Page 58 - ThePhoenix1982-83

Pase 6 December 2, 1982 The Serpent was a mind-engaging ceremony Ira Zepp The Serpent by Jean The Serpent was not about It has been said that "reli- Claude Van Itallie, an excel- despair issuing in hope, sad- with it at ali." And the choice one of the few cultures which gion" was danced out before lent production recently ness in joy, death in life, or Eve made inevitably pre- has people who are able to have childem acting like chil- cluded many other choices. it was thought out." That is, presented by WMC's drama "they lived happily ever after" This experience of limitation dren and being treated like the most fundamental human department is subtitled "a (I am so glad thy did not and finitude is precisely whatit children. response to the Other Ulti- ceremony" It was a ceremony sing"Somewhere over the means to be an adult. mate Mystery, or God and to or ritual in at least two re- Rainbow" at the end).Adult So it was imperative that we We have no appropriate, tear, Jove, and joy was bodily spects. The play did not allow life is not like that. Rather, it leave the Garden of Eden. live ritual and helpful guide for the passage to adulthood. response. It was handclap- us the luxury of the usual was about growing up, with ping, outstretched arms, pros- actor-spectator distance, but all the giddy freedom, painful Rollo May suggests that Eden Christian confirmation and represents the womb and tration. dancing, hugging--in rather intended a participation limitations, mixture of toy and early infancy. In order for us Jewish Bar/Bat Mitzvah don't short, it was ritual. Therefore, by both actors and audience. fear, and sometimes unbeara- to become fully responsible seem to be adequate. The first experiences with sex, we should not find it surpris- Even if you were not one of ble ambiguity that goes along and free human beings, we drugs, and alcohol don't cut Ing that dance, ritual, and the viewers directly engaged with begin on your own. had to break through the it. Military combat gives us an theatre had their origins in by a member of the cast, we The Serpent was about the structure laid down by God. alienated identity. High school religion. were all involved by the na- loss of innocence and how Just as we had to resist Ritual is rooted in the Hindu ture of set, the fact that the terrible that is. The early family, social, and religious and college commencement principle of Rita (Latin: Aitus, play was performed in our scene of JFK's assassination barrires, question authority, used to do it. Now getting a English: rite). She helped midst, and that the drama helped to remind us that a and test tradition in order ·to job is close to "becoming keep the universe moving and spoke to us beneath the whole generation of Ameri- become aware, to "know", to somebody" and achieving was an energy by which our neck. can's now in their thirties, lost achieve as ethically sensitive status, but the state of the economy and the rapid pace identity was renewed and But more importantly, The their innocence in the sixties. and self-conscious identity. continually empowered. Ute's Serpent was an initiation rite. The idealism and naivete of Sometime ago in one of my of social change leave many people with proverbial identity skids are greased, our crises It was about becoming an Camelot and the New Frontier classes a Rabbi said,"lf it made manageable, and im- adult a mature, independent, (remember Kennedy's innau- wasa fall, it was a fall upward- crisis. We don't know who we are and it appears that the portant events celebrated by and responsible human gural speech?) were shat- -into humanity." The fall from way of ritual and symbolic being. The most successful tered by this death, Vietnam, innocence and irresponsibility culture is not resourceful. action. They are what sociolo- way to communicate the and Martin Luther King's as- This lack of the sense of (childhood simplicity) to ma- gists call rites of passage. meaning of this passage is to sassinatlon. We became "initi~ turity and responsibility (adult self has many real implica- That we will have a ritual life dramatize it. . ates" e.g. people who knew tions. It partly explains our is not the issue. The question The play depicted the para- what the real wortd was like. complexity) was a painful ini- vandalism, apathy, monism, tiation for Adam and Eve. But is whether our ceremonial life digm of all initiation rites- References to loss of and amonity. We seem to find it gave them a chance to will be alive or dead, mean- breaking of structures, su- .childhhood innocence abound befree moral persons whose responsibility intimidating and ingful or trivial? perceding boundaries, and vi- in The Serpent. A few exam- decisions would really make a freedom threatening and re- sort to childhood behavior. In the modern era, the olating taboos. It illustrated all ples will suffice. Cain: "I did difference. church and secular society the ingredients Mircea Eliade not know that k,illing my What does it mean to be an We desire to return to Eden where God will take care of have surrounded the pas- finds esssntial to an authentic brother would cause his adult today and when does it us (Deus ex Machina). But as sages of birth, marriage, and initiation rite, e.g., ordeal and death." God: .. And even happen? We are obviOUSly Joseph Chaikin hints, once death with more or less signif- suffering, sexuality, birth and when you understand, Still icant obseNances. But what death, a new identity, and the shall you douJ:lt." Second confused about what consti- we decide to leave the Gar- tutes maturity and human in- den and become as adult, I is in astonishing diS8J18Y,if assumption of adurt responsi- Woman: "SorOetimes I feel dependence. The nothing is the same anymore. not downright neglect, is the 1 passage primitive people took our status, ontologically and other people. SUl as soon as I is relatively recent in human Rita, help! there's nothing to do but help bility. As a resurt of initiation, phenomenon of adolescence Editor's note; Dr. Ir8Zepp is most seriously, namely pub- erty rites-the initiation into socially in changed. We are join a cOmmittee or a party I history and its length contin- a WMC professor of Religious new and different people in know that has nothinQ to do ues to be extended. We are studies. adulthood-what lt means to terms of who we are and how have identity and status in a we are related to by others. The Serpent was unique and chilling corrvnuni!Y. - Steven Rossman . like zombies, or left to fidget Rob McQuay. packed an WMC's theatrical production in their chairs. The action enormous amount of emotion, 01 The Serpent proved a huge would not have been so Inter- which when let loose, en- success. The unique seating esting jf the actors were not gulfed the audience in equal arrangement -at Understage good. Here the actors met the amounts of temptation and left the audience, with no challenge boldly - they were repulsion. choice, but total participation superb. The "Cain and Abel" scene in this unusual and fast paced The most effective scene was probably the most emo- play - or ceremony, if you was the "Eve and the Apple" tional. At one point, Cain prefer. The set was not as scene. Lori McCoy was excel- stares with barely concealed important to this playas were lent as the naive and curious 'hatred upon the concerned, the actors and the action. The Eve. Towards the weakening yet unsuspecting Abel. One audience did almost as much of her defenses, one could could almost hear a murmur- wOrk as the actors some- feel the intense temptation to ing brook during the climatic MARIA'S times, turning their heads in eat the apple along wnh Eve, silence, which led to the kill- many directions in order to ing of Abel. David Crowe was due to the highly seductive watch the action of the play. This was a plus, because the powers of the serpents. The in top form as Cain; opposite Robert Stamer's carefully re- serpents, played by ·Robert audience w~ not left to sit Carry Out &. Restauranl Stamer, David Crowe, and served' Abel. One scene represented a 532 Baltimore Blvd. &. RI. 140 Yfngelos Italian gloomy reminder of the as- Westminster sassination of President Ken- Phone 848·5666 or 876-2611 &. American Cuisine nedy. The brutal impact was the result of the actors' move- '"justa watkilWa'l" ment as in the famous film, then stopping the action for OPEN 7 DAYS Open: Mon.·Fri Lunch 11:30 a.m. Iii the audience to view the Dinner 4:30 p.m. til horror. Three ·times the audi- ence watches as the Presi- Entertainment dent slumps into Mrs. Fri., Dec. 4 - Jon Srymour Kennedy's (Stacey Pfeifer) .... ""'.5- ...._ TO AVOID WAITING CALL lap. Three times Mrs. Ken- nedy turns in the seat hysteri- 148·5666 or 876·2611 fri., Dec. 10 - Jon Seymour cally whispering something to Jon Seymour w_, Dec. 11 - AND WE WILL HAVE YOUR fri., Dec. 17 _ Toill T""'- an unseen person. One the ORDER READY fourth time Mrs. Kennedy 848-1218 85 W. Main Street 876-1179 frantically shouts, "I've got his brains in my hands!" Chills continued to page 7