Friday. March 4, I960

SCARLET AND BLACK

Page Three

 

"So Foul And Fair A Play. . . "

'Macbet/i 'lac/(s Dept/1, Stab/'1

by Meg Davis

50 foul and fan- a play i harc
not scan as was the pcrlorniancc
of “Macbeth", which look pl _
last Tuesday night on the Gl‘ll‘H
ncll stage. The combination ol.‘
the able and the incpt, the ef-
fective and [he fruitless, the
dynamic and the static, the ex
cellent and the poor was aston-
ishing, Yet even the worst of it
was not really "foul,” and the
estimable parts of the production
outweighed the others,

Mr. Donahue is pmbnbly one ‘

of Grinnelrs most unsung and i 1

most talented faculty members, l
and his predicament in finding
some 30 Grinnellians who can
act is worthy of sympathy; he
is not to be blamed because he
did not fiiul that many. I went
to rehearsals of “Macbeth" for
the purpose or- watching his

direction, and he did all that i
was humanly possible. l

Yet the fact remains that somel
of the performances were falls
tires. A threefold Col Archer,
appeared miraculously m the;
disguise of witches but failcd to:
fool me, despitc thunder, light-j
ing, clanging, banging, greases;
paint and wigs designed to olc.t
hide the audience, Mc. engcr.
and murderers were cithci maur
dible-or inept.

One of the most amusing moms
ents in thc play was at the end
when to the tune of numerous
hails to the new king, a hapless
young gentleman stepped toi»
ward, pelvis first and helmet
over his eyes, looking for all the
world like anything but the stuff
at which kings arc made.

‘ But: these were minor char»
actors, and, in the total effect,
their limitations were quickly
forgotten There was one mem-
orable and mature performance ‘
and a crop of estimable ones
at the other end of the scale.
Mr. Nassii’s performance as
Macbeth was powerful, ener—
getic and intelligent; what he
lacked in subtlety and careful
development, he attempted to
make up for in clarity and fins
cssc‘

Miss Pctersilie created a Lady
Macbeth who was at once dynr
amic, horrifying, pitiablc and
magnificent; her sleeptvzllking
scene was the best and most
chilling moment in the show,

Al Stanley, playing Banquo
and a doctor, gave his most re
strained and consequently his
best performance on the Grinncll
stage. Leigh Tracy was a "very
loud and .vcry funny porter. Ba -
bar-a Hansen, playing Lady Mace.
duff, showed a great deal ofl
promise; she has a lovely voices
and she did , excellent lab in
handling 3’ difficult scene, Josh
and Mark Springer portraycd
the Macduff children with charm,
and case
. John williams.

and Gary Thurston

Carl llousc ‘
deserve

 

, House Porly

* Pizza

* Popcorn
* Soda

1k Hoi Dogs

W ‘mlr-vaa-

i i

“I ti‘orulc'r what those witches would do if I didn’t show for
Joe Nassir seems to bc
retcisilie looks on in the Tuesday night production of “Macbeth"

the next MW,"

3
it

i
wondering as Ellen;

 

honorable mention. Bob Clapp‘s
hiacduri tended to sound hol-
low, but he appeared to attain
genuine emotion when iaeod
with the murder of his inmily.
And George Spelvin, the Bleed-
ing Sergeant, bore an aston-
ishing resemblance to some.
body or othert

Special praise is due to MW
Mcyer and crew for the set: the‘
costumes and lighting were also
very plcasing. ,
While the pcrfoi-inanccs wel‘c‘
both bad and good, with the‘
good far outweighing the bad,
there were largcr problcms in-
volved, One was a conflict in
staging between intimacy and
distance, between realism and‘
tantasr. Mr. Nassif delivered hisi
soliloouics to thc audience; thus,
there arose a personal contactl
and involvement betwccn him»
self and the audience which was
sadly at odds with cxplo ons oi
smoke from the witches pot and
strange music accompanying that
all-stage murders,

A play in the theatre must
either create its own closed '
world and be contained within
itself, or else it must open its
fourth wall to the audience and ,
thus in some nay, include it,
if it is to do both, the per-
formance must provide ade-
quatc time and distinct enough
withdrawal to allow the aud-

icut'c lo milkc the transition ‘

Suggestions

* Po‘l'ol'o Chips
* Nul's
* Ice Cream

* Candy

FOO D MARKETS

‘IH

from personal contact to the
distance of fantasy.

This was not done last Tuesday
night, and the result was that
the explosions and the music
scorned ralsc and incongruous
and therefore lost their effect.
An attempt was madc to resolve
this problem by lowering a black
scrim between tlicwitches on the
one sidc and Macbeth and us on
the other; heaven knows both'
witches and murderers needed
all the stage effects possible; but
the problem remains.

And so does one other. If ;
one were asked to state in one
word the total effect which
‘Mncbeth” should produce, that
word would be horror—spine-
chilliiig, bluntlrcurzlling horror.
Last Tuesday's performance did
not achieve this end: indeed,
only the sleepwalking scene
had the desired impact, and
Miss Petersilic had carefully
planted the seeds of her madr
ncss carlier in the play.

Exactly where the fault lies 1;

 

; Contestanu [mm 16 schools
|arc expected to participate in the
llowa For \sic association stale
llminmmcnt hcrc March 10

through 12.

According to a rclcasc irom
(he Grimlcll speech departs
moat, Griniicll will host 15
other schools: Bucna Vista
college, Central college, Coc
college, Cornell collcgc, Clark
college, uiiirersity of Dubuquc,
iowa State university, Iowa
state Teachers college, town
Wesleyan university, horas col-
lege, Luther college, Simpson
college, Upper louauniversity,
Wartburg college and \Vcstmar
college.

- Ton Grinncll students will par
ticlpatc. They are‘ Al Boston. dis
lL‘llssiOil; Robert Hansen, dcbatc;
Cameron chdcrshot. discus on
land cxtcmporaneous speakia ;
Larry Hoffman, debate; Mike
Horoivlr oratory; Janct Krasno,
;oral0ry a n d (‘Xlumpol'ﬂnt‘olls
(speaking; Carol Miller, lnlel‘pl‘o

: liation of poetry; icananiic Reis-
. llcr, discus

on and debate; Mikc
Watkins, disc ion, and John
,williams, dcbatc and interpreter

iicll.

(lo not know. Pcl’ha

'psrt duc to a dynamic parlor-

niancc which somehow resulted
in only a static Macbeth, whose
visions, fears and ultimate hearts
sick wearincss were only “fits and
starts” rather than moving and
growing forccs within him. Per.
haps it is also in part due to the
conflict between distance and in-
timacy, In totality, Grinnclls
"Macbeth" fell somewhere short
of the mark.

Hill, IFA Speech Tournamen’rs
lTo Be Held Here Nex’f Week

ty-

Thc iﬂlll annual llill Spanking
contest will takc place here Wod—
ncsday at a pin. in ARH audi—
‘ Ollllm,

Tho following students
‘conipctc for mu prizes:
div ion—John Dinklagc, Comor-
on licndcrshot, Mike HorovtllL
land Bob Norris; women’s divi-
sion—Brenda Fours, Janet Kras—
;no, icananne Rclslcr, nobciia
’Slalbci‘ and Amie Giccn,

\\ ill
incii‘s

Sole judge of the contest will
be audience response. Students
placing in the first three posi-
tions in both the men's and
women's divisinns will receivb
cash prizes.

This contcst seeks to dcvclop
a student's ability to influence
public opinion by cffcctive
spcach. it was cstabhshcdinlhgl
by Dr. Gei-shom H. Hill of Des
Moincs and the Rcv. James L.
Hill of Salem, Mass, in c
mcinoration of the 20th onnivc —
sary or their graduation from
Gl'lnnell.

Tho contcst is open to the pub—
lic

Library Fines

To Be Li'H'ecl,

Henry Alden, librarian, has da—
Iclarcd ncxt week as the time
‘whcn ovcrdue library books may
be returned without paying
fines. Books which have not pier
perly been checked out may\also
be lclt at the desk with no ques-
tions asked,

 

 

 

ITS SPRIN
TIME

. FAVORS
. GIFTS

G PARTY

oo-o

,. PRIZES
. SNACKS

FROM

BERNICE'S CANDIES

"We Mail &
BE 6-4759

Deliver"
923 Main St.

 

 

Hanssen Studio Presents

John K. Bolton

John K. Bolton. senior English major
from Wilmette. illinois, is well known

to many
and lacu

members of the student body
lty as Grinncll's foremnst au~

llloily on the Iinelu‘y style, This past

semester

he was applauded by the

Committee on Student Publications for _

his valiant attempt to r

establish the

reserve fund, thus becoming the ﬁrst

Business
SCARLE

Manager in the History of the
T AND BLACK to make too

much moneys

Our f‘

onception of quality photo-

graphy is to render cach portrait as
im arttnl reproduction of those qualir
tics which you bcst express. Visit our
studio here in Griiiiicll, and sec how
much a quality photograph or portrait
can mean, for you, or as a gift.

Hanssen Sludio

'Quulily Always"

 

