Friday, July 25, 1975

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Five I

Friday, July 25, 1975 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five


'Jani
By ELAINE FLETCHER
Glorification of the working
class through the arts is far
from a phenomenon, particular-
ly on this campus. White mid-
dle class students, wracked with
guilt over charges of elitism and
perpetuation of an essentially
oppressive system, seem to find
a cathartic release of sorts by
canonizing blue collar people.
The latest contribution to this
genre is The Janitors, currently
showing at East Quad. The
working class heroes that auth-
ors Werren Hecht and Peter An-
derson have crafted for us em-
body all the standard cliches,
including salfy language and
sexual braggadocio. The 12 char-
acters, however, never tran-
scend t h e i r cardboard por-
trayals. ,
THE PLOT revolves around
a young man named Gardner, a
recent college graduate and as-
piring playwright who takes a
janitorial job to gather mate-
rial for a play.
As the evening goes on, it
becomes increasingly unclear
whether the janitors actual ex-
ist, or are merely products of
Gardner's fertile mind. It may
very well be that they are just
reflections of Gardner's reac-
tion to people who beat their
wives and brag about sex.-
Fascinated by the janitors,
GET
ATT fTON

ors' glorifies
Gardner sacrifices the more
earthly, mundane experiences
of janitorial life for a manic,
surreal perceptin of the work-
ers and their trsi1s.
Part of the problemi lies in the
fact that we never se the jan-
itors, except for Gardner, out-
side their work setting. Between
duties that are a voyage from
tedium to apathy and back,
Gardner has to crowd all his
most intimate conversations and
lively experiences.
YET, GARDNER seems to
have forgotten that most work-
ers with jobs like the janitors
do most of their living and have
most of their fun off the job,
and not on.
The point Hecht and Anderson
seem to be driving home to
students is that while we are
sequestered in our warm, se-
cure little Disneyland here in
Ann Arbor, pushing a mop for
six months won't necessarily I'U., >
help one regain a feel for' the
outside world.
One of the play's biggest
assets are the toilets, the most
versatile pieces of plumbing
ever employed. Observers of all
they see, they provide a kind of
porcelain greek chorus to the
ups and downs of the workers.
THE MUSIC is consistently
off-key; the singers can't sing;
and the dancers did not seem
to be able to stay in step with
each other. Yet, the play's
roughness seems almost delib-
erate, and in tune with the red
neck janitors w h o populate
Gardner's world. These human toilets,p
No matter how the play ends, Hoot and Vicki Honeym
the janitors are left with the and includes severali
realization that they will indeed
be cleaning toilets for the rest
of their lives. Gardner feels 11 1
similarly trapped, college grad
or not,
But the play is invariably a
prisoner of its own tired rhe-
toric about oppression of the
working class, and plans for the
revolution.

working class

Daily Photo by KEN FINK
performing in "The Janitors" are: (left to right) Valorie Gifford, Bob
nan. The play was preesnted in East Quad last night by the R.C. Players
musical numbers including the "Janitor Rock" and 123 others.
0i

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