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VVailin'. . .Evolution, a jazz quartet
consisting of Vic Lewis on drums. Bill
French on piano, Steven Jensen on
trumpet and Bruce Colin m on acoustic
and fender bass, played at the weekly
Friday afternoon Jazz and Java.
L
Halfway Up the Tree - imaginative comedy
Review by
)im Gray
Many times, when an actor
tries his hand at writing the
results are anything;butsterling.
As witnessed by Woody Allen's
Don't Drink the Water,
produced earlier this year at the
Lincoln Community
Playhouse, actors plays are
most often overdone,
hackneyed and hardly
innovative.
Once in a while, however,
an exceptional actor comes up
with a palpable play-something
a little different, a little
bit bizzarre perhaps, but
clearly imaginative and
dramatically sound. Such is the
case with the current
production at the Playhouse,
Peter Ustinov's Halfway Up the
Tree.
A CLEVER comedy with an
imaginative theme, Halfway Up
the Tree is centered around a
British army officer who has
returned home after spending
four years in Malaya, only to
find that his children have
"dropped out" of society. His
Oxfordian son has become a
stereotyped hippie"-guitar
and all, and his daughter has
become a pregnant,
cigar-smoking women's
liberation advocate.
The play then becomes
vibrantly innovative, as the
General, rather than blowing
his Victorian top, elects to join
his offspring, grabbing a guitar,
taking a cross-country hobo
trek and finally returning, only
to build a treehouse in his back
yard, refusing to come down
into the civilized world.
BRILLIANTLY cast as the
General, Robert Stuewig gives
an immensely believeable and
intriguing performance. A
forceful and articulate speaker,
Stuewig comes across as one of
the most lively officers ever to
come out of the British empire.
Marie Muffley, as the
General's flightly wife gives an
amazingly clever performance.
In a part which is a difficult
combination of insanity and
insight Muffley clearly displays
her expertise.
As the General's brusque
daughter, Dierdra Purins gives a
complicated and deep
interpretation to a key role.
Probably the most interesting
aspect of the role is an almost
visible changeover in
personality between acts,
which Purins carried off with
extreme grace.
IN THE role of the son,
however, the characterization
is a little less complex. As
played by Sam Ridge, the
guitar-swinging son becomes an
overdone rebellious youth,
with little-or-no intelligence.
Even so, Ridge's
characterization is not
impossible to identify with,
and some warming to character
can be observed by the end of
the play.
In the way of minor
characters, Raphael Encinger,
Jr. as the general's wife's lover
and Britt Davis as the Vicar are
sparkling articulate.
ALL IN ALL, the
production is well-paced and
articulation is good-to-excellent
throughout. Lee
Schoonover's set is probably
the best designed set in several
seasons at the playhouse, not
only beautiful, but
functionally upberb.
Costumes are adequate and
well-coordinated.
There are, of course,
technical problems. Most of
them, however, can be directly
traced to the horrible
surroundings forced upon the
playhouse crew. Luckily, the
miniature stage, outmoded
equipment and uncomfortable
auditorium will be abandoned
soon, as the playhouse
switches to its newly-built
replacement quarter for the
season's next production.
For what it's worth,
Halfway Up the Tree is a good
play. And that's something
that's getting rarer each year.
Simple plot, strong conclusion
bolster 'Beasts and Children'
1 he only truly poor
characterization in the lot, is
cranked out by Lana Imes, as
the family's Scandinavian
maid. As. difficult 'as
dialect-oriented parts are, Imes'
performance is so flat and
uninteresting as to be beyond
belief.
Review by
Patty Culver
Bless the Beasts and
Children is rated GP and has a
wealth of information in it for
any age. The plot is simple the
story of six young men from
the Box Canyon Boys Camp
who take it upon themselves to
hike for two days to release a
head of buffalo that are
doomed to the hunter's rifle.
Simple, indeed, but the
character development and
comments on today's society
keep the audience watching
while sharing tears of joy and
laughter with the adventurers
as well as the distress during
the boys' troubles.
ALTHOUGH THE quality
of the film print is poor, the
actual filming and sound
reproduction is good. The
shots are well selected for the
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
director's purpose and the
viewers can understand every
word that is spoken.
Even the background music
was chosen with today's
audience as well as the action
on the screen, in mind. It
resembles modern rock music
in the lively, humorous scenes
and the opposite during the
somber scenes, but seems to be
well selected to resemble the
young men of the story.
The acting and character
development were the
outstanding feature of Bless
the Beasts and Children,
expecially from Cotton, the
leader of the group. Each boy's
background was presented
through a series of short
flash-backs as the boys are
hiking towards their
destination.
THE FLASH-BACKS
illustrated exactly what the
as
an
director wanted the audience
to understand about each boy's
past life. As the show
progressed, the moments of
their past explained why they
were acting and reacting
they did.
Each character did
excellent iob of erowine and
4 &
becoming a friend, dependent
on the other boys, rather than
the social outcasts they were in
the beginning of the story.
Bless the Beasts and
Children is a show that should
be seen by everyone, students
and parents alike. Its
combination of humorous,
grotesque and very somber
scenes deliver a message that is
not soon forgotten. Each scene
is necessary to the
development of the story
which will drive home a very
strong point at its conclusion.
Don't miss it.
PAGE 13
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1971
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