& Page Six Tuesday, August 10, 1976 Arts & Entertainm ent THE MICHIGAN DAILY TABLE TALK Ken Parsigian "NO, NO, NO," I heard Bruce say as I approached the bar at the club. "It's true that technical expertise is important in bridge," he continued, "but psychological expertise is of at least equal importance. In rubber bridge, anyway." "Take yourself," he said to Jeff, who had been listening the whole time "You bid perfectly. You never bid yourself into an unmakable contract. And if there is a way to make a hand you will usually find it no matter how difficult it is. Yet, still you lose," Bruce continued. "You see the essence of rubber bridge is- "The essence of rubber bridge," I interrupted, "is knowing how much you can gamble against each opponent. Against you, Jeff, one must play a steady game. But against an opponent like Philthy. Why it would be a sin to play him like an ordinary foe! Against Philthy one must bid unmakable contracts, and find a way to make it. Which usually isn't too tough with Philthy on defense." "Yes, my friends, the most important thing in bridge is to know your oppoents. Let me show you a hand t played just this afternoon," I said as I picked up a penci, and scribbled this on the back of a napkin. North ^Q V Q f A Q 10 x x x ..Kxxx South 4 A J 10 V A J 10 * K Jx .ยข A x x x Giving them just a moment to look over the hands, I wrote down the bidding. South North (t) 3c id 4nt 4c lnt Sd 6h 6d 7nt 6s "What insane bidding," cried Bruce. "What fool could have bid 7nt with the South hand. Why, 6d is clearly the better con- tract. Anyone could see that." "I'm afraid I must agree," said Jeff. "By the way, who was South?" "I was," I replied. "But my bidding was completely sound. You see, you fellows haven't taken into account one important factor. Just as it is important to know your opponents, it is also necessary to KNOW YOUR PARTNER! If I were to have stopped in diamonds, partner would have played the hand. And with Philthy as my partner that simply would not do" "But why not stop in 6nt?" asked Bruce. "Surely if you expect partner to make 12 tricks on this hand you can figure me for at least one more," I snapped back. "Be- sides, it was a good contract. It depended at worst on one of two finesses." "One of two finesses?" said Bruce with a quizical look on his face. "Impossible," proclaimed Jeff. "A 7nt contract that depends one of two finesses is simply impossible" "I said 'at worst' one of two finesses," I explained. "As it happens both finesses were off, yet I still made my contract." "Then you didn't take either finesse?" queried Bruce. "On the contrary," I replied. "I took them both." "Both?" said Bruce, looking more confused than ever. "B--b-b-oth?" said Jeff, who was too dumbfounded to even mutter his favorite 'simply impossible.' "Perhaps I should just show you how I played the hand?" I asked. Since they were both too dazed to respond, I decided to proceed. "West led a small dianmod, which gave nothing away, and I won in dummy. Next, I led the Queen of spades and waited to see East's card. Now, Rich, who was sitting East, has played bridge for a long time. And like most of us, he has heard a lot of little sayings about how to play. But Rich, unlike most of us, follows them all blindly. Third hand high, when in doubt lead trumps, never finesse your partner, and, most important to this hand, ALWAYS cover an honor with an honor. Thus, when he didn't cover dummy's Queen, I knew that West held the spade King, and I won the trick with my Ace. I re-entered dummy with a diamond, and played the Queen of hearts, again watching East closely. Again he played low, and again I swon with my Ace." "Seems to be getting pretty sticky," said Jeff smugly. "Not at all," I replied. "In fact, it has become quite simple. Since West is marked with both Kings, I need only find him with three or more clubs, to wrap up this grand slam. West did have' three clubs, and all I had to do was cash dummy's diamond, keeping four clubs to the King in dummy, and the spade Jack, the heart Jack, and the Ace and a small club in my hand. West was helpless. He couldn't keep three clubs, and both major suit Kings. And if he threw one of the Kings, the Jack in that suit would simply squeeze him again on the next round. Now, West muttered something about my good fortune, but you can see that there was no luck involved. Knowing both my partner and my opponent, I simply gave myself the best choice of making the hand, didn't I?" :::,r.'.':if"i9S5 1f=: .",;r:%?YwKr /.f: f". . . ?'.f.. ,.: - .. . ::'. .::.. ... 5 .... /... } !'f .t f'.:;r F= . ..." ;. ;.r. . t_ DANCERS SWAY through the closing ceremonies of the Ann Arbor Medieval Fair on Sunday night. The fair, which was carried through the last two weekends, included theatre, dance, music and crafts exhibitions. Medieval Festival sla ugh ter s 'AbeP7 By TIM PRENTISS THE ANN ARBOR Medieval Festival's presentation last weekend of a Wakefield cycle drama did not exactly strike the fear of God into the hearts of its sinning observers. It tried to give up a taste of those Dark Age laff-riots now known as morality plays-but the prehis- toric acting was destined to abort any attempt at medieval staging. For one thing, the loose pro- duction of The Killing of Abel on the School of Music lawn failed if its intention was authen- ticity. While t can't speak from personal experience, t'm sure that not even the most barbaric of medieval denizens would have stood for such a slow, awkward show. Most of the comedy was ill- timed or forced, and the few moments that evoked laughter were due to happy accidents. At one point, Cain's whip got caught in a cow's horn, prac- tically ripping the paper con- strtction to shreds. Another high noint occurred when brother 5hel gently set down the paper t--b he was to sacrifice in mes to the glory of God, only to wat it roll over in the wind mI the fail to burn. THE PLAYERS had an un- fortunate and somewhat tedious tendencv to contradict the points which the play had originally set out to make. For instance, Cain was a well-meaning, wronged worker who was too broke to put anything in the collection plate this week. 'The martyred Abel, on the other hand, was a nagging, self- righteous religious type, whose death was a decided relief. Is this the kind of guy you want for a brother? Not guilty! Which makes one think that the Festival's portrayal wasn't quite what it was meant to be back in the Middle Ages. After all, strolling players were then supported by the church to teach the heathen serfs 'the true story.' It's a safe bet they wouldn't have gotten away with this production for long, dif- ferent as it was from the original parable. OTHER, more acceptable con- cessions were made to our mod- ern age. At one point, an ex- ploding pot of flash-powder sig- nalled the appearance of God, above a wooden sun. God was a woman with a blond afro, no less-an interesting variation on the usual Zeus-like image. One of the greatest problems with the performance was that the players too often spoke their rhymed couplets to each other, rather than directing them at the audience spread throughout the valley. This caused audio- visual problems for the on- lookers which could not be made up for by modern stage effects. Some moments of strength and redemption for the actors oc- curred when the spectators were addressed directly. The force of the somewhat unsubtle drama could then be fully felt, and responded to. As it was, interest was lost when the piece went on. ADMITTEDLY, the actors probably did not spend much time trying to authenticate every piece of action, nor could they have predicted the physical problems ofbeing heard and seen. If more communication had taken place with the audi- ence, perhaps even allowing them to participate, we might have gotten more of the feeling which should be implicit in the cut-and-dried dramatic action. Perhaps then we might have felt God justified in sending Cain through a devil's mouth in the stage to Hell. As it was, I found myself wishing he had smashed the bone over Abel's head about fifteen minutes earlier, ending the suffering for us all. Amen. Have a flair for artistic writinq? If you are interest- ed in reviewtig poetry. and music wortiting feat re sturtes shount the drama, dance, itm arts: contact Arts Edito, e/oThe Michiaaiaty.