Page 15 - TheGoldBug1972-73

Play Liza makes the music play "Old Times": footlights. memories as weapons It is in .this world that Sally revolves dreamily, never quite apart from the Kit Kat stage, com- much of the criticism of harold pinter has two pletely oblivious to the ascending Naziism which sides, the cynical side and the gauche side. many fo:rns !he backdrop for this Berlin. 1931setting. Ms. pe?ple, when they hear the n~me pinter, usually Mmelll possesses the little-girl simplicity which cnnge and remember the last pmter play they saw. lends credence 10 such a character. and which for these people, pinter created abysmal pauses in permits her to acquire two lovers in the familiar the already Sparse dialogue, leaving them won- romatic triangle. Such a mundane arrangement dering whether it was intermission or whether one of would ordinarily be boring were it not for an in- the actors had forgotten his/ her incoherent lines. te~est.ing plot twist as well as two solid acting jobs the audience often wondered it the drama they were by MIchael York and Helmut Grier witnessing was the right script, since many times And always we can return to the music. The final pinter's dialogue and action seemed to have taken song is also the finest one, the title number, and it is flight into a young man's nocturnal emmission and sung by the finest Singer. -Ms. Minelli. Even if you then returned completely dry. the nonsequitur can', appreciate a slice-of-life that mayor may not ejaculations of a pinter cast has sometimes caused have happened over forty years ago, just sit back a.psycho-ward in the minds of the critics, and in the a.nd get Into the timeless rapport between a good final bout. no one knew who won the match except singer and a good song. _. Bryson Popham for pinter. so we are left with pinter on one side, not ad- mitting to theme or character development; and on the other side are the critics, yelping and barking to supply the wrong analogies to a play Ih.ey took tim.e to watch without seeing, to listen to WIthout bearing. in the drama department's first prod.uction of the'year, old times, by harold plntet, the incoherent dialogue and abysmal pauses are palatable. two people are together, a man and his wife of twenty years. who live in a remote farmhouse. another character joins them, a woman, who has had connections with the wife in the past.c.they had lived together in london as young women. the three drink coffee, sing bits of old songs and exchange memories. this may strike the play-goer as another mnsequitor ejaculation of pinter ...not so. every word of pinters, every gesture of pinter's has its importance and effect. pinter is not trying to dissect nostalgia or even to strip it naked, but rather to show how people use memories as weapons against others and against themselves. in life, memory plays tricks. but in this fascinating play, the process has been reversed and tricks have been played with memory. 10 appreciate old times, one does not need a ph.d. " in the~tre. the characters have been freed to play an exciting game in which a man tries to assert his hold .on.his wife, her past, and her privacy ...or does he? II IS not the intend of this article to explain pinter or justify one's memories, let the viewer hear and see for himself! herself. old times. oc- tober 13, 14, 15, 1972. understage, alumni hall at 8:15 p.m . tickets on sale in the bookstore. evangelist fake -- larry lazopoufos now playtng at Pike's Theater, is cer- his first marriage. The next ten years he spent . no one could lea ve without feeling making an estimated six million dollars, not one iecuve view. We receive no sense of what the . Whether you like it or not, you'll cent of which he ever saw. After a period of audience is going through or why they are there. for a long time. rejection, he returned to the circuit, but with a The revivalists arrive, set up in a hall, church, or documentary revealing the truth difference. This time he saw it for what the movie tent, gather all audience (usually a full, en- Marjoe, and, by extrapolation, says it really is: religion as a business. In- thusiastic house) and set the stage with singing and Marjoe (the name is a com- terspersed with scenes of Marjoe preaching and dancing. Marjoe makes his entrance and delivers a Mary and Joseph) began his career as Mar-joe speaking are shots of Marjoe and other carefully prepared act (he has admittedly borrowed much from rock singers). His sermons the age of four, when he performed revivalists counting and dividing their gains (J appear to consist largely of anecdotes and plenty of want you to gtve the largest bill you have. You've "thank you, Jesus!" The people line up emotionally got to make a sacrifice for Jesus."). pushing his to be prayed for, and, if unchristian, maybe to record albums ("There's a message here for receive Christ. One interesting part is the "baptism everyone, whether you're a Christian or not. "J, and of tongues" some Christians go through. Generally selling the modern day equivalent of indulgences a group of baptised persons gather around the soon- "blessed" handkerchiefs and cards. to-join-them and "speak in heavenly tongues" until This is an extremely interesting movie. The that person joins in with them. If done from a revi valist circuit seems to be much like a carnival sympathetic angle, this would be very convincing; circuit -but the participants really believe in what's as it is, it seems foolish. The atmosphere is full of going on. Mar-joe regards the people as sources of released emotion and probably the revival serves a money and little else. Rather enlightening were his very important function in the psychologlcaf llves instructions to his film crew. They are told, in a of Bible Belt Americans. scene near the beginning of the movie, not to smoke, J\1arjoe leaves one question unanswered. Are all drink, or get involved with girls. Nothing was to be revivalists in there for the money, like Marjoe, or done which would upset the people and make them are some true evangelists? A steady diet of Marjoes less willing to "give for Jesus." Behind the "facade would, it seems soon be seen through by those who of religion" he believes in karma, and says "I'm not are there for their souls and not, even sub- an evil person. I am a bad one, though." His true consciously, to release their emotions. One is led to beliefs he hides from his followers, asking them to suspect that either there are true evangelists or believe in the power of Jesus and become there are no truly religious persons present at those Christians, and from his. entertainers (rather ceremonies. ironically he says to one couple at dinner that l\1arjoe is certainly a movie to be highly "people can tell shysters when they come along. recommended. It deals with a subject that should They're not taken in."), and speaks what he really be important to each of us, and whether you go believes to the camera crew and through them, to us. away feeling wsgusted with Marjoe or Over- To the faithful, Marjoe is an angel incarnate; to joyed to see the truth, you'll be glad you wem. those behind the scenes, he is the devil's advocate. Filmed as it is under the direction of the main ~Perhaps the movie's greatest insight is into the cha~a~ter, it cannot be objective in its portrayal, world of a revival. For those who have never at- but It IS extremely thought-provoking. Marjoe on his last tour tended one, it is one way of getting a purely ob- -- Heather K epprer