'Rascal' seen through a glass darkly

By William Glover

Associated Press Drama Critic

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NEW YORK Brendan Behan is more the victim than hero of "Conversations With an Irish Rascal," a doubtlessly well-intentioned donation from Cleveland, O., toward easing off-Broadway's recent artistic drought.

Subtitled "a new musical biography," the song-and-monologue collage that opened last night at the top of the Gate, a cafe theater, is superficial in substance, paltry in performance.

The nimble-tongued, bibulous playwright is portrayed by David

P In Review

O. Frazier. His lone colleague on stage is Gusti, a red-haired Juno who variously serves as sweetheart, wife, friend and according to the program, "the shadowy figure of Ireland."

Imprisonment for IRA activities, mocking Catholicism and, of course, "The Quare Fellow" and "The Hostage" are reviewed and re-quipped.

A strange, unbalancing omission

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is all reference to Behan's homosexual digressions.

Frazier, a heavy-set chap, affects a mashed potatoes brogue with a smile approaching rigidity to simulate Behan.

――

no

Gusti further professional name -

she insists on is a

frequently off-key folksinger who at full volume could shatter glass at 50 yards.

The direction by Joseph J. Garry consists primarily of having his charges swap places with fair regularity at opposite sides of the main prop, a small table laden with booze bottles.