Four SCARLET AND BLACK Friday. Nevambnr I‘I. I961 PLAIIDITS FOR PANNWTT: GGLD STAR FOR RED BADGE By JOHN WILES The 196168 Grinnell Theatre loason saw its first real suc< less “with distinction" in the recent Arena production of laird Williamson's dramatic ad- nptation of Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. Very few critical bones need be picked with this production, which impressively combined Icting, directing, and technical Excellence into one of the most creatively outstanding and af- fecting works which have been attempted in the Arena Theatre In years. To start with. some fair share at credit must be apportioned lo the property itself. William- son has been supremely faith- iul to Crane, although the ap peal of this play certainly ex- tends beyond simple faithful- less. Williamson’s adaptation of trane's novel is ostensibly a bare, roughly sketched transla- tion of the story of the naive, fdealistic youth Who grows in character through his tragic confrontation with the "blood swollen god" of war. Super- ficially, the script actually of- fers little more tangible the- atrical potential than that of a limple dramatic reading. The play is short, summarized and abbreviated (the actual run- ning length of the Grinneil pro- duction was but a scant 45 minutes). Yet Williamson, in transfer, ring the essence of Crane’s story from narrative to dra- matic form, has decidedly ex- panded the possibilities for the telling of that story, and has accordingly “opened up" the story to anyone with sufficient creativity to take advantage of the new genre’s potential. Williamson seems to offer a clue to the work's production possibilities in his extensive Ind affecting use of the novel's rich language and images, Hen~ ry Fleming, the young protag— onist, is described early as an eager-eyed youth who dreams of “vague and bloody con- flicts," and the'heroism which GLASSES Made and Repaired in Our Laboratory Contact Lenses Cases and Solutions Eyes Examined Phone 236-3979 E. J. Jensen. 0.0. OPTOMETRIST Aclus from Post Office Closed "Illrl, EM. and Sat. PM. he just as vaguely believes will surely accompany them. Having thus faithfully identi- fled the early Henry as a dreamer, Williamson compounds narrated references to “visions of a thousandtongued fear;" the soldiers' “mysterious frat- emity;" and the "monster” war — a "red animal" which is personified in the imagina- tion and frightened mind of Henry. Such language is clearly in. dicative of the supernatural, the psychological, the unreali the abstract, the impressionis- tic workings of the tormented consciousness which is Henry’s internal identity. The differences between what drama can “show" and what narrative can “tell" of this, the real essence of Crane’s story, seems to point toward taking a relative ly free theatrical rein in se lecting the elements with which to dramatize this adaptation. Director Libby Pannwitt and her crew proved themselves quite adequate to the challenge. In bringing the possibilities of the script to theatrical reality, Miss Pannwitt apparently took up much a similar directorial interpretation, freely and cre- atively capitalizing upon the play’s symbols and imagery. Realistic camp scenes and characters' speeches throughout the play were purposefully in- terspersed with segments of choral dialogue and symbolicals 1y choreographed actions. One character Was made to dis “realistically" on stage; a sim- ple circle of eerie green light was used to symbolize the body of another, decaying dead sol- dier. in one scene, the company of soldiers was realistically pre~ sented lounging at rest on the countryside; in another, the troops mechanically marched in time (and almost in place), betraying the weary boredom of the troops continual move- ment to no one place and for no clear purpose in particular. The effect of such combinations of style and dramatic elements was to confront the audience at once with the stark reality of war, and also with its ir» rational incomprehensibility. Two of the most effective scenes of the play unmistakably complemented each other through just such purposeful diversity. An early scene rep~ resents an actual dialogue be- tween Henry and his mother, revealing “realistically" the youthful idealist, confident in his soaring illusions, A later scene found Henry alone and separated after running away from battle; nameless mem- bers of the chorus besieged him with taunts and ridicule for his cowardice. The illusions of the voices represented Henry’s own thoughts and self-accusations, the {armless fears which had, ironically, become his hellish reality. Visual and auditory effects were imaginatively and impres- sively employed to support both aspects of the play’s presenta- tion. Lighting in many colors and arrangements helped to tie fine and contrast realistic and abstract elements, Drums and recorded music artificially un- derscored moments of realistic, climactic tension. The set was simply and phys- ically functional — in no way really representative of ground, yet extremely adaptable to both realistic and a b s t r a c i movt.L merits. Costumes suggested real uniforms, while remaining. as work shirts and jeans, in ef- fect symbols in themselves. Even the painting of the walls of the theatre (the first Arena production for which this has ever been dared) was a credit to the imaginative staging of the play. Three walls were a dark, somber gray; the back wall, a blank, impersonal light gray-blue. The audience thus was at all times surrounded by an environment which affect- ingly contained and reflected the play’s serious mood. The cast itself was excellent to a man. Virtually every actor was believable in his role, and contributed to a polished, co- hesive, complementary sum of performances. Ned Benton was especially excellent as Henry, conveying with sensitivity and depth the youthful dreamer's internal de- velopment as catalyzed by the battle‘s crises Benton remained strong, from his initial boyish characterization of the optimis- tic, illusioned enlistee to his more mature portrayal of the ironic, disillusioned hero whose war-weary “Damn. . .damn,. damn, . . damn. . ." under- cuts a moment of apparent glory with a telling indictment by one who more sadly and wisely understands the real pain and hell of war, Benton was weakest as Hen- ry in his most hysterical mo- ments of near»madness; his emoting seemed less natural than consciously summoned, and occasionally appeared to be approaching a pitch of uncom- fortable histr‘ionics. Such com- paratively weak moments were few, however, and did not ser- iously undermine a generally controlled and finely - charac- terized performance. All of the soldiers were Well- played, and the cooperative in« corporation of such group “bits" as card-playing and good-ha. tured needling were largely responsible for giving the play the realistic moments it needed,’ when it needed them. Greg Wallance and Carter Coleman were very good as Henry's companions, Wilson and Jim. Both defined their char~ acters convincingly, without turning them into overly strong characters who might have up- staged the central protagonist. Coleman's only disturbingly awkward moment came, iron- ically enough, after his “death” as Jim. The classic problem of how to get a dead body off stage was not Well handled, and the exit of the corpse on his own suddenly resurrected power was, while not a serious fault within the play, a minor irritation which might more pleasingly have been avoided. Merritt Olsen injected a de« Cidedly valuable element of comic relief into the play with his characterization of the Wounded Soldier. With one dead body and one seriously shocked, near-hysterical character also sharing the stage, it took dell- cate handling on the part 0! Olsen to keep his comic figure from becoming irreparably ir- reverent and annoyingly out of place, As it was, the scene became a symbolic representation of the incomprehensible juxtaposi- tion of extremes in any war. Henry was effectively framed as the victim of such insanity—- a tragic corpse on one side, a senseless clown on the other. Olsen’s only weak moment was partially shared in this sense by Benton. Not nearly sufficient attention or signifi- cance was given to the exchange of the handkerchief, which ob- viously was intended to he the play's final, crucial symbol. Henry’s conclusive moment of truth and understanding was thus unfortunately weakened by this shortcoming of an earlier, preparatory scene. Dale Dreyfuss and Dennis Wilson were excellent in much smaller roles, giving credence to the axiom that “there are no small actors, just small parts," Each took upon himself the seemingly negligible, but extremely relevant business of making his unnamed character seem nonetheless individually distinct and real. Bonnie Tinker, in much the same manner, made her few brief moments as Henry's moth» er so thoroughly believable and convincing that it was almost too hard to accept her as merely a nameless voice in the chorus throughout the rest of the play, The chorus was expertly em- ployed, with every member of the cast at some time slipping from finite characterization in- to the function of a nameless observot and commentator on the futility and damnable waste of war. Ricki Ravitts was par- ticularly outstanding — as were Dreyfuss, Wilson, and Miss Tinker — in combining precis- ion of vocal expression with fluid, graceful physical move- ment. If any one of the play’s numerous fine moments were to be singled out for special praise, it would unquestionably have to be the abstract, sur- realistic battle dance. Judy Mendelsohn's choreography was hypnotic and almost literally frightening. She was given fine support by a seemingly all- stops-out employment of techni- cal ingenuity which mixed pur— ple, yellow. and threatening melody to create a near-psyche- delic impression of acute dan- ger, fear, and death. i-ienry Fleming’s futile ques- tions of ”why?"; “What for?"; and "Don't we do all men can do?" were never answered by anyone in this play. The play being true to Crane, however, the questions could not be answered; only me awful truth might be guessed in the final "damn" of Henry’s new awareness. Last year‘s War Without End attacked Grinnell audiences with essentially the same truth, and with more than twice the the. atrical effort. Mr. Crane, Mr, Williamson, Miss Pannwin, and all others responsible for The Red Badge of Courage are to be commended for hitting clos- er home — on a smaller scale but with just about twice the effective coherency and organ- ized creativity. WEAPONS NEEDED The cast for No Better by Robert Ingham needs World War II or Korean War army uniforms and equipment, it you have anything which you would be willing to lend to us for the week, please Contact Mrs. Ramsey in the Fine Arts office and leave your name and phone number. Items es pecially needed are fatigues, field jackets, helmets, web' equipment, boots, packs. and rifles (M—l’s and carbines). It will be greatly appreciated. ) UNRUH (Continued from Page 1) more skeptical when they find out the truth." He said, however, that Reag- an has a “reasonable chance" to be the Republican nominee in 1968. Unruh said he could see no way of “dumping Johnson” as the 1968 Democratic party norm lnee unless LBJ himself stand] aside. “Gene McCarthy could win a couple of primaries and cause a lot of shouting at the Con— vention," U n r u h suggested, “But that’s about it." The Speaker explained that Johnson's war policy was en~ dorsed in California with the significant and major defeat of the San Francisco referendum "especially when you consider that San Francisco county is the most liberal in California." Unruh, a democrat and a past president of the National Conference of State Legislative’ Leaders. advanced argiments for his brand of politics-what he calls “Creative Federalism:" He stated that; state legisla- tures were the places to “strengthen and preserve de- mocracy as we know it," “Unfortunately,” he added, “the Federal Government is always looked to to solve the problems. We should resist this tendency to concentrate power in one unit of the government as this one'unit gives us just one solution." The essentials of the “New Politics,” Unruh said, include responding to the people and their problems, recognizing no pre-commitments, and not be ing dominated by set ideology or doctrine. Closing his address to the PPPE and Grinnell student an. dience, Unruh called for an illu- volvement in the political pro- cess. "Equip yourselves to do the best job possible," he concluded.