Elizabeth Cotten
Photos by Erich Boekelheide
Blues artist sings of death;
reminisces about her life
* The audience kept themselves
P busy sweating a reservoir at
WOW Hall Friday night. The
promoters had stripped the hall
down to boards. And up front
Elizabeth Cotten sat singing about
death.
“You just as well get ready
j| 'cause you going to die. You going
to meet your lord somewhere...
You just as well get ready ’cause
Iyou going’ to die.”
The audience clapped deferen
tially in response. This inspired
Cotten to tell a death joke.
“One time I was walking past a
cemetery,” she said. “And a man
walked up to me and asked ‘You
know how many dead bodies are
over there?’ I said: “No. How
would I know how many dead
bodies are over there.” He said,
‘Why, Mrs., they’re all dead.' ”
The audience called it a good
one. There was mutual agree
ment. They had a character on
their hands. An antique, a kind of
Will Rogers under glass. After
the performance they went up to
study her, and to get more woras
of wisdom. She'd been around
enough to know how to save the
rest of us some trouble.
The WOW Hall patrons were
there. They had come to see a
“beautiful person.” They ex
changed sun recipes: “Eight to
ten in the morning, that’s when
there’s real energy; you can really
mellow out then.” After the per
formance they were going to Seat
tle to catch Tut. Others came too.
Blues fans, senior citizens, ap
preciative, well-dressed matrons.
The whole lump.
Cotten adopted them all, right
away. “Turn up the lights,” she'd
say, in the middle of a perfor
mance. “I want to see my friends.”
The audience ate this up.
“She’s old and she’s friendly,”
explained her agent. “Easy to talk
to.”
“She’s old and she’s friendly,”
sang Cotten. “Going down the
road feelin’ bad.”
British play set to premiere far from Broadway
By BOB WEBB
Of the Emeralcj
A Broadway play coming to
Eugene? Nothing unusual about
that. But a play opening irrEugene
before it goes to the Great White
Way, now that’s news. That’s
what’s happening the next two
weeks in the Pocket Theatre, Vil
lard Hall.
The play The Crunch, by Mar
cus Campbell, a young New Zea
land playwright now living in Lon
don, will be performed by profes
sional British actor John Rainer.
Why Eugene? “I met some of
your University people in Eng
land,” said Rainer, referring to a
recent educational tour of theater
in Great Britain by University
Theatre students, "and decided
that if the climate and space al
lowed, the University community
would be a good place to try it
out.”
He wanted to play before United
States’ audiences and see the
west coast. This is his first visit
here.
Due to the play’s somewhat
controversial subject matter,
Rainer felt he would have a
guaranteed audience if he per
formed in San Francisco or Los
Angeles, but he didn’t want only
one sort of audience. Hence,
another reason for the premiere to
be in Eugene: the University
community offers a theatrically
conscious and, presumedly, more
open-minded audience.
And what is the controversial
subject matter? The Crunch
examines the dilemma of a trans
sexual, Rainer said. “This man has
passed as a woman for nine
years, but hasn't had the opera
tion because he is afraid. It ex
amines his lifestyle in a funny/sad
way.”
What we see on stage are the
events leading up to the moment
when “the pressures become too
much — when it comes down to
the crunch.”
Rainer stresses that he’s not in
terested in pushing any issues.
The play does not advocate any
point of view although it does
“raise some questions,” not only
on the subject of transsexuality,
but on any sexual variation.
It may even cause some people
to “rethink their situation.” But the
main reason Rainer is interested
in presenting the play is the chal
lenge it provides for him as an
actor, and Rainer considers The
Crunch to be a very good play by
one of England’s most promising
new playwrights.
Rainer trained at the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art in Lon
don and has had an extensive
career in regional theater all over
England.
Some of the highlights of his
career include appearances with
Sir Ralph Richardson’s Haymar
ket Theatre Royal Company in
The Rivals and The Merchant of
Venice; many television credits for
the BBC and independent com
mercial stations; a Swish Curtain
Rail advertisement which was
awarded the Funniest Commer
cial of the Year by Punch
Magazine; it was also a prizewin
ner in its class at the Cannes Fes
tival. His films include roles in the
Burton/Taylor Under Milk Wood,
by Dylan Thomas, and in Oliver
Reed's The Carry Cot. He has also
had the honor of appearing in a
Royal Command Performance
before Queen Elizabeth.
Tickets for The Crunch are $3
and may be purchased at the
Eugene Hotel or at the door. Per
formances are scheduled for to
night through Saturday and next
Monday through Saturday at 11
p.m. According to Rainer, “it's the
only time we could get the
theatre.”
_emu
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