'Dutchman9 is nostalgic, challenging
Comment
by LES WIIIPP
Assoc. Professor of English
An anfcwus, challenging, and
nostalgic experience was
seeing Jo Hill and Mike
Randall , as Lena and Clay in
LeRoi Jones's Dutchman. The
play exhausted me. What must
it be like to have a role in it?
Both roles are collections
diverse and conflicting roles,
all at peak intensity, and Mike
Randall and Jo Hill lived them
very well.
The diversity of charac
terization and express!
within each role emerged
partly from the fullness t ia
terpretatio this production
makes of the play. Lea
operated at several levels. She
was first a pseudo-sophisticated
Bang-up white chick, aod she
was also a persoaifieatio of
eoasompdve White America.
She was also a persoaifieatio
of a seif-destrnctive aad self
rejecting tendency withia aa
individual Black psyche in the
context of a White America.
Clay too, as performed by Mike
Randall, was cot simply - a
young ' Black man, confused,
bemused, aad enraged; he was
also a personification of Black
America, as well as of the
Black identity within the
psyche of aa individual Black
American.
The chief problem in presen
TOM'W NIGHT
SAT., OCT. 10 at 8:00 P.M.
PROFESSIONAL
Tiacrr f;tK
office
OHM SfcXH
4 t ml. V try
. . an. a v
1TUBFMT in
woo
PEP RALLY TONIGHT
Starts at 4 pan. Sth of Ti Union
DALLOOn DAY T0;:.03R017
BROTHERS GIVE THE SHIRT
OFF THEIR BACK -
OUR FRIEND, THE SHEEP,
HAS GIYEN US ALL HIS WOOL.
LAYNE'S m
1730 B St. 475-5S0S
ting the play, I should guess, is
to hold these interpretations
together. Lena the Killer
stalking Clay the Iamb fai the
opening scene was very clearly
an allegorical figure for Death,
and for White America. Lena
almost cracked, desperately
consuming tranquillizers. She
was simultaneously and most
intensely a pathetic, crumbling,
hung-up person aod a minutely
appropriate representation of a
sick, drug oriented, consumer
society consuming itself.
The success of the integration
of the abstract aad human
levels of interpretation was
derived from the highly sym
bolic costamiag and the
simplicity of the staging itself.
The audience became part of
New Xerox
at Union
A Xerox copier for general
student use has been installed
in the north end of the base
ment of the Nebraska Union,
according to AS UN press secre
tary Jonette Beaver.
Cost will be 5 cents per copy
rather than the 10c charged
by other university copiers.
The machine is equipped to
copy standard Si by 11 inch
paper and pages from books,
she said.
Wf o
PRE-SEASON CLASH
EXHIBITION GAME
OMAHA KNIGHTS
KANSAS CITY BLUES
mr I ""
iLTuUOITUIUir - J
the cast. What is represented in
the play is the experience of
the audience (as Jones
perceives it), whether that au
dience is Black or White.
That's why I found the produc
tion of the play nostalgic.
At the level of social
abstractions, the play says that
White America is destroying
herself by preying on Black
America. The play comes from
a time when even LeRoi Jones
Snowftakm
EHE3 011317 DDCCl3S USo C
"i "J ' ' ifjstWY i
J i -r
' t
la as independent test, some indepen
dent mea shaved one side of their face
with a platinum or chromium btade.
They shaved the other, side with our
Trtpleheader S3T shaver.
When they finished shaving-, we had .
them foe their faces.
? est of 13 &iM our Triptcheader
shared them as close or closer than
ither the platinum or chromium Made.
Some of the men were surprised.
But, frankly, w wereat,
Because the Norclco Tripteheader Is a
totally different kind of electric shaver.
1979 , PMIIm
had that faith and belief and
hope. Obviously, LeRoi Jones
has had that faith and belief
and hope stripped away now,
and has come to feel that the
time for' pointing out imminent
danger is past, that the reality
of the Black-White love-hate
relationship in American
society is a reality in which one .
either kills or is killed.
By staging the play, Jo Hill
and Mike Randall give the
Catch a sparkle
trom the morning sun.
Hotd th e magic
cf a sudden breeze.
Keep those moments alive.
StrvUni Lincoln Since 190$
11M "V STREET
VSISTMEO JtWELiRS AMERICAN V JOOmf
ww3 fJ"0 jDo
It has three shaving head that float,
to follow the curves of your face.
Our blades are rotary. So they shav
in every direction, (k -"cause your beard
jrrwics in every direction.)
And we make our shavinr heads
ultra-thin. So it's possible to get a
really close shave. And practically im
possible to nick or cut yourself.
The Tripleheader comes in a Cord and
aKecaargealla
model. ,
i Either way, yoa
cant lose.
woi anf1 a4
CarpwatiMt 190 Cast ta4 StrMt. Na
University community in Lin
coln another chance to hear the
warning, a chance chiefly for
Whites to hear, understand,
and respond to what it is like to
be a Black American in a
White America. That was
hopeful of them. They also
gave- our community a chance
to see good acting in deman
ding roles in a complex and
challenging play. And that was
beautiful of them.
0
- CG - GOo
YmT.N. V. tQ0i.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1970
THE NEBRASKA
PAGE 5
