RTS
The Michigan Daily Tuesday, October 8, 1985 Page 5
Daughter-in-law':_n absorbing show
By Chris Lauer
B OYS WILL BE boys. And romp
wide-eyed, floppy-eared through
mother-centered lives of childish rage
and glee - something to do with fer-
tility. And all of Ann Arbor has the
opportunity to watch two typical as
there ever were boys, creations of D.
H. Lawrence, play their half-man
games across the stage of the Lydia
Mendelssohn Theatre in Project
Theatre's production of The
Daughter-in Law.
The intensely psychological play is
funny in a way. Lawrence doesn't
exactly drop the theme on your head,
but he lets you know what's hap-
pening, psychologically speaking -
while the characters themselves, by
the play's very nature, are always in
the dark.
And what is the play's very nature?
It's intensely real - you know the
source of Lawrence's material. You
see the foolishness of the characters
- boys and women alike - and see
real-life correspondence. But at the
same time Lawrence allows you to
stand outside and even kind of above
it all. And that's what's funny -
laughing at yourself.
The story, set in an English coal
mining town in 1911, concerns the
boys of Mrs. Gascoigne, Joe and
Luther, and how one of them may or
may not have become a man.
The widow Gascoigne, a rock of a
woman, keeps her boys in line with
bits of tinny but authoritatively
delivered folk wisdom. Notice the
boys also spout platitudes - but you
know where they got them.
Besides being the cornerstone of
the family, Mrs. Gascoigne is the rock
of the play, the source of motivation
and conflict. Lily Lodge, a veteran of
many Broadway productions, plays
the role with flawless projection of
mother-figure soft, yet hard affection
- something the two male actors
have no trouble orbiting around.
The older boy, Luther, who has
married Minnie sometime previous to
the play, gets in trouble when another
woman becomes pregnant by him.
Matthew Conlon at Luther achieves
wonderful boyishness throughout,
especially when the pregnant
woman's mother chides him -
remember when Beaver Cleaver
broke a window with a baseball?
Joe, Luther's brother, played by
Jason Robards III, is the weakest of
the roles. Robards plays the charac-
ter as too much of a brutish big bully,
never backing off enough to be just a
smart-ass kid. Robards kills the
character's mental sharpness with
unfocused savage behavior. Later in
the play when Joe softens up a little
and begins to say some perceptive,
poignant things, Robards' perfor-
mance as a big dumb loudmouth
makes woefully little sense. I expec-
ted more careful sarcasm, and a sly
glint in the eye; violent, yes - but like
a boy, not a gangster.
Annalee Jefferies as Minnie,
Luther's wife, plays a perfect com-
pare-and-contrast role to the mother
figure. Visually, the costuming clues
you in - the mother looks like the
Rock of Gibralter in a baggy black
frock, while Minnie is brightly clad in
a dress that accentuates her slim
figure.
Jefferies meets Lily Lodge's acting
abilities head-on; the two make the
female clash over Luther vivid and
poignant. Even when they aren't on'
stage together, which is most of the
time, the conflict is always present.
And all the while Jefferies displays
subtle signs of becoming the sub-
stitute mother figure - visual signs of
an actress at work. Jefferies' acting
subtleties work exactly they way
they're supposed to - the end is kind
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of a surprise but it really isn't.
Lily Mansell as Mrs. Purdy, the
mother of the pregnant girl, clicks
with something in my mind. The wild,
Edith Bunker-like voice inflection,
the deeply furrowed look of concern
that isn't really a look of concern, the
over-reaction to the slightest piece of
news: She is The Gossipy Old Woman.
Impeccable character acting. I ap-
preciated the clear enunciation so I
too could hear the slightest bit of
news.
Enunciation, indeed, is important
for the play. Being set in northern
England, it is written in a dialect that
takes some getting used to.
The Daughter-in-Law is the first
production of the University's
reorganized professional theatre
program. Director of the program
and its productions, John Russell
Brown, who also heads the University
theatre department, is to be com-
mended not only for the ambitious
quantity of his work, but especially
for its outstanding quality. His direc-
tion of The Daughter-in-Law is tight;
not a wasted or extraneous moment.
Everything for theme's sake, not its
own sake.
I don't understand how Brown knew
in advance that such a difficult to un-
derstand and perform play could
make an absorbing show, but I hope
he'll continue to bring us good and in-
novative theatre.
TheiDaughter-in-Law can be seen
October 6-12 at the Lydia Men-
delssohn Theatre begining at 8 p.m.;
and Sunday, October 13 beginning at 2
p.m.
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Freshman - Sophomore - Junior - Senior Women Welcome!
Mass Meeting:
Rush Party:
Personal
Interview:
Preference
Party:
Wednesday, October 9, 7:00 p.m.
Pendleton Room, Michigan Union
Thursday, October 10, 7:00 p.m.
Pendleton Room, Michigan Union
Friday, October 11, begin 9:00 a.m.-
Michigan Union
(Appointments prefered; interview sign-up at Mass
Meeting, or call Panhellenic for appointment-
663-4505.)
Saturday, October 12,4:00 p.m.
The location will be announced.
Pictured is mama's boy Luther (Matthew Conlon) tirading at his patient
wife Minnie (Annalee Jefferes) in Project Theatre's.production of The
Daughter-in-Law.
k,
'Blueprints 1
HE TIME: past, present,
TJorever. The characters:
everyone. The conflict: sacrifice. The
P theme is always the same. The latest
variation is called Blueprints and it
played over the weekend at the Per-
formance Network.
i Blueprints was derived from three
biblical passages: the legend of
Abraham and Isaac, the allegory of
Jacob and Rachel, and the story of
Hannah. It wove together past and
present, pointing ultimately toward!
the future. With surreal imagery and
disjointed chronology, it caught the
audience in a web of intrigue.
The tale of Abraham and Isaac was
a definitely the most comical of the
three. Although it was a mish-mash of
the past and the present, the plot
closely resembled the biblical legend.
The comic portrayal of Abraham
and Isaac was balanced by a
'frightening second act. In the story of
J Jacob and Rachel, Jacob often con-
Ysults with the spirit, of Rachel; a fight
between two of Jacob's sons
p escalates into war; and Rachel won-
ders why people give birth in the first
played on biblical themes
place when death is the inevitable
result.
The third act, the story of Hannah,
was the most intriguing of the three.
Hannah, a Holocaust survivor, is in-
tent on overcoming her infertility. Af-
ter a doctor convinces her that her
inability to bear 'children is
psychosomatic, she gives birth to
Samuel. She immediately gives the
newborn up for adoption by an or-
thodox family in the hope that they
will give Samuel the religious up-
bringing that she was unable to
provide.
The 14 characters in Blueprint were
played by only three actors. Nancy
Heusel played the parts of Sarah,
Rachel, Hannah, and Tiebel with
warmth and feeling. Her presence on
stage often compensated for a weak
plot line.
Jeffery Seller played the parts of
Isaac, Joseph, Yossi, and the atten-
dant. Although he improved as the
show progressed, Seller tended to
overact.
Larry Henkel played the parts of
Abraham, Jacob, Dr. Jacobson, and
Avram. He was able to change his
personality as each character
required, and his melodic voice lit up
the stage.
- Seth Flicker
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