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.

 

