Friday, May t, loss By BRUCE MCCONACHIE ' Last Tuesday night, Denys Hay, pro- tessor of medieval history at Edinburgh University spoke on the subject, “Re- naissance: Period or Problem," Profes- mor Hay was witty and urbane and his peech‘vasms entertaining asg't was in- iormatlve. “ ' According to Hay, the term Renaise finance is used by American schol- ars to denote a period of historical time. This is not the case, however, in European scholarship. The tendency in ’Europe is to diyide European history Into medieval and modern. Renaissance, for them, is a term which covers only a group of problems. This division into two, instead of three or four historical periods creates many difficulties. In an American university, Hornet/3' 'Dream Play' Called By BRUCE MCCONACHIE The Dream Play belongs to August Strindberg's later period of dramatic Writing. While his earlier works, The Father, Miss Julie, and other, are pre- dominately in the naturalistic style, The Ghost Sonata, To Damascus and The Dreun Play are forerunners of expres- nionism. Robert Brustein, in an essay on Strindberg, relates some of the charac< teristics of these later plays: “Location! are vague; space is relative; and the characters possess names like the Strang- er, the Student, the Poet, the Hunter and the Dreamer.” It is evident that this type of play lies outside the mainstream of American drama, Consequently, The Dream Play 15 quite diiticult to produce for an A- merican‘audience. Although I am unac- quainted with its production history, I doubt that “The Dream Play" has ever been professionally produced in America. Thus I was surprised when Howio llarned told me he was going to produce an adaptation of the play at Grinnell. His production last Wednesday night was predictably confusing for the audience, They were unsure how to take the play and many of them left Arena Theatre perplexed Must oi the problem, I believe, lies in the choice oi‘the play, Yet there were some faults in the production which, if remedied, might have led to a more en. joyable night at the theatre. In spite of a iew interesting and moderately suc- cessful attempts at abstract theatricality, the style of the production was too real- lstic, Howie’s set was appropriate and his experiments in lighting sometimes suc- ceeded in evoking the mood of the play. Service fl”? SCARLET AND BLACK Edinburgh Historian Hay Probes Hay would probably be part of the Renaissance and Reformation section of the history department. At Edinburgh, he is in the medieval division. But, as he joked, “it’s not just that chaps like Hay can't get jobs." Such rigid pet-iod- ization often obscures historical re- search Thus, scholars working in early modern history are sometimes “fantasti- cally ignorant" of what occurred only a short time before. These problems, thinks Hay, may be traced back to the reception given Jacob _Burkhardt’s book The Civilization of The Renalssance In Italy, published in 1860, Eurlthardt treated Renaissance Italy as a cultural whole. Among other things, he discussed its politics, its phi- losophy, its festivals and its art. The book was a “flop” at first, but There were other times, though, when the lighting was insufficient to see what was happening. This was particularly true of the scene between the two coal miners. The costumes of a few of the characters and the Lawyer'l make up were legitimately theatrical and effec- tivc. But the style of the acting, with few exceptions, did not match the theatri- callty of some of the other aspects of the productions, Nor, for that matter, did I feel that the acting style suited the play. Most of the actors underpiayed their parts and de—emphasiwd the climaxes in each scene. The result, while perhaps “realistic,” was often tedious and un- dramatic. In the scene between the Law- yer and the Daughter, the climax of the Lawyer's lecture on duty was delivered while he was walking ott stage. The scene between the Pensioner and the Officer was the most successful in the production precisely because Dale Dreyfus and Rick Roehlk pushed their characterizations to absurb extremes. Dale's portrayal of the Pensioner was perhaps the most outstanding acting job in the production. Rick gave a humorous interpretation of a cocky little man, but I talked to one girl after the perform- ance who was surprised to learn that he had played the part of the Officer. The Daughter, the main character in Strindberg's drama, was portrayed by Tanya Hovanessian. Goodness, beattty and compassion is difficult dramatic ma- terial, but Tanya handled it well. Her performance, however, was hampered by her costume — a white dress which looked more like a nightie, Several of the actors in the minor roles were effective. Among the faculty, Paul Jones was funny as the Professor of Philosophy. Bonny Tinker gave a good characterization of the Doorkceper. Max soon people began writing histories about cultural Renaissances in England and France as well. Despite Burkhardt’s cons corn with the Whole civilization, includ- ings politics, these later “Renais- sance" historians centered their atten- tion on the cultural - artistic aspect: of the Renaissance in this or that coun- try, and their inquiry was not limited to any specific span oi time. Consequent- ly the term Renaissance came to denote any cultural period which exhibited a flowering of talent. It became a problem in cultural history, not a period of his- torical time. Hay pointed out that the present sep- aration of medieval and modern is based on the notion of political change. If it could be shown that the fourteenth, fif- teenth and sixteenth centuries saw us Too Realistic Helfgott, as the Poet. was appropriately cool and smooth I was confused, though, as to whether we were supposed to like him. Perhaps Strindberg intended his play to end ambiguously. That was how it affected me. An entirely successful production of The Dream Play would have been an amazing accomplishment. Howie’s pro- duction was successful in parts but was marred, i think. by his concern with pros sentlng characters realistically. Page Fiv- enaissance nique political, as well as cultural changes, then this age might come to be considered as a distant period. But Hay sees little hope in this view. The princes of the sixteenth wanted esen- tially the same things for the same rea— sons as their predecessors. Nor could one consider this‘a separatOper'iod hgauso‘h of a social change. Some his rlans have tried to demonstrate that the mid- dle class was rising during this time, but as Hay said, other historians have shown that just as many members of the middle class were falling. 2 Nevertheless, Hay believes (hat one can justify treating the Renaissance as a separate period, A change in the “moral climate" of the culture distinguishes it [mm the medieval period, said Hay. He cited Hans Baron’s thesis that Floren- tine scholars demonstrated in the doc- ades around 1400 that "you could be up to your neck in business," and still be vir- {unusi This‘wos a new ldea.‘ During the middle ages, the attitude that virtue only came to those who turned their backs on the world had predominated. Evidence of a change can be seen in the different attitudes toward various classical individuals. The Middle Ages had turned Cicero into a monk, but the Renaissance viewed him both as “a thinker and a man of action." Attitudes toward poverty, politics and trade changed as well. In the Renaissance, laid Hay, “the merchant could look his parish priest in the eye and not feel guilty." Donahoe Explains Direction of ‘Milkwood'; Calls Technical Approach ‘Anii-Meihod' By ANN KIRSCHNER The main consideration in staging Under Mllkwood, u play for voices, was properly interpreting Dylan Thomas' purpose. This was the view of Ned Dona- hce (speech and theatre), director of last week’s performance and of the first staged production In this country. “Tho- mas was smiling at the characters, not harpooning them. It is not in the spirit of the play to make fun of them,” he said. Another problem Donahoe cited was "making the whole thing blend into something which flowed without having a staccato beat," He specified the im- portance of the actors with only one line coming on in character and blending out in the same way, not just walking off after having delivered the one line. To make this easier, most of the one-liners were staged in the side areas. Donahue said that the set had two main purposes. One was as a centering device surrounded by neutral space, as old as the medieval stage. The other was as a symbol of the “down-at-the- Oh! Yummiel HANSEN'S DANISH MAID HAVE YOU SEEN OUR POSTERS? Don't bother reading them If you're not interested in money. Llfetime of Iowa is offering Cash Scholarships of $500 - S750 - $1.000 - $1.500. If you - Aren't hire: to work, do yourself a niemtnd in money and layer und take . minute to relcl our parlors. WE WILL BE INIElVIEthG THROUGH YOUR PLACEMENT OFFICE SOON! heel Welsh fishing village." The set could be worked on, under, and around with a great deal ofrfreedom matching that of the stage itself in Roberts.” ex- pluined Donahue. “This is not the kind of play that calls for depth in character, They are almost caricatures. We do not need to know Why Eli Jenkins is a broken—down minister in the town, but only that he is, and we must accept him for it. it would kill the lilt of the play if we knew too much. Our job here is not to psychoanalyze each character," said D 0 na h o e, He admitted that this was “anti—method,” the method being the in- tensified identification of the actor with all aspects of the character, including his emotional reactions to situations out- side the scope of the play. He gave as an example the character of Polly Gar- ter, saying that it would be wrong to portray her as the “town whore.” a judgment that Thomas did not make. but rather as a "warm Woman." Donahoe cut the script back for his production according to the original script he received from Thomas him» self at Bennington College, where the production was first staged. “It had to be the right length to see their dreams, see the people in the town, see the town in action, reveal the characters and get it down to dusk again,” said Donahoc. ATTENTION 1766 GRADUATES! You no invited to in. on. our excellent can." opportuni r if you are .ntbitiout. here a "a" wage. took part in rumpur act or and luv- sntitnod the drntt. w. m . progrutiye multipleservice bank, needing l5 silicon in five years. our Execulivo Development Program can quality you. Send your complet. re. sun. to: M. L, Anderson, Perronnel Direclor, City Nntiansi Built ll. rrutt Co.. mo and Grand Avonue. Kanul City, Mixsouri um.