Friday. November 22, I958 The Monroe Hotel SCARLET AND BLACK ) Letters (Cont‘d irom Page 4) they might have boycotted the production. it those people had boycotted the play, they might never have had the oppor- tunity to receive this remark- able experience. The play was aimed at shocking those very people who would be offended by that beauty which society condemns. ii poor, sheltered, and confused individuals, such as Eieonore Spiegel, had never been tricked into seeing “America Hurrah,” they might never have known that society Contains fine individuals who do not see any wrong in “porno- graphy" which illustrates the beauty or super-normal sexual stimuli such as a titanic penis and a stupendous vagina. Miss spiegel continues, "Only a man dehumanlzed by something worse than imper- bonai institutions could think that such violence, crime, and bestiality could exist in some corner of the universe where they might go unpunishedx' Perhaps she has never seen America’s fighting men man— gle and burn the flesh or thousands of Vietnamese with Napalm. Finally, your critic, Miss Eleonore Spiegel, closes her remarks by calling Jean< Claude Van ltallie a plastic personr Only a plastic person could see a line production such as "America Hurrah” and remain as naive as Miss Spiegel obviously has, Paul J. Rothman Fuson ‘5leep—in’ Role To the Editor: Mrs Crosscit made a serious error in his letter which ap- peared in the 5&1! last week when he said: “, l .the article was written by Harold Fuson, the editor and one at the plan- ners of the ‘sleep-in’. . ." Harold Fuson did in fact at- tend the planning meeting, but only in the capacity as a re porter for the 5&3. Mr. Fuson was in tact against the sleeprin which he thought was too ser- ions an affront to the adminis- tration and ‘taculty. He did not think the sleep-in would be com ducive to meaningful change. Henry Wilhelm Schisgct] Mini—worlds Amuse Critic By JOHN GARDNER Murray Schisgal’s plays, The Typists and The Tiger, per- iormcd on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of last week un- der the direction oi guest direc< tor John Ulmer, succeeded nice- ly Within the limitations that Schisgal set. They did not de~ part irotn these limitations, and, since much of Schisgai material is brilliantly iunny, his telescoped oi- tice setting and rapist’s “pad" became surprisingly, and per- haps alarmingly, visible as mini-worlds. N0 Schisgal character, in these two plays, or in Luv, tor that matter, is ever out or con~ tact with the mini-world in the play. On the contrary, great eiiort is expended by the char- acter into fitting into this uni- verse more closely. The typists' eagerness and immediacy in plunging into their orten absurd situations, and their competition in this respect indicate their essential and uncomprehending confusion. In The Typists, the tirst im- pression Mrs Kimbrough gives in the character at Gloria, is one 0[ bitchy and mincing sure- ness. it is a sureness that is quite conscious, The iirst hint or a theme that Schisgal devel» ops in both plays comes in her sell-characterization as an eiii< cient worker to Bell (Charles Kimbrough). Why stress this seemingly tangential part oi her personality? Because Bell has, as yet, no claim to reality as an oiiice Worker. This is an advantage to Gloria. It follows that everything that Gloria real- izes about herseli implies some positive or negative advantage with respect to Ben. The Typists‘ success depends partly on Schisgal’s ability to include a great number oi sit- uations, some oi which depend on life outside the office, in a kind of continuum of rash wor- Ty and false conlidence that de- termines the minirworld of his oitice, There is, thus, no special decision that Schisgal creates tor his characters which they should include in this kind of dialogue; this is outside the limi- tations of his comedy. The two typists are called on to succced as vehicles for Schisgal‘o char- Play Review actci'istlc themes or anxiety and confusion and as people who have the possibility oi talking things out. Mary Jane and Charles Kitnbrough succeeded in presenting both the brisk, anx- ioils ciphers and the periodically wistiul people in The Typislss They suggested an underlying suspicion in the characters, that one or the other, or both, is missing something, grounded in the tear that a great deal has been missed already. The Tiger, like The Typists, does not attempt a large-scale picture, but, unlike the first play, depends tor its humor more on a situation than on a series oi imaginatively gener— ated possibilities that are sus< tamed by coniused characters. Paul (Charles Kimbrough) is the tiger, a 5Zryear-old man in yellow pants with a peace sym- bol, who carries Sylvia (Mary Jane Kimbrough), a society wo- man, to his “pad” to rape her, The battle of gestures between the two is more specific, more decisive and tunnier than that of the earlier play. No confu— sion seems to exist for the tiger in the beginning oi the play, as lte carries his kicking victim to center stage. This is, however, the extent to which any action not related to “communication" oi one kiitd or another goes. With the beginning Ol his in- tellectual rape of Sylvia, with which, it is obvious, he is more preoccupied with than a sexual one, Paul turns out—no surprise —to be both ambivalent and de- pressive. The nearly cathartic urge oi Schisgal's characters to talk about an always unbearable past takes hold oi him. This urge is similarly irresistible to char- acters in Luv and The Typistss The tiger's gestures, the Vl0< lent command to the woman to not talk, are diminished not by the woman's gestures, but by his own need to talk. In a way, the woman, by placing, or at least helping him into a situation of depending on her absolute sym- pathy, is allowing his confusion to reduce him. Mr. Kimbrough seemed to be particularly bril- liant in the portrayal of Paul’s being gradually changed into something far less than a tiger. Sylvia’s increasingly poweriui aggressions, often identical to the tiger’s were probably the best received of her sequences. Page FM | Hi—Morx Outlines College Folly l By H. DYSCHOLUS Several years ago I took a friend to see his first Marx Eros. picture. he was simultaneously outraged and delighted, and when the movie was over his initial comment was, “The audacity, the sheer audacity!" I did not understand what he meant at first, for i had grown up with the Marx Bros. movies and their world always seemed to me perfectly natural. I’ve since come to understand What my friend meant «e that the Max Bros. violate our sense of decorum by a simple and switt application oi the logical techniques reductio ad absurdum, and its corollary expansio ad absurdum. But I have not yet surrendered my childlike notion that the world itseii resembles their picture of it. Events this past weekend sup port my childhood faith. Nature, Oscar Wilde observes, is always imitating art. Now to many who saw the recent campus shouting oi Horseteaihers, the situation may have seemed outmoded 0r dated: collegiate life as presented in the movie is that of the late Twenties and early Thir- itesithe playboy atmosphere, the emphaSls on bigtime iootbaii. the exploitation oi both by gangsters; the problems of Prohibition. Yet it one read the newspapers this past week, one could see nearly all of these still at work in our society. The comic culmination came when the New York Jets' l‘mtbflll game Was cut oii in the last two minutes oi play in order to present a TV version oi Heidi. Dee spite oiir claims to being a child-centered society, the adults at the nation — the male adults — rose up in righteous wrath when their ruling passion was threatened The most elaborate system of emergency telephones in the nation, that oi New York City, was so overloaded that iuses blew along with tempers. Old Groucho biliis may remember a line from another of his movies: “Steps will be taken, Wires will be pulled. Heads will fall." I saw in Tuesday’s paper an apology from TV executives, together Willi a promise that bigtime football will never again take second place I assume that promise includes the outbreak of WW HI. Just imagine What the Marx Bros. would have done with that whole story, which would have proVided them with glorious chances for the kind of abrupt transmons on which so much or their comedy depends. Scenes could have shifted with the incon- gruous rapidity oi the backdrops in A Night at the Opera. Groucllo, as a TV executive, could have snarled his way to the absurd heart of the situation. Chico could have been called on, together with Harpo to soothe the injured and helpless children of the world by means of their poignantly comic music, And Zeppo could have played Joe Namath. Since pro football has replaced college toot- bali as the bigtime gamblers’ chiei business, appropriate inter. stitial scenes Could have been interwoven in all their natural im- propriety. True, Prohibition is no longer with us; but the sharp shrewd eyes or the Marx Bros. could have iound equivalents in the WCTU morality of the new left. It is the late of satire to become dated. And yet, if the par- ticulars of time and history which the Satirist selects are universal in kind, we can continue to enjoy the satire, as we do with Aristo- phanes and Swiit, Tor we get a kind or double joy: we can recreate an awareness or the historical particulars and enjoy the satire as it was originally intended, and we can iind contemporary equiva- lents and thus discover that our World is no less full of folly than was theirs. The continued popularity oi the Marx Bros. indicates that they, too, have achieved a satiric greatness. BREDGE: Phil MdhiEiii By JOHN GORDLEY The takeout double is used over an opponent's bid to iind a fit in one of the remaining suits. Several requirements must be met, however, in order to rub terminate the bid from a penal- ty double: partner must have passed il he has had a Chalice to enter the auction; the con- tract being doublcd must be fairly low; and the double of a particular suit must be made at the first opportunity. In addi< tion, there are distributional and point count requirements for a takeout double. The doubler must have at least three cards in each unbid suit, and preieiably tour in one unbiii ma- jor. In counting points, short- ness in the opponent’s suit should receive additional impor< tance (5 points for a void, 3 for a singleton) while low honors in the opponent’s suit should not be added in. Generally, it requires 11 points to double a bid of one heart or less, thus giving part- ner a chance to respond at the one level. [is the level at which partner must respond rises, the number of points required to double also increases. For ex- ample, it would require 15 points to double a bid of 2 spades. The takeout double, however, should not be used with opening count and a good suit, In which case an overcall should be made. In the teamroi-iolir tourna- ment, the team of Stranger- Feltlman / Gottlieb-Manuheinier deieated their opponents by 3 IMPS ioi- iirst place. When asked [or his reaction to the Vic- tory, Steve Mannheimer, the boy wonder oi Forum bridge, commented “Peerless!" Com» petition will resume next seme5< ter, Under the direction oi Phil Mears, a weekly pocket bil- liards tournament began last Sunday. The purpose or this competition is to determine seedings for the 2nd annual Grinnell pocket billiards cham- pionship next semester. Bruce Strom temporarily holds first place. The tournament will con- tinue next Sunday at 2:00.