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?REVIEWS
‘We should excuse these theatre folk’
To begin with I should be clear
in saying I didn’t like the University
Theatre production of Bertolt
Brecht’s “The Good Woman of
Setzuan," but as Brecht himself
has said, “In any case we should
excuse these theatre folk, for the
pleasures they sell for money and
fame could not be induced by an
exacter representation of the
world, nor could their inexact ren
derings be presented in a less
magical way.”
By JOHN LOEBER
There are some fine moments
in the play, most notably Ric
Hagerman’s delivery as Wong the
water seller and Johnal
Woodward's miming, which is a
welcome relief from the forced ac
tion found in the rest of the play.
The two alter egos of the central
character, Shen Te and Shui Ta,
are merged quite effectively by
Jenny Nielsen as the play pro
gresses, showing the duality of
goodness. (Although when she
mimes leading her young son
around the stage it plays more as
dragging a toy duck around a
track—the mime here is purely
Occidental.)
But most of this careful work is
obviated by the characterization
provided by Susan Scovil as the
landlady and John Pattison as the
barber. The landlady is overacted
and presents enthusiasm where
suspicion is called for during the
first scene, and is later played as
catty rather than haughty, thereby
turning scene into melodrama and
giving the audience too easy a
way of thinking about the action.
Most succinctly, the greedy and
suspicious Oriental landlady is
played as a blowzy Mae West.
The barber's identity is also obvi
ously a characterization the actor
has put on for the evening's work,
developing salaciousness where
avarice is called for and outrun
ning any sense of inner motiva
tion. Where is the free and easy
ironic acting Brecht falls for?
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The blocking is forced through
out the play, with characters shift
ing emphasis so often the only
feeling left is of obscure attempts
to upstage the action inherent in
the play.
Scene changes—the script
calls for over a dozen—are rushed
through so quickly any sense of
suspended time called for in epic
drama is entirely lost. The attempt
to recapture this feeling of poten
tial energy rather than inertia
comes during the scenes and ap
pears as fault rather than intent,
upsetting the play's rhythms. The
result is a slow production.
Overall, the sense of irony and
alienation Brecht calls for is
achieved—but not so much by
good drama as by faulty craft
manship. The lighting is incredibly
unbalanced, dropping drastically
at the stage perimeters where
much of the action takes place,
and presents several blue hot
spots which do little justice to the
already unctous makeup seen on
several of the actors. The acting
too emphatically corners the au
dience into an understanding of
what is happening and who is
guilty.
With so many aspects of the
play failing, the audience s sense
of futility in judgement is lost, and
any sense of reflection is centered
on romantic symbolism: the to
bacco shop owned by Shui Ta is
the counterpart of love and good
ness, and the airplanes and vul
tures seen by Shen Te are unat
tainable love turned to unhappi
ness. But in the midst of melod
rama the direct attacks Brecht
makes on materialism are lost in
emotional reactions.
Failing as epic theatre, this pro
duction of The Good Woman of
Setzuan’ leaves the audience too
firmly entrenched in a melodrama
tic understanding of guilt and in
nocence, never truly approaching
the questions: is wickedness
necessary to maintain existence:
can humans exist without hunger
and desire, and does anyone
have the right to judge9 s|e
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The 15-year-old
has grown up
■ ■
Janis Ian will appear tonight in concert with Loudon Wain
wright III at 8:30 in Mac Court. Tickets for the Cultural
Forum Double Tee event are $4 for students. $5 general and $5 50
at the door.
I learned the truth at seventeen -
that love was meant for beauty
queens and high school girls with
clear-skinned smiles who married
young and then retired
-Janis Ian
At Seventeen"
When I was 12 and knew so well
it made me sick what Jams Ian
apparently didn't realize until she
was 17 and didn t sing about until
now, my father brought me home
her first album—a reject from
the University radio station.
I listened to it and immediately
liked the anti-racist Society s
Child," for a part of my budding
consciousness loved anything
that smacked of rebellion
But sometime through the years
and somewhere along the way,
the album was misplaced Maybe
if I d known that many years later
By JENIFER BLUM BERG
Jams Ian would become a big
deal recording artist, I d have kept
the album as proof that I knew
then what everyone else knows
now. Maybe, but I don t think so
I get the feeling that Ian is not so
interested anymore in smacking
of rebellion She s selling lots of
records today; she was even on
the bg shot" Johnny Carson
Show recently, singing her beauti
ful love song Jesse."
Yes, the lady can write songs,
and she can sing; she s also
learned what sells and what
doesn't. The 15-year-old girl of
Society s Child days has grown
Ian has toned down her subject
matter—or just obscured it—and
become acceptable to the mas
ses.
Bright lights & promises
A pocket full of dreams
That's what they pay me to be
-Janis Ian
"Bright Lights & Promises a|c