drama
UTs
‘Earnest’
has
flaws
Oscar Wilde was a renowned wit in London during the Decadent
movement, and one of the leading proponents of “art for art’s sake,”
along with Whistler and Beaudelaire.
Rising on the crest of the Aesthete wave, he came to the notice of the
general public through the release of his novel, “The Picture of Dorian
Gray,” and his dandyism. He included among his contemporaries
Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm, J.K. Huysmans, Arthur Symons,
and. most significant. Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas.
Wilde’s intimacy with this “Fair-haired boy” led to a trial, his
subsequent imprisonment, and expulsion from London society.
Just prior to this tragedy, Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being
Earnest,” had enjoyed an enthusiastic reception by London
audiences. Through the characters in his play, Wilde found
immortalization of his own views.
From the lips of the two principal characters, John Worthing and
Algernon Moncrieff, spout epigrams employed by Wilde himself in
clubs and cafes of London and Paris. Almost devoid of independent
expression among characters, the play is merely a vehicle for the
philosophy of decadence.
It is upon this rather important point that the University Theater’s
production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” falters.
The blatant departure from the attitude reflected in the lines
themselves is evidenced in a style of acting which occasionally
borders upon slapstick. Lloyd Brass’s portrayal of the character
Algernon Moncrieff, though for the most part highly amusing,
periodically deteriorated into childish mimicry and insipid
scamperings.
Although, in the play, Algernon is distinguished from Worthing by
his youth and flippant character, this distinction was made
over-obvious by his acting.
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with special musical score and narration
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Admission: $1.25 generalSl students 50c children
The other prominent male character, John Worthing, was played
exceedingly well by T. Blake Conley. The interaction between these
two characters provided many amusing repartees.
The feminine counterparts, Gwendolen Fairfax as played by
Katherine Swink and Cecily Cardew, by Marie Hahn, while for the
most part fulfilling their roles, in some instances fell prey to pert
wholesomeness, a quality that is, in actuality, conspicuously absent
from decadent literature.
The other members of the cast were Jack Watson as Rev. Canon
Chasuble, D.D., Richard Turnbow as the butler Merriman, and
Jacqueline McClure as Lady Bracknell, with exceptional perfor
mances given by Diana Barber as Miss Prism, Robert Boyt as the
butler Lane, and the members of the production workshop class on set
construction.
Despite insensitive direction, as seen in the misinterpretation of the
roles, and indeed the period, the performances are, for the most part,
commendable, and the production is highly entertaining.
C. Margit Sperling
Laura K. Smith
I wish to admit my youth, my inexperience and “greenness” as a
poet, scholar, reviewer, teacher, man . . . and in general relate
myself to professor Nathanael Tam as a student should to a teacher,
with all confidence that he’d take my comments with tolerance and
understanding should they ever chance to cross his eyes.
His fields of study and-or teaching have included Cuban voodoo,
Asian religious cults, anthopology and literature, and of course they
all sing in him and mirror each other. The work he read from last
Friday night (in the cozy old EMU Browsing Room) is called Lyrics
for the Bride of God. She is the shekinah. The word is for the “glory of
the Lord” in the ancient Hebrew texts, but, if I understood Tam
correctly, it had mutated in definition through the centuries in Jewish
tradition until it referred to a mystical female being who gathered
together the sparks of the eternal in her people Israel and brought
them back to God, her husband. The poem was divided into four
sections of a circle, with (as I recall) “The Kitchen” in the North,
“America” in the west, “Dante Aligheri" in the south, and something
foreign to me in the east. Each section was full of its poems and
growing, with no end in sight. Professor Tam read'selections from
“The Kitchen” and "America” before I had to leave near the end.
The idea of it was fascinating. Shekinah, the glory of the Lord, a
masculine presence, metamorphosing through time and man into the
female Bride. Israel was always pictured as God’s bride by the
prophets, and the day of His glory was always imagined as that of her
glorification, as is meet for a wedding day. Coupled with the sacred
Hebraic marriage of lifelong monogamy (“bone of my bone, flesh of
my flesh” . . . “and they shall be one flesh”), this spiritual
metamorphosis through time and man takes on much more
significance than a mere corruption of definition. The idea of Eve
being a degeneration of Adam because she was derived from him is
human ignorance of divine decree. The glory of the Lord is the glory of
His people Israel, the glory of God is that of His Bride, and the “man”
and the “woman” are one “flesh.” Selah.
What’s fascinating is the synthesis of East and West achieved The
concept of yin and yang is prevalent and popular among Westerners
because of its universality, but, like so many concepts from the East,
it lacks personality—to the Westerner. And it willingly sacrifices its
Eastern personality for the sake of the Westerner’s enjoyment of it as
an abstract, and both parties lose, though the simple gain of pure
exchange seems fit recompense. Professor Tam has mated the
Hebraic mysticism and the Eastern mysticisms of the same trinity:
man, woman, and manwoman, in God. (Did you know that before the
Fall Adam and Eve were simply “the Adam,” an entity both male and
female?) The result is richness, fullness and life (content) to the
Western spirit, and body, personality, and force (form) to the Eastern.
Yin and Yang are God and His people (Bride), the white light is
Someone, love is a Person, both male and female, in the order each
must be. Shekinah.
Michael Heffley
tnwd> Hotel
757 Willamette
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