ARTS
page 6 Sunday, September 14, 1980 The Michigan Daily
Sand astles 'hal-succeeds
By ANNE GADON
Ann Arbor playwright Carol Duffy is
certainly not a feminist, but in Sand
Castles, an original work which opened
at the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's Main
Street stage Friday night, she added
her view about the changing nature of
relationships from a woman's point of
view. Paul Mazursky's An Unmarried
Woman and Marilyn French's novel,
The Women's Room preceded Ms. Duf-
fy into this realm, and the popular suc-
cess of those two works have helped
develop an audience for similar works
on the woman's experience. Duffy's
play is more modest than the
previously stated works (not to mention
the differences in calibre), but
nonetheless offers a thoughtful per-
spective on an older woman's relation-
ship with a younger man.
Sand Castles shows that Duffy is
quite apt at depicting the feelings of her
sex, particularly a midde-aged woman
like herself. Duffy's protagonist, Eve
Weber, has been married for more than
twenty years and finds in the com-
panionship of Pud Riley, a 28-year old
neighbor at the Weber's cottage in Nor-
thern Michigan, an alternative to the
"comfortable symbiosis" that she
shares with her husband, Howard.
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Eve's relationship with Pud is soon ap-
parent to her family. She is forced to
deal not only with guilt over leaving her
husband but also with the fact that her
lover is only a few years older than hr
son.
As Eve Weber, Page Conner, displays
a remarkable degree of naturalness
that is a rare element in community
theatre productions. She is also blessed
with realistic and tangible motivations,
while the other characters are
markedly cliche. Conner is aware of
Eve's inner dissension. Eve craves a
career and the approval of her family,
and Conner clearly displays this
dichotomey. When Pud is seducing her,
she is obviously attracted to him, but
hesitant to plunge into a new relation-
ship that will wreck her present stable
if unhappy situation with Howard.
COMPARED WITH her charac-
terization of Eve, Duffy deals with
the other roles in a painfully shallow
manner. Unlike Conner, the other
performers lack the savvy to overcome
the script's deficiencies. Pud's seduc-
tion of Eve emerges out of nowhere af-
ter a half hour chat between them in
which they catch up on everything that
has happened during the 12 years since
they've seen each other. In an attempt
at cleverness (no other motivation
comes to mind), Duffy 's characters
toss strings of cliches and quotes at
each other. Howard's suggestion to his
wife when he learns of her affairs is,
"Go forth my child and multiply." Pud
responds to Eve's tremulous request
that he make love to her by throwing
her down on the bed (conveniently
located in the middle of the kitchen)
and exclaiming, "Why, you ravenous
hussy!" The next moment he pulls
away from her, complaining that it's his
"time of month." Such remarks, along
with a few pitiful attempts at
melodrama, with Pud as the heroic
knight or the young suitor in pursit of
his "fair lady," were so obviously out of
sine with the rest of the play that it is a
wonder that U-M Dance Department
faculty member Christopher Flynn didn't
beg the author for a rewrite. The senti-
ments of Friday night's audience was cer-
tainly clear. They tittered their way
through such ridiculous displays of
"drama." Luckily, no tomatoes were
handy.
Thomas Drotar, as Pud, is limited
partially by the profound dialogue he is
forced to utter such as, "I like listening
to you (Eve).' I think you've got your
head together," and also by his own
lack of spontaneity. Although Drotar is
pleasing to the eyes (blond, six-feet-
plus, shirt unbuttoned to wherever), af-
ter a while one wishes he wasn't quite
such an oaf, especially in comparison
with Conner's skillful portrayal of Eve.
DUFFY HAS laid a somewhat firm
foundation for the character of Howard,
Eve's husband, played by James
Presser. Howard admits to Eve that
he's "never been able to feel the depth
and emotion that you have," but he still
wants to keep their relationship in-
tact." Howard's coldness, his conten-
tment with their symbiotic relationship
has the potential to be chillingly effec-
tive, but Presser simply isn't up to it.
Weber has a beaten dignity about him.
He is willing to accept his fate but he
doesn't want others to fall into the same
situation. In a tender moment after
Howard and Eve have decided to
separate, Eve learns through Louie
(Eric Sarbach), a neighbor boy that the
Webers have befriended, that Howard
told him that he shouldn't cover up his
feelings, that he should feel free to cry
and express emotion.
Duffy has also included a subplot
concerning Kurt, the Weber's son, his
fiance, Angie (Katayoun Amini). Angie
is pregnant and wants to get rid of the
baby, while Kurt believes they should
get married. The family deals with
Angie's proposed abortion as lightly as
if they were discussing what color to
paint the living room. Although Eve's
affair is regarded in a more serious
light, like Angie's abortion, it's out in
the open. They discuss it around the
breakfast table as they would the mor-
ning paper.
Sand Castles is certainly no mean
feat. It won Duffy nention at the Mid-
west Playwrights Conference as a
semi-finalist, and aspects of the play
;uch as the rich characterization of Eve
and Howard Weber, that goes on within
are certainly meritous. But Duffy's
work also contains an awful lot of drif-
twood that needs to be removed before
she tries to seek her fortune with it in an
irea other than its home town of Anne
Arbor.
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Rossini's "Barber of Seville" (in English)
BALLET FOLKLORICO MEXICANO .......... Thurs Oct 9
MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH, Ce/ist ...........Sun Oct 12
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