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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 1959)
'Antony' Production Studded With Gems Completes 1st Cycle Ashland - "The Tragedy of' Antony and Cleopatra" was presented here Friday night to complete the first cycle of plays on the new and highly successful Oregon Shake speare Festival stage. The production was stud ded, like Cleopatra's crown, with several thespian gems and James Sandoe's direction the crown itself, was gen erally bright and graceful. The play itself is a tragedy, that of a man drawn from duty - and, ultimately, honor -by a consuming passion. And it is a love story. Yet in this play, unlike "Macbeth" for example, no wheels of fate stretch the hero on a rack of relentless cir cumstance, and no fear of death or doom hunts him. If a jealous Nemesis is indeed responsible for . the lovers' downfall, she is certainly un obtrusive. Unconventional As a love story it is also un conventional, for we are snown the passion flower's fruit, not its petals. If the hero has not entirely won his heroine, the initial pursuit at least is over long before the play begins. The character of Antony is complex. However, to this . novice reviewer at least, his stature must be heroic else he canot embody his massive pas sion. In Theodore Marcuse's per formance, we saw a man of lesser stature, more an "old ruffian," as Octavius Caesar once calls him. In place of passion, more often there was lust, as in his habit of grab bing rather than embracing bis "Egypt. In Act III, when after a shameful deportment in battle he is revived from self-loath ing by Cleopatra's presence . and says, "Give me a kiss. Even this repays me," it ap peared that the prospect of a debauch rather than a flame of love danced before his eyes. Found Enchanting Barbara Waide as Cleopatra we found enchanting. Her , coquettishness before Octa vius Caesar in Act V brought many appreciative murmurs from the audience. She portrayed the Egyptian queen so that her wiles seem . ed instinctive, part and parcel of her personality, rather than i the fruits of conscious schem : ing. . . . This choice of interpreta tion, in which Cleopatra is rendered ultra-feminine, some how to us at least failed to harmonize with Marcuse's An tony. There was a lack of rap port between the two lovers that rapport one. looks for, despite surface fluctuations, in continuing intimate rela tionships. Austere Caesar Afflonv nthpr nprfnrmanpps Paul Nagle Jackson's austere Octavius Caesar, Antony's countryman and. foe, we thought outstanding. Jackson's ' diction, even to our untutored ears, is a particular pleasure. Enobarbus, Antony's lieu tenant who deserts him only to die in remorse later, was played effectively by Edward Grover. He performed Enobarbus with lusty realism, a quality appropriate to this character where it appears less so in Marcuse's Antony. Angus Bowmer, the festi vals producing director, per formed both Lepidus and the worm-mongering clown "with his customary skill. Other Portrayals Among other portrayals we thought especially effective were those of Thidias, Caesar's ill-bent messenger to Cleopa tra, by Joel Riggs, and Scarus, one of Antony's commanders, by Richard Risso. eunuch .of Cleopatra's house hold, could, we thought, have been etched more sharply. One or two voices in the cast were lacking in diction, and there was an unfortunate tendency toward shouting in the heat of battle. Might not a quickened delivery convey excitement as well? We would like to single out .several scenes in particular for their effectiveness. One in volves Cleopatra's treatment of the messenger from Rome, played by John Hawkins, who tells her of Antony's bethro th ai to Octavia. Both are ex cellent. Second Moment A second is the rib-tickling moment of ribaldry on Pom- pev's galley in which Antony tells Lepidus, well into his cups, about the Nile crocodile. "It is shap'd, sir, like itself ... and the tears of it are wet." '"Tis a strange serpent," Lepidus comments thickly. There were, however, other light moments which we trust were unintended. One arose from the unfor tunate contrivance of having the dying Antony hauled aloft to Cleopatra's monument by her two dainty ladies-in-waiting. In our text, the guards "heave Antony aloft," which does not sound too effective " either. We wonder if some- Thousands Watch Wannn falvararipl IIUVII VUIIHVUHV Enter Pendleton how, perhaps by block and tackle, the ladies could be re lieved of their burden - for it occasions laughter at an inap propriate moment. Miscalculation A second such moment arose from a slight miscalcu lation in delivery of lines. After Cleopatra and her two ladies have taken their lives, Dolabella rushes in and asks a guard, "How goes it here?" The guard replies "All dead," and several chuckles were heard. Apparently, the similarity of Dolabella's query to our present-day casual greeting, "How goes it?" and a lack of feeling in the guard's reply) gave the exchange an incon gruous levity. - With respect to costumes, a fidelity to' Elizabethan con cepts may surprise those who believe a play set in Egypt should include Egyptian dress, such as one commonly sees in productions of Verdi's opera, "Aida." We must single out Cleopatra's brocade gowns for their particular beauty. An tony's "shirt sleeves," how ever, struck us as being, how ever authentic, something less than heroic. .We drove home from Frt day night's enriching perform ance under a starry sky charged, as only Shakespeare can charge it, with new and special significance. Frag ments of the play's language lingered: "The chair she sat in, like a burnished throne . . ." "The death of Antony is not a single doom . . ." And, as we drove north on Highway 99 past the Cobra Farm we again heard Lepidus: "You've strange serpents there?"-E.W. Benevolent Groups' Dissolution Sought Salem -4DPD- Attorney Gen eral Robert Y. Thornton Fri day filed suit in circuit court here seeking to dissolve 11 benevolent organizations and place them in receivership. Thornton's suit charges the benevolent societies with fail ing to comply with insurance regulations. The suit was brought after a request from V. Dean Musser, Oregon in surance commissioner. The Multnomah county grand jury in Portland recent ly gave a clean bill of health to the organizations. . Societies cited in the suits include the Benevolent Order of Countrymen, the Country men Society Inc., the Indepen dent Countrymen Inc., and American Countrymen Asso ciation Inc.; the Oregon Ben evolent Society Inc., Western Benefit Society Inc., Western Mutual Benefit Association and Western States Service Inc., and the Benevolent Or der of America, United Ameri can Inc., and Pioneer Pacific Inc. - The world's second steam boat, the Vermont, was built in Burlington, Vt., in 1809, one year after Robert Fulton launched the first steamboat. Pendleton - (UPD - Oregon's covered wagon train rolled into this Round-Up city yes terday and thousands of per sons lined the streets to wel come it. The wagons, which camped atop Immigrant hill 17 miles east of here Friday night, started out early and arrived here before 11 ajn. , Wagonmaster Tex Serpa was flanked by Umatilla County Sheriff Roy Johnson and Umatilla County Judge Sam Cook. The wagon train was escorted by a National Guard jeep. Minor Jams Several minor traffic jams were reported on Highway 30 east of Pendleton for about an hour. The crowd was estimat ed at at least 5,000 persons. The wagon train personnel were to attend a dinner here yesterday afternoon. A private flying service was to fly members of the cavalcade to Joseph to attend the Chief Jo seph Days celebration last night. Those that remained behind were to be treated to a barbecue dinner . at the Round-Up grounds, plus dancing- . . The train will leave here Monday morning and head across the flat eastern Oregon country toward The Dalles where it embarks in a barge Aug. 10 for a trip down the Columbia to Portland. Secretary Mitchell Asks Steel Labor, Employers to Negotiate Washington -UPD- Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell called on steel management and labor yesterday to quit shirking their responsibility to the nation and negotiate an end of the 18-day old steel strike. He accused them or refus ing to meet at the collective bargaining table or to consent to government mediation, and said it was time they met daily in an effort to reach "an early, just and equitable set tlement" of their wage con tract dispute. ' Mitchell's statement was made in his capacity as Presi dent Eisenhower's one-man fact-finder in the dispute. It was the harshest yet voiced by an administration spokes man and apparently was made Negro Trio Held For Georgia Rape Lagrange, Ga: (UPD Three Negro men abducted two white girls returning from a dance early yesterday and raped them twice despite ef forts of other Negroes to pro tect the' girls, police reported. The men were arrested shortly after the attack and or dered held without bond in the county jail here. They were charged with rape. Sheriff L. W. Bailey identi fied the men as Clifford John son, 22, Brannon Epps, 25, both of Lagrange, and George A If ord Jr., 18, of Dayton, Ohio. The girls, aged 18 and 20, were not identified be cause of a Georgia law. Bailey said three other Ne groes, "did everything they could" to protect the two white girls. But he said the three attackers were armed with a gun and a knife. ' Rifle Scope Taken From Medford Store A rifle scope valued at at $93.50 was taken from Medford Gun Shop, 1517 North . Riverside ave., . Med ford police were informed yesterday. Max L. Terzenbach, owner, told police the theft had oc curred sometime in the past two weeks. He said the scope was attached to a rifle in the store but could have been detached with a coin or screwdriver, since : only one screw would have to be removed. - $5 s ? 5 , ; is : $ X 1 !5 ! - f 5 s X- A 5; ' 1 li- b -.1 K of voim - M "A little Off the top." That's all it takes to build a savings account . . . trim a little off the top of each pay check. Then pay yourself first by saving those trimmings at our Insured Savings and Loan . Association where your money is safe and earns excellent returns. Investments made by the tenth of the month earn dividends as of the first. FIRST FEDERAL Savings & Loan Assn. of Medford 29 North Ivy Street - Robert F. Kyle, Manager with the President's full ap- provaL Mitchell and Eisenhower have been discussing the strike daily. Except for offer ing its mediation services it was the first time the admin istration had offered any type of intervention in the dispute. 'Done Very Little Mitchell issued a special statement. He said both man agement and labor "have done, very little to measure up to their responsibilities" in try ing to end the strike. He also said they had made "no serious effort, so far, to exercise their right of collec tive bergaining. He said both sides "owed it to the American people and the thousands of workers af fected by the strike" to bridge their differences. He said statements issued for management by Roger Blough, head of U. S. Steel, and by Arthur Homer, head of Bethlehem, during the past week add up to counseling the government not to become in volved in the dispute. Get Involved On the other hand, he said, statements by David McDon ald, president of the striking United Steel Workers, amount to urging the government to "get involved. Neither side, he said, has made a "serious, conscien tious, continuous effort to reach an agreement.' The labor secretary pointed out that the strike was now 18 days old and that negotia tors for the steel companies CIGARS AND SODA Birmingham, Ala. - (UPD - A man with strong tastes and a weak stomach burglarized the Harris Transportation warehouse here. Police said he got away with 14 cartons of cigarets', . 15 cases of pipe tobacco, two cases of plug tobacco, 12 cases of snuff and 15 cases of bicarbonate of soda. Araphoe Glacier, near Boulder, Colo., is a mile long, a mile wide and two and a half miles above sea level. and the union, have met to gether just once, for only two hours! "They have resisted efforts of the federal mediation and conciliation service to hold more face-to-face meetings," he added. "This is no way to bargain. They cannot reach agreement unless they talk to each other." Teen-Agers Stage 'Tragedy' in Park Ashland - (UPD - Play acting is becoming infectious during the Shakespearean festival here. Seven teen-age boys last week staged an impromptu drama in Lithia park. They faked a traffic accident. One MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford, Or. 9 Sunday, August 2, 1959 of the boys smeared himself with red paint and climbed unHpr an antrimnhil while jthe rest spread the alarm. Word of the tragedy spread, and police arrived. The youths were charged with disturbing the peace and parking a vehicle on a curb. 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