PAGE 4 - N.C. ESSAY
Reviews
“By, By, BeeBee” Thompson
Boys' Workshops
Offer Tense Drama "•if
Hi
ff
“Landscape” - Written by
Harold Pinter. With Carol
Rogers, Barry Boys.
“Endgame” - Written by
Samuel Beckett. With Delle
Chatman, Frederick Avery,
Gregg Wilson, Carol Walker.
Both plays directed by Barry
Boys.
These recent Drama Workshop
productions were important for
several reasons. They were not
flawless by any means (nor
should they be), but what they
accomplished, in terms of drama
at this school, made them the
most adventuresome and in
novative shows of the season.
And the clarity and preciseness
with which they were presented
indicated that the actors involved
grew considerably because of
their involvement.
T saw each show twice, opening
night (Mon.) and then three
nights later (Thurs.). Although
there were obvious fluctuations
in degree of intensity and in-
terpertation (especially in “End
game”), the overall quality of the
performances remained con
stant. Each was a well-molded
production.
Contrasts
“landscape” is a short play by
Harold Pinter. It is not “ab
surdist” in the “traditional”
sense, although the action does
not occur by necessarily con
ventional means. The scene is a
drawing-room setting, where an
aged fand aging) couple reflect
upon their lives in a “con
versation” of alienation, con
tradiction, unfaithfulness and
repentence. While Duff rattles on
about his experiences in the local
pub (“ ‘This beer is piss,’ he
said”) and his other daily
inanities, Beth remembers aloud
her meetings with a lover and in
the course, expresses her fears of
age (“I am beautiful!”). This
dialogue • and the characters
emphasis on distinct and
separate memories - makes for
striking contrasts of nostalgia,
fear and pathos.
The language is the key to the
play and both Carol Rogers (as
Beth) and Barry Boys (as Duff)
strongly conveyed the eloquence
of Pinter’s words. Boys’ voice
and characteristics perfectly
captured the staid, (lonely),
British husband the author must
have intended. Miss Rogers,
seemingly tense opening night,
gave a perfectly controlled and
fully realized Thursday night
performance that communicated
the delicate power of her
character.
“Endgame,” by Beckett, is a
bizarre absurdist- nihilistic play
of possession, love-hate and
obedience. It is a most complex
and shattering theatrical ex
perience, if only because of the
overbearing nature of the play
itself. I do not like “Endgame;” I
think it is woefully tedious and
loses much impact. Were it
shorter and tighter - while still
maintaining its abstract power -
it would have greater balance
and strike harder. Despite these
inherent weaknesses, this
production was compelling.
The “scene” is another
dimension. The characters are
Hov, an animal-like servant;
Hamm, a god-like figure who
demands all attention; and Nagg
and Nell, Hamm’s father and
mother who spend the entire play
crouched in large trash cans,
subjects on their son. Their
existence, their end (-less) game
of ritual, ownership and con
frontation, is the heart of the
play.
On opening night. Miss Chat
man was a strong-willed CHov,
which conflicted directly with
Boys’ vision of Clov as a
character without the ability to
perceive, an instinctual being. As
a result, Delle’s performance
was confused, going in opposite
directions. On Thursday, she was
consistent and (paradoxically
perhaps) her character had a
greater depth.
Psychodrama
Avery was masterful on
opening night. Although the play
was almost unbearably long,
Fred had a control and power
that was spellbinding. His Hamm
was demonic and fierce. The
performance, charged and in
tense, verged on psychodrama.
Thursday (when the pace was
incredibly quicker), he lost some
of his intensity. Still, he was
deadly. (In all fairness, the role
of Hamm is extremely difficult;
to sustain one absolute level of
intensity would seem im
possible).
Gregg Wilson and Carol
Walker, operating from the trash
cans, were quite good in brief
appearances as Hamm’s tor
tured, derranged parents.
Scene and costume design (by
Robert Tompkins and David
Marshall, respectively) were
superb.
“landscape” and “Endgame”
provided me with the most ex
citing, rewarding evening of
drama I’ve seen at NCSA. They
were. taut, arresting per
formances and a credit to all
involved. It’s a pity if you missed
them. (And as a footnote, it
should be quite interesting to see
what this ensemble does with the
upcoming “Uncle Vanya”).
RECORD REVIEW
by Alan
(the sixth in a series of reviews
of records in the NCSA library)
BARTOK: Concerto for Or
chestra. KODALY: Dances of
Galanta. Seiji Ozawa, C^iicago
Symphony Orchestra. Angle
SFO-36035. (Only the Bartok is
being reviewed).
This somewhat recent Angel
disc features the brilliant young
•Tapanese conductor, Seiji Ozawa,
leading the esteemed Chicago
•Symphony Orchestra in Bartok’s
Concerto for Orchestra. Though
not the most distinguished
recording available, (considering
those by Karajan. Solti, Stokoski,
and .Szell) it is undeniably an
important addition to the list,
establishing Ozawa as perhaps
the most promising among young
conductors today.
Ozawa approaches this work
carefully, considering the
various moods of the five sec-
Zingale
tions, but also the general theme
of the entire work. In this respect
he is successful. Bartok’s in
tentional design to begin
pessimistically, then transcend
to life-assertion in the finale,
comes across masterfully. But
unfortunately for Ozawa, he is
otherwise hampered in this
recording by what appears to be
faulty engineering. Many
details are missed in the violins
as a result of improper balance
and muffled tone. Also, the brass
sections sound unusually close as
opposed to winds that sound very
distant. However, it is also
possible that Ozawa himself is
responsible for some of this
curious balance. There are,
occasionally, noticeable in
tonation problems that obviously
are not due to the engineering.
But on the whole, the playing is of
virtuoso caliber, especially in
solo pasages and in the finale.
As mentioned above, Angel’s
Crazy Horse
Continued From Page 2
hand, very melodic... sharp
staccato piano chords carrying
the burden of the tune and
emotional impact, guitar
following meekly, strumming
slow chords., voices harmonizing
with each other and with the
piano to reach an effect
somewhat like a church choir.
“Gone Dead Train”, written by
Nitzsche and Russ Titelman,
churns along under the weight of
deliberately jerky wah-wah lead
guitar, smoothed over by the
regular rhythms put down by
bass and drums. In all instances,
Nitzsche’s fingers jump and fly
over the keyboard with
calculated fury, providing a
strong backbone for all the Crazy
Horse songs.
Though such an impressive
musician and composer, Nitzsche
doesn’t overshadow the others;
they are all fine talents. Ralph
Molina bangs languidly at his
drums, so easy and calm that he
creates a jazz mood in some of
the songs; Billy Talbot per
severes stoically on the bass,
putting down fairly uniform
rhythms, adding a faintly
(cowboy) western, happy trails
feeling to the overall sound; Gib
Gilbo adds a square-dancey
fiddle to one cut, a song by Neil
Young called “Dance, Dance,
Dance”; Nils Lofgren and Danny
Whitten play guitars and do some
really fine songwriting; with a
little help from friend Ry Cooder
doing his usual astounding slide
guitar thing, adding deminsion to
the really rocking (already
mentioned) “Crow Jane Lady”,
the hand-clapping chant “Dirty,
Dirty”, and stretching his talents
further still on the soulful “I
Don’t Want to Talk About It”.
The complete sound is polished,
controlled early rock, that
manages somehow to still sound
spontaneous.
Danny Whitten, who does most
of the vocals, deals with the songs
in an easy, down-home manner,
but with a fierce sincerity, a
nasal twang, mountain grown
voice interpreting sensitive lyrics
with a beautiful, burdened
believability that neither strains
nor rides on the music. His own
songs are ballads, vaguely
reminiscent of Neil Young, not
happy songs, but inspiring ex
citement through their simple
elegance and expansive un
derstanding. “I’ll Get By” is
simply a statement of how we all
fit together; “I’ll get by, won’t
you?.... I get high, don’t you?...
I’m gonna die, aren’t you?...”
And “Ix)ok At All The Tilings”;
“Just give me time, oh precious
time and I’ll come home- But
right now I gotta go, and I gotta
go alone...” And “Downtown”, a
delightful, skipping tune, belied
by the lyrics which relate a
horror, though somehow less a
horror since it’s happened to
most of us by now and seems
almost a joke: “Sure ‘nuff they’ll
be selling stuff when the moon
begins to rise- Ain’t it bad when
you’re dealing with the Man and
the light shines in your eyes”..
And Nils I^ofgren’s one con
tribution, “Nobody”, a more
personal, rather urgent message
with a jumping beat that comes
close to making you rise from
your stoned stupor to dance...
Kepp an eye on Crazy Horse.
This is the time for their sound;
they’re likely to be an important
force in the direction rock music
is taking.
engineering is not satisfactory.
The mike placement seems
strange and unfocused, and the
overall sound considerably lacks
reverberation or depth. What
results is an undersirable stale-
dry quality in the orchestra. At
least the pressing is clean though,
with very little surface noise to
disturb pianissimo passages.
The I^vel Three production of
“The Days and Nights of BeeBee
Fenstermaker,” by William
Snyder, was run a few weeks
back at Salem College. Robert
Murray directed this workshop
with what, I feel, is less than total
success.
To begin with, the play itself is
less than a work of art. It is, in
fact, nothing more than a
mediocre ‘contemporary’ drama
which shows the slow decline of a
girl’s dreams of a career in
writing, and her desire to make a
name for herself. A subplot is
awkwardly included, in the form
of BeeBee’s mother and aunt
‘back home.’ The work is too long
and too low.
As for the acting, some good
things are happening in I.£vel
Three. Mary Beth Zablotny was
cast in what appeared to be the
only well constructed character
the author came up with, BeeBee.
Rut she seemed a bit rushed in
the piece. She appeared to run off
dialogue in an attempt to stay
under a three hour running time,
or to keep up the pace, or
something. She did well for so
large a part, but I had trouble
finding sympathy for the awk
ward girl with the shrill voice
who seemed to be losing out on all
sides. She made it difficult to be
compassionate toward BeeBee.
Especially good work was done
by Enid Eisenstein. Although
cast in a less than huge role as
BeeBee’s mother, her character
of a middleaged country woman
was very well executed. Even her
sharp facial features made her
CONCERT
right for the part.
Also worth notice was Elaine
Rhinehart, who doubled roles,
first as BeeBee’s neighbor and
then as BeeBee’s Aunt Betty. As
Betty she was, perhaps, a trifle
loud.
The other characters included
Joyce Sulkov as another of
BeeBee’s aunts, Monty MacIn
tyre as a Personnel Man, Richard
Kaplan as BeeBee’s lover-
goofoff, and David Marshall as
the Country Boy who has been
kicked out of home and come to
New York.
The whole job of producing
“BeeBee” at Salem was crip
pling as they were kicked out
every night at 10:.30 and the set
had to be removed.
Rehearsals there must have
been difficult.
The set was interesting,
especially for a workshop. It
included three levels. The floor,
which was BeeBee’s apartment,
a middle level for the interview
office, and upstage in the back, a
framed scrim which separated
the audience and BeeBee from
the ‘folks back home.’ It
reminded me of an old
photograph one keeps on the
dresser, and it helped the scenes.
The whole show ran almost two
and half hours and
had two intermissions. It was by
no means a great show and in
some respects, it was less than a
good show. But “BeeBee Fen
stermaker” is the kind of thing
most actors will have to wrestle
with sometime or other. I^vel
Three has had theirs.
Miss Nyro At Duke
The Duke University Student
Union, Major Attractions
Committee, presented a living
experience, Laura Nyro,
Saturday,-March (5, at 9:30 P.M.
The appetizer of the night was
.Jeremy .Storch, a Columbia
recording artist. In anticipating
the headliner, the audience
twiddled their thumbs the first
half hour as Storch sang about
nine unlively songs in a Donovian
libratto voice. One, titled “Billy”
(his road manager), did appeal to
me; “He is the only one who sees
inside of me.”
After a fifteen minute in
termission Miss Nyro appeared
in two follow spot lights in a black
full length skirt and frilly white
off the shoulder blouse. Entering
to center stage, she sat at the
grand piano, complete with four
mikes, and sang! Her deep love
of life seduced the occupants of
the indoor stadium with the
words and music of her soul.
Her bellowing voice
.surrounded her followers as if it
led them to water. Although
water was something they did not
need, what with the smell of
by Corflandf Jones
strong beverages and grassy
smokes in the air, they were still
ready to follow.
Miss Nyro gave such songs as
“Stone Soul Picnic,” “Stoney
End,” “Save The Country,”
“Timer,” and “Up On The Roof.”
Although “Roof” is not one of her
works, her command of the piece
made it so.
The BOO dollar, rented, sixteen
speaker sound system captured
and released the same energetic,
versatile, colorful, fluid
musicality that is heard in every
one of her four albums, the latest
of which is “Christmas and the
Beads of Sweat.” A small sound
problem of‘feedback prompted
Miss Nyro to state, in a con
trastingly small speaking voice,
her lack of mechanical
knowledge and asked the sound
man to “turn a switch or push a
button.”
For the third encore she in
troduced a song, not yet finished,
called “Do You Believe In
Mother Earth.” This beautiful
song and the concert ended with
the words “She will hear you with
wisdom and love. Peace to the
world.”
A poster