bequest of a deranged, creepy gallery staged trivilaity. STARTFORD'S UNCLE VANYA, however, was another story. As with all of Chekhov's plays, this subtle master- work does not simply provide oppor- tunities for nuance--it depends on nuance for the very character of the performance. PTP's production of this play two years ago suffered precisely from such a miscalculated character: the play was inadvertantly converted into a slapstick farce that would have more aptly been titled "The Uncle Vanya Show," and the title character did not merely stew in the hopeless tragedy of his squandered life-he was such a pathetic whiner that one wanted to tell him to shape up or ship out. In the Stratford production, William Hutt's Vanya had a heavy does of spunk mixed in with his self-pity, and it was precisely this that gave the performan- ce an edgy poignancy. We witnessed the quiet yet devastating journey of a man whose smokescreen of witticisms evaporates to reveal a life consigned to nothingness. The final scene, with Pictured above are two performances from the current productions of the Stratford Festival in Ontario. Pictured left, in John Whiting's "The Devils," are Nicholas Pennell (Father Grandier), Robert Ruttan (De Cerisay), and Rodger Barton (D'Armagnac); right, in Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya," are Max Helpmann (Professor Serebriakov), William Hutt (Vanya), and Mervyn Blake (Waffles). the sort of material that would have en- of wicked hoodlums. The character of Vanya working on the estate's finances countered little trouble in obtaining the Sister Jeanne, played sympathetically ina meager attempt to push his failings Marquis de Sade seal of approval. The in the movie by Vanessa Redgrave,was out of his mind, was absolutley wren- play abounds in violent visions: Gran- given a purely frenzied treatment here ching. 'And the metaphorically an- dier, with head shaved, getting his legs by Martha Henry; but then, what is one ticlimatic end was executed softly and shattered; Sister Jeanne, doing her to say about a character intended to delciately, with Sonya's desperate cry devil shtick, snarling for all the world embody centuries of Christian sexual of "We shall rest" closing on a note like the reincarnation of the demon who repression? For all its violence, deeply grounded in the necessary ac- graced Linda Blair in The Exorcist. "outrageousness,'" and attempts td ceptance of human misery. Added to Exactly how all of this ties in with the grapple with weighty issues, The Devils this was the impeccable staging, in intellectual dilemmas of Grandier, was little more than a ponderously See DEVILS, Page 7 _-COUPON- 2 for 1 SpecIal -COUPON- Buy 1 Super Salad-GET 1 FREE Good: TODAY and TOMORROW June 28 & 29 NOT AVAILABLE FOR CARRY OUT GOOD AFTER 3 P.M. 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