Page Four .— SCARLET AND BLACK Friday, February 13, 7969 Phitoctetes: Unintegrated Implausibility By KEN HICKS F 'As i leit ARH last weekend .niter watching Grinnell’s pro» uuctlon of Sophocles’ Philome- les, i tried to figure out just ,what it was that had confused me. I had been bombarded with great emotions, immense sut- ,iering and Herculean conflict; my ears rang with the resound- in g colloquial eloquence of greater-than-lile people solving greaterthan-liie dilemmas; i had seen the island of Lemnos bathed in special effects; and as I left the theater l began to Search for the point 01 it allr In looking for some unifying thread of theme or interpreta- tion, it appeared there hadn’t been any I saw most of the pieces of a production laid ollt in proper order but never quite joined together; a great deal of passion with no object, a great many elfects for no purpose, " tissues tourist Corner 4th & Broad Grinnell, Iowol Being with each other, doing things together . . . know- ing that your affection IS growing into precious and enduring love, Happily, all these cherished moments twill beiorever symbolized by your diamond engagement iring. If the name, Keepsake, is in the ring and on the tag. you are assured of fine quality and lasting satlsiactlon. iThe engagement diamond is flawless, of superb color, yand precise modern out. Your Keepsake Jeweler will yassist you in making your selection. ,. He‘s in the yellow pages under ”Jewelers.” Rings from $100 to $10,000. Illustrations enlarged to show detallPTrede-mark reg. M, H. Pond C0,, lnc.. Est. 1892 REGISTERED Kegpflzg' DIAMOND RINGS HOW TO PLAN YOUR ENGAGEMENT AND WEDDlNG-l Fleece send new 20-page booklet, "How To Plan Your Engage- ment and Wedding“ and new lZ—pnge full color iolder. both for Clty-———-—————_—. 9ta!e——_.Zip only 259, Also, 36nd special 0'19! oi beaulllul 44-31339 Brlde'a Book. I i no I I I I | KEEPSAKE DIAMOND RINGS. BOX 90, SYRACUSE. N. Y. 13201 ____.____.____._________________._J -—*—_— and a great crescendo of sound and fury signifying little. First of all, I’d like to say in , passing that the Alumni Recita- tion Hall was quite appropriate- ly named. it is a recitation hall, and not a theater. The dis- tractions inherent in the physi- cal layout of the hall are such that any production mounted there is immediately in trouble All three productions given there in the past two years have suffered from slamming doors and the impossibility of masking an unavoidably unat- tractive stage, The balcony is too high and too close, and the absence of wings and entrances makes eftective blocking most difficult Fascination with Effect The set immediately remind- ed me or Gulliver's flying island of Laputa. Throughout the proa duction I wondered whether the action was taking place ’aboard a ship or on dry land. The rake of the stage seemed uncom- fortably steep, and provided not only problems of blocking but also the possibility that one false step would have meant a tumble into the laps of those sitting in the front row of seats, The set seemed to be a vague Intellectual conception which ‘had little relation to what was happening dramatically, The same can be said, I Lhink, of the lights, music. and costumes, While the initial effect of the lights was very exciting, Cun< centrating on mood and not on realistic lighting, i soon began to want desperately to see the actor’s faces a play, after all, is meant to be seeniand too much of this one wasn’t. Paul Zonn‘s electronic music come as an initial shock, but later In the 'play did add to the mood, I wonder, however. it it's the mood Sophocles had in mind I was completely thrown by the costumes of the chorus. Besides being very daring they seemed to me inappropriate. Agam it was a case of fascina- tion With an effect which had little to do with the dramatic content of the play. Dressed as slaves, and not as the patriClans they should have been, the crew llever seemed capable or “looking out for Neoptolemus" good,” nor tor that matter of mounting any effective attack against Troy. They were not "dressed like Greeks." and when Philoctetes says they are, it is apparent that plausibility has been sacrificed to effect Plausihilty sacrificed in Acting I think plausibility was also sacrificed in the performance given by Peter Arnot in the title role. Mr. Arnot’s exagger- ated declamatory style, so ela- quent in his puppet shows, tended to become pure rant, to [use its effectiveness, and final- ly to become hollow and tedious in a production with real people. Mrs Arnot seemed to be more concerned with his technical virtuosity than with the prob- lem of presenting a believable character. I couldn’t believe his anguish, i couldn‘t sympa— mice with his predicament, I couldn‘t Jindersland his con- flict, and I finally wished some- one would drop him overboard. I think a little more communi- cation with his fellow actors would have made Mr, Amol’s performance much more en- joyable. Penelope Reed’s style of acting was the opposite of Mr. Arnol‘s, The conflict Neoptolemils had Meanwhile”; Back in the CRYlNli ROOM Once we ilnd onions that are grand enough to be pampered and fussed over and transformed into those golden-crisp onion rings that King's are so famous for—well, we're so happy we just cryl And cry. And cry. (But we really don't mind, be- cause only the BEST will do for KlNG’S...and BEYMER’S YOU.) ELI“ KING‘S Food Host u.s.A. W GRINNELL with his conscience was per- haps the only clearly defined conflict in the entire produc- tion, and the reason for this was that Miss Reed was ob- viously making the character as believable as possible. To make her character “real,” however. in a production which was any- thing but real, Miss Reed was also forced to exaggerate the style of her performance to the point that it became implaus. ible. Obviously, the primary reason for this was that she was cast as a 14 year old boy, which itself seems to me to provide almost insurmountable problems. As it was, she seem- ed stylistically out of place on the Stage: one more part Of all unintegrated wholer Effectiveness Reduced It struck me as l‘watched Odysseus laying’his trap that this Was a man of incredible strength of will and purpose, of amazing cunning and clever. ness, of such power that in the end it is only the gods who can stand in his Way, I think that Robert: lngham’s performance often lacked the strength neces~ sary to the role, and that ex- cept in spots in the first and last scenes, this “greatness” of character was not consistently conveyed. Ultimately. of course, the greater responsibility for this inconsistency of character-b , zation must lie With the dime tor, but regardless of origin, the fact that Odysseus came across as a mischievous prankster in- stead of the epitome of hard- headed pragmatism detracted from both the dramatic irony and the effectiveness of the conflict. I was confused about the Ilse of the chorus. Were they, actu< ally, a Greek chorus, in which case the attempt to give each member individuality as a part of the crew was out of place? 01- were they individually sep- arate characters, in which case their Occasional monkish in- cantations seemed uncomfort- ably contrived? Apparently, a Combination at these two func- tions was attempted, but i think this resulted in the etlecuvo utilization of neither, ‘ Bits of inspiration What i saw last weekend, seemed to be a great many in- consistencies stiung together by a thin thread of isolated effects Lights, sound, costumes, set. tings. acting styles: all these seemed to he bits of inspiration which were never closely exam- ined as to their mutual compati. billty. There seemed to be little control over the production; it was'as though the effects had gotten the bit in their teeth and were racing passionately to no apparent end I was never sure why I was to consider the action taking place on stage as at all important. Thun- der and lightning doesn't neces» sarily make a storm, nor does volume and intensity make a . playi Metaphorically, it this production had been ailiving, breathing thing, which 1 don't think it was, it would have been examining itself in a mire [on Or, better, it would have been Phiioctetes, standing with arms upraised in awe of a god whose voice sounds remarkably like his own.