Four

SCARLET AND BLACK

Friday. Nevambnr I‘I. I961

PLAIIDITS FOR PANNWTT: GGLD STAR FOR RED BADGE

By JOHN WILES

The 196168 Grinnell Theatre
loason saw its first real suc<
less “with distinction" in the
recent Arena production of
laird Williamson's dramatic ad-
nptation of Stephen Crane’s
The Red Badge of Courage.
Very few critical bones need
be picked with this production,
which impressively combined
Icting, directing, and technical
Excellence into one of the most
creatively outstanding and af-
fecting works which have been
attempted in the Arena Theatre
In years.

To start with. some fair share
at credit must be apportioned
lo the property itself. William-
son has been supremely faith-
iul to Crane, although the ap
peal of this play certainly ex-
tends beyond simple faithful-
less.

Williamson’s adaptation of
trane's novel is ostensibly a
bare, roughly sketched transla-
tion of the story of the naive,
fdealistic youth Who grows in
character through his tragic
confrontation with the "blood
swollen god" of war. Super-
ficially, the script actually of-
fers little more tangible the-
atrical potential than that of a
limple dramatic reading.

The play is short, summarized
and abbreviated (the actual run-
ning length of the Grinneil pro-
duction was but a scant 45
minutes).

Yet Williamson, in transfer,
ring the essence of Crane’s
story from narrative to dra-
matic form, has decidedly ex-
panded the possibilities for the
telling of that story, and has
accordingly “opened up" the
story to anyone with sufficient
creativity to take advantage of
the new genre’s potential.

Williamson seems to offer a
clue to the work's production
possibilities in his extensive
Ind affecting use of the novel's
rich language and images, Hen~
ry Fleming, the young protag—
onist, is described early as an
eager-eyed youth who dreams
of “vague and bloody con-
flicts," and the'heroism which

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he just as vaguely believes will
surely accompany them.

Having thus faithfully identi-
ﬂed the early Henry as a
dreamer, Williamson compounds
narrated references to “visions
of a thousandtongued fear;"
the soldiers' “mysterious frat-
emity;" and the "monster”
war — a "red animal" which
is personified in the imagina-
tion and frightened mind of
Henry.

Such language is clearly in.
dicative of the supernatural,
the psychological, the unreali
the abstract, the impressionis-
tic workings of the tormented
consciousness which is Henry’s
internal identity. The differences
between what drama can
“show" and what narrative can
“tell" of this, the real essence
of Crane’s story, seems to
point toward taking a relative
ly free theatrical rein in se
lecting the elements with which
to dramatize this adaptation.

Director Libby Pannwitt and
her crew proved themselves
quite adequate to the challenge.

In bringing the possibilities of
the script to theatrical reality,
Miss Pannwitt apparently took
up much a similar directorial
interpretation, freely and cre-
atively capitalizing upon the
play’s symbols and imagery.

Realistic camp scenes and
characters' speeches throughout
the play were purposefully in-
terspersed with segments of
choral dialogue and symbolicals
1y choreographed actions. One
character Was made to dis
“realistically" on stage; a sim-
ple circle of eerie green light
was used to symbolize the body
of another, decaying dead sol-
dier.

in one scene, the company
of soldiers was realistically pre~
sented lounging at rest on the
countryside; in another, the
troops mechanically marched
in time (and almost in place),
betraying the weary boredom
of the troops continual move-
ment to no one place and for
no clear purpose in particular.
The effect of such combinations
of style and dramatic elements
was to confront the audience
at once with the stark reality
of war, and also with its ir»
rational incomprehensibility.

Two of the most effective
scenes of the play unmistakably
complemented each other
through just such purposeful
diversity. An early scene rep~
resents an actual dialogue be-
tween Henry and his mother,
revealing “realistically" the
youthful idealist, confident in
his soaring illusions, A later
scene found Henry alone and
separated after running away
from battle; nameless mem-
bers of the chorus besieged him
with taunts and ridicule for his
cowardice. The illusions of the
voices represented Henry’s own
thoughts and self-accusations,
the {armless fears which had,
ironically, become his hellish
reality.

Visual and auditory effects
were imaginatively and impres-
sively employed to support both
aspects of the play’s presenta-
tion. Lighting in many colors
and arrangements helped to tie

fine and contrast realistic and
abstract elements, Drums and
recorded music artificially un-
derscored moments of realistic,
climactic tension.

The set was simply and phys-
ically functional — in no way
really representative of ground,
yet extremely adaptable to both
realistic and a b s t r a c i movt.L
merits. Costumes suggested real
uniforms, while remaining. as
work shirts and jeans, in ef-
fect symbols in themselves.

Even the painting of the walls
of the theatre (the first Arena
production for which this has
ever been dared) was a credit
to the imaginative staging of
the play. Three walls were a
dark, somber gray; the back
wall, a blank, impersonal light
gray-blue. The audience thus
was at all times surrounded by
an environment which affect-
ingly contained and reflected
the play’s serious mood.

The cast itself was excellent
to a man. Virtually every actor
was believable in his role, and
contributed to a polished, co-
hesive, complementary sum of
performances.

Ned Benton was especially
excellent as Henry, conveying
with sensitivity and depth the
youthful dreamer's internal de-
velopment as catalyzed by the
battle‘s crises Benton remained
strong, from his initial boyish
characterization of the optimis-
tic, illusioned enlistee to his
more mature portrayal of the
ironic, disillusioned hero whose
war-weary “Damn. . .damn,.
damn, . . damn. . ." under-
cuts a moment of apparent
glory with a telling indictment
by one who more sadly and
wisely understands the real
pain and hell of war,

Benton was weakest as Hen-
ry in his most hysterical mo-
ments of near»madness; his
emoting seemed less natural
than consciously summoned,
and occasionally appeared to be
approaching a pitch of uncom-
fortable histr‘ionics. Such com-
paratively weak moments were
few, however, and did not ser-
iously undermine a generally
controlled and finely - charac-
terized performance.

All of the soldiers were Well-
played, and the cooperative in«
corporation of such group “bits"
as card-playing and good-ha.
tured needling were largely
responsible for giving the play

the realistic moments it needed,’

when it needed them.

Greg Wallance and Carter
Coleman were very good as
Henry's companions, Wilson and
Jim. Both defined their char~
acters convincingly, without
turning them into overly strong
characters who might have up-
staged the central protagonist.
Coleman's only disturbingly
awkward moment came, iron-
ically enough, after his “death”
as Jim.

The classic problem of how
to get a dead body off stage
was not Well handled, and the
exit of the corpse on his own
suddenly resurrected power was,
while not a serious fault within
the play, a minor irritation
which might more pleasingly
have been avoided.

Merritt Olsen injected a de«
Cidedly valuable element of
comic relief into the play with
his characterization of the
Wounded Soldier. With one dead
body and one seriously shocked,
near-hysterical character also
sharing the stage, it took dell-
cate handling on the part 0!
Olsen to keep his comic figure
from becoming irreparably ir-
reverent and annoyingly out of
place,

As it was, the scene became
a symbolic representation of
the incomprehensible juxtaposi-
tion of extremes in any war.
Henry was effectively framed
as the victim of such insanity—-
a tragic corpse on one side, a
senseless clown on the other.

Olsen’s only weak moment
was partially shared in this
sense by Benton. Not nearly
sufficient attention or signifi-
cance was given to the exchange
of the handkerchief, which ob-
viously was intended to he the
play's final, crucial symbol.
Henry’s conclusive moment of
truth and understanding was
thus unfortunately weakened by
this shortcoming of an earlier,
preparatory scene.

Dale Dreyfuss and Dennis
Wilson were excellent in much
smaller roles, giving credence
to the axiom that “there are
no small actors, just small
parts," Each took upon himself
the seemingly negligible, but
extremely relevant business of
making his unnamed character
seem nonetheless individually
distinct and real.

Bonnie Tinker, in much the
same manner, made her few
brief moments as Henry's moth»
er so thoroughly believable and
convincing that it was almost
too hard to accept her as
merely a nameless voice in the
chorus throughout the rest of
the play,

The chorus was expertly em-
ployed, with every member of
the cast at some time slipping
from finite characterization in-
to the function of a nameless
observot and commentator on
the futility and damnable waste
of war. Ricki Ravitts was par-
ticularly outstanding — as were
Dreyfuss, Wilson, and Miss
Tinker — in combining precis-
ion of vocal expression with
fluid, graceful physical move-
ment.

If any one of the play’s
numerous fine moments were
to be singled out for special
praise, it would unquestionably
have to be the abstract, sur-
realistic battle dance. Judy
Mendelsohn's choreography was
hypnotic and almost literally
frightening. She was given fine
support by a seemingly all-
stops-out employment of techni-
cal ingenuity which mixed pur—
ple, yellow. and threatening
melody to create a near-psyche-
delic impression of acute dan-
ger, fear, and death.

i-ienry Fleming’s futile ques-
tions of ”why?"; “What for?";
and "Don't we do all men can
do?" were never answered by
anyone in this play.

The play being true to Crane,
however, the questions could not
be answered; only me awful
truth might be guessed in the

final "damn" of Henry’s new
awareness.

Last year‘s War Without End
attacked Grinnell audiences with
essentially the same truth, and
with more than twice the the.
atrical effort. Mr. Crane, Mr,
Williamson, Miss Pannwin, and
all others responsible for The
Red Badge of Courage are to
be commended for hitting clos-
er home — on a smaller scale
but with just about twice the
effective coherency and organ-
ized creativity.

WEAPONS NEEDED

The cast for No Better by
Robert Ingham needs World
War II or Korean War army
uniforms and equipment, it
you have anything which you
would be willing to lend to us
for the week, please Contact
Mrs. Ramsey in the Fine Arts
office and leave your name
and phone number. Items es
pecially needed are fatigues,
field jackets, helmets, web'
equipment, boots, packs. and
rifles (M—l’s and carbines). It
will be greatly appreciated.

) UNRUH
(Continued from Page 1)

more skeptical when they find
out the truth."

He said, however, that Reag-
an has a “reasonable chance"
to be the Republican nominee
in 1968.

Unruh said he could see no
way of “dumping Johnson” as
the 1968 Democratic party norm
lnee unless LBJ himself stand]
aside.

“Gene McCarthy could win a
couple of primaries and cause
a lot of shouting at the Con—
vention," U n r u h suggested,
“But that’s about it."

The Speaker explained that
Johnson's war policy was en~
dorsed in California with the
significant and major defeat of
the San Francisco referendum
"especially when you consider
that San Francisco county is
the most liberal in California."

Unruh, a democrat and a
past president of the National
Conference of State Legislative’
Leaders. advanced argiments
for his brand of politics-what
he calls “Creative Federalism:"

He stated that; state legisla-
tures were the places to
“strengthen and preserve de-
mocracy as we know it,"

“Unfortunately,” he added,
“the Federal Government is
always looked to to solve the
problems. We should resist this
tendency to concentrate power
in one unit of the government
as this one'unit gives us just
one solution."

The essentials of the “New
Politics,” Unruh said, include
responding to the people and
their problems, recognizing no
pre-commitments, and not be
ing dominated by set ideology
or doctrine.

Closing his address to the
PPPE and Grinnell student an.
dience, Unruh called for an illu-
volvement in the political pro-
cess.

"Equip yourselves to do the
best job possible," he concluded.

 

