ARTS
Wednesday, September 23, 1981
The Michigan Daily
Page 7
Crowds sour party in the park
By MICHAEL BAADKE
Special to the Daily
NEW YORK-Their fortieth birth-
days only weeks away, a couple of old
friends thought it would be nice to get
together and sing in New York's Central
Park. And maybe invite a few friends.
Five hundred thousand people
showed up for the Simon and Garfunkel
party Saturday afternoon, and the
beautiful idea of a gathering in the park
turned into a mess even New York City
had difficulty coping with.
"ALL THESE KIDS out here messed
up the traffic for hours," complained
one Manhattan cabbie. "They say
there's three-quarters of a million that
went there." The park was patrolled by
just over three hundred police and park
officials, a meager force that tried
vainly to keep pathways in and out of
the park cleared. By the 6:30 p.m. con-
cert time, they had given up. One cop
told the crowd "You kids are on your
own-God help ya."
On their own, the kids turned the 18-
acre Great Lawn area into a disaster
area. At a concert planned to raise fun-
ds for park upkeep, the spectators were
climbing up into the trees and breaking
off large branches to clear their view.
THOSE WHO HAD arrived early to
obtain a good view of the stage were
usurped by late-arrivals who poured in-
to the park by the thousands. With no
place left to sit, they wandered
aimlessly through the crowds, ran-
domly stepping on the hands, feet, and
rib cages of those who had attempted to
make themselves comfortable.
Soon there wasn't even space to walk,
and they simply stood wedged between
police lines and seated spectators,
blocking the view to the stage and of-
fering to fight anyone who suggested
they move.
Larry, a New York City native in his
early twenties, tried in vain to protect
the blanket area he was sharing with
four friends. "Come to my home," he
yelled after a particularly aggressive
blanket-violator; "Walk on my couch!"
The crush of the crowds soured the
mood of the audience in many areas,
and fistfights erupted right up to con-
cert time.
THE SITUATION was worse for
those who attempted to leave the park.
Undirected by police, and with no clear
pathway out, the crowd was shoved in a
multitude of directions, causing panic
among those caught in the center. One
girl sat down in the midst of it all, ap-
parently numbed by the experience.
People stumbled into and over her,
unable to control their direction.
The performance by Paul Simon and
Art Garfunkel was pleasant; for those
who enjoyed their harmonies
throughout the sixties, it gave the hope
that such things may always live on.
But the performance of the audience
was a tragedy, caused by an over-
ceowded park, but not justifiable by any
means.
Daily Photo by JACKIE BELL
THE VERSATILE CAST of "Hold Me!" at the Canterbury Loft: Gail Vasku, Robert Moses, William Sharpe, Susan
Schell, and Elaine Devlin.
'Hold Me"
Feiffer let go of th
By GAIL NEGBAUR
Dancer: In my revised dance to
1981 I will repeat my dances of 1980,
1979, 1978, and 1977 ... Nothing else
gets better, why should I?
This line from Jules Feiffer's Hold
Me!, on stage through the weekend
at Canterbury Loft, explains in a
nutshell why the play just does not
hold together.
FEIFFER IS known to many as an
eminent satirist whose biting com-
mentaries on modern life appear in
newspaper comic strips across the
country.
Butwhat works for a comic strip
does not necessarily work in a
theater. Hold Me! is a choppy
assortment of short skits that often
depend for a laugh on a one-linen
straight from his strip. In one shortM
scene, a young man conver-
sationally repeats "Me" some thirty
times. Then, in response, a young
woman says "I" and the scene ends.
The repetition works in
newspapers because the audience
reads only one joke at a time; two
hours of it, in the theater, combined
with the inevitably awkward pauses
between skits, makes for an un-
satisfying production.
DESPITE THE play's inherent
problems, the Stage Company, the
acting troupe in residence at Can-
terbury Loft, gives a generally ad-
mirable production. The acting is
not to blame nearly so much as the
script itself.
The Dancer (Susan Schell) is the
only one of the five actors who
retains the same role throughout the
play; the other four change parts in
nearly every scene. Schell appears
at well-spaced intervals and com-
ments on society and people through
both her dances and her speeches.
Schell is an electric dancer; her
movements are graceful and clean
yet she seems to tease the audience
with some suppressed passion
lingering just below the surface. She
is a nymph-Pan if you like.
THATELECTRICITY helps carry
her dance in celebration of "the
spirit of renewal in the land." As she
dances, a Ronald Reagan-like
caricature interrupts her and an-
nounces she, is about to be fired due
to the economic downturn.
"I'm sorry," she snaps curtly.
"But you can't fire an artist."
Elaine Devlin as Woman One and
William Sharpe as Man One both
demonstrated an uncanny ability to
move from one character to another
without hesitation-a talent essen-
tial for Hold Me!
eplot
SHARPE IS A vibrant actor whose
compelling eyes and strong voice
make the audience want to listen to
him. Perhaps, however, he is a bit
too vibrant; his voice was at times
painfully loud for the small confines
of the Loft theater.
Both Robert Moses and Gail
Vasku have more trouble with their
various roles.
Vasku is burdened with many
scenes in which the words repeat
themselves with agonizing frequen-
cy. Worse, she has a tendency to
drop her voice at the end of each
phrase, making the repetitions even
more pronounced.
The Stage Company is a talented
acting group that has unfortunately
chosen an inferior play to produce.
It's worth seeing, however, for the
good acting and an occasional laugh.
I
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