Sexual Kinks Flare

in Two Plays Here

By Peter Bellamy

Sex in unrestrained mani. festations figures prominently in two of three plays that opened in Cleveland this week.

One of them is "The Siblings," a play by Evelyn Martin. It received its world premiere at the Muse Theater, Cleveland's newest legitimate theater The 200-seat house is adjacent to Diamond Jim's in the Flats and is located in a building that was a railroad station in 1856.

MISS MARTIN, bless her, is one of the most dedicated people of the theater alive. This warm and charming lady has backed the Muse Theater in two previous locations at a great sacrifice of money and time.

One may only applaud and wish her well in her determination to present original plays to Cleveland audiences.

As the study of rivalries among two daughters and a son of a lower middle-class

American fmialy, "The Siblings" is strong on characterization. Like most people, the sisters and brother are acidly aware of the others' failings, but fairly oblivious to their own.

Things are kinky sexually in the family, however. The older daughter, the breadwinner, is engaged to a Christmas guest in the house even as she pursues an affair with her boss.

HER FIANCEE knows about her affair with the boss, but wants to marry her as a cloak for his homosexual affair with her younger brother. The neurotic, sexually frustrated younger sister, is the only one who can look upon her family objectively, but like Cassandra, nobody believes her.

The brother, apparently a child of adultery, is the victim of momism. His mother is an overprotective slob, who makes excuses for his continual failures.

Early in the play, the audience is shown a pistol, and it is just a question of time as to when it will be used to kill somebody The ending of the play is sheer melodrama.

CAROL KLEVAY and Ellen Martin as the sisters, Maggie Brew as the mother, Mike LiBassi as the broth-

'Nanette' Sold Out

Tickets to all performances to the musical comedy "No, No, Nanette" at the Hanna Theater are sold out through the balance of the show's engagement through Jan. 15. This breaks all box-office records in the theater's 50year history.

er, and Al Mazur, as the fiancee, act like viable humans. The melodrama of the play, however, is a bit much. Bill Wray is the director.

"The Trials of Brother Jero,' ," by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, is

once again at Karamu Arena Theater, having first been produced there in 1964.

It is an amusing if not hilarious tragicomedy about a Nigerian Elmer Gantry, a false prophet who looks upon religion as a business and as a means of seducing female impressionable

members of his flock.

THIS UTTERLY unprincipled, unfeeling false man of God is played by George Gould, who enacts the rascally role with engaging relish. Portraying the character of Gould's blindly devoted disciple and perfect patsy, is Nolan D. Bell, one of the most wistfully funny comedians extant.

Lois McGuire, as Bell's wife, is a wonderfully shrill acquisitive shrew. The audience reaction was most enthusiastic.

Also at the Arena Theater is the 15-minute, one-act play, "Prayer Meeting, or, The First Militant Minister."

It concerns a black minister, also a kind of religious con man, who surprises a burglar in his home. The latter proceeds to impersonate God and to inspire the minister to become a racial militant. It, too, has its funny moments, although I found it impossible to accept a deity with a four-letter word vocabulary.

Herb Jones as the minister and James Smith as the burglar get all the laughs possible from the script. Both plays were directed by Reuben Silver.

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