Page 14 HIGH GEAR October 1980
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ENTERTAINMENT
"Equus" at Huntington
Incisive acting redeems script
By R. Woodward
Peter Shaffer's play Equus had plenty of fresh life breathed into it by the production on view last month at Huntington Playhouse.
Even though this was the fourth live production seen in the Cleveland area of this play within the past couple of years. and many theater goers--especially Leviewers--were not thrilled at the idea of sitting through another production, this production managed to earn itself a hearty welcome.
The director James Binns and his hard-working cast brought to the script a certain emotional persuasiveness not achieved by those three earlier versions.
Equus deals with a psychiatrist with doubts about the value of his profession who is trying to find out why an emotionally disturbed 17 year old stable boy has blinded several horses.
When read, the script never seems as resonant or profound as it tries to be. The story comes off as being a clever contrivance with explanations for the behavior of its characters that are too pat Shafer was quite obviously trying to make poetry out of the psychiatrists comments about religion, despair, and one's own individual pain, but he only managed to make the character seem glib and talky.
Carl Goodwin as Dysart the psychiatrist and Kenn McLaughlin as Alan Strang, the stable boy. gave performances that very effectively overcame flaws in the script. The two took their parts. very seriously in the right sort of way. concentrating on their character's emotional nuances and rover betraying any sei us awareness of the not very substantial
ccns. cuthe
thesis
in did unusually we
getting across his character's moments of reacting quietly. His depiction of Dysart thinking was so convincing that the play-goer was compelled to take the character seriously as a flesh and blood human being faced with real problems--even if som? o Dysart's and the author's deas were hard to agree
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idea, for example, that a PSCatric "cure" might turn pee into hollow, soulless, vulgar conformists is merely talked about in the script and never demc strated in any way. Shaffer has not even bothered to have Dysart mention any examples from past cases he has seen or heard about.)
McLaughlin, very well cast as Alan, the stable boy, gave a per-
his own individual soul regardless of environmental factors and her belief that the devil is real and possessing her son was focused differently than in those three previous productions. Instead of focusing its attention on the substance of her argument, the
udience gave most of its attentio to her fear. More strongly than in those previous productions it was suggested that her idea of the devil would include any primal force that can't be subjected to her ideas of rational d'scipline.
Director James Binns had his players paying very close attention to each other and their interacting gave the production a very forceful basic emotional thrust.
formance both energetic and At Play House
Currently charming the pants off of even the most stald members of his Cleveland Play House audiences is Stephen Wade in his one man show "Banjo Dancing, or The 48th Annual Squitters Mountain Song Dance Folklore Convention & Banjo Contest ... and how I lost." See
review.
"Banjo Dancing" irresisible
controlled, depictingly his character's emotions vigorously 66 without ever throwing them at you. His being good looking in a slightly equine sort of way gave the play's horsey imagery a subtle subliminal underscoring and
gave it more of a feeling of being related organically to the way Alan is characterized.
AS Alan's parents, Dale Sterling and Judith Buerkel proviced solid support. Sterling didn't look or sound like a faded British socialist, but a particular type of parental concern is the main point of the role, and not local color, and he easily and convincingly made the vivid Impression that the script calls for to establish in the audience's mind the impressions he makes on his son and the tensions between him and his wife: Buerkel managed to be very convincing while making her character more extreme and fanatical than it is usual!; plaved
The mother's big speech to the doctor about everybody having
Mae West has stroke
HOLLYWOOD (IGNA) Worldan actress Mae West is in Soco Sa naritan Hospital in Los Angeles after a stroke that has eft her unable to speak. Man West has long been of her support of gays no. famous voice a d swagger have.been copied by innumerat drag entertainer.
...
curs.
wyspeptaradministrators ha confirm officially th
st 88. is at their facility but a e source told the Associated Press that she is there and WI. main there indefinitely. Her agent, Jerry Martin, has refused to confirm or deny the report
The source said that the actress is in a tightly guarded celebrity suite and that strict orders have been given to keep her presence secret.
By R. Woodward
Stephen Wade Banjo DancIng, or the 48th Annual Squitters
.
he brings down the house with a shaggy dog about a railroad fireman's pet dog who keeps up with even the fastest express trains, walking beside them in an easy amble.
The show has so much different material in, that it ought to seem like a hodge-podge, but Wade's impressive musical abilities and the force of his personality hold it together.
Mountain Song Dance Folklore Convention & Banjo Contes t...and how I lost (at The Cleveland Flay House 77th Street Theatre through October 5th) is a very easy show to watch but is rather hard to describe. The main problem is being specific about what makes it so entertaining without giving away ahead of time too many of all of the little turns and surprises that contribute so much to its overall effect. Wade is a young native of Chicago who plays banjos, collects banjos, and has steeped himself in their lore. A collector of miscellaneous bits of Americana, he sings, dances, and tells stories while providing his own musical potential cynicism even after accompaniment.
He does not hesitate to quote from literary sources such as Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Leo Rosten's Joys of Yiddish but mainly he tells colorful tale folk tales he has come across.
He makes the most of an old horror tale he heard late one night in night in summer camp about a mysterious, red-eyed creature who comes to reclaim his tail from a lone cabin dweller who has carelessly cut it off and eaten it for supper.
Blowing a whistle, stomping his feet, and making choo-choo evoking sounds with his banjo.
Despite being big city bred, Wade is so thoroughly involved in what he does and is so genuinely pleased with it, that there is never any hint of his merely affecting folksy ways.
A sure-fire crowd pleaser is his sweet, half apologetic smile which seems entirely unfeigned,
and which continues to disarm you've noticed that he does not
hesitate to get a great deal of mileage out of it.
In addition to finding Wade irresistable yourself, there is a. great deal of fun in watching him prove irresistable to certain oth-. ers. Audience regulars at the Play House, usually a rather staid bunch of theater goers, respond on cue when he suggests that they clap, sing a response, or tap quarters on the arms of their seats like trained dogs obligingly. jumping through hoops.
Noticeably absent from the show is any material that does not work or seems misplaced.
Evidently Wade's unassuming spontaneity is not incompatible with careful and sharp eyed picking and choosing or material and adroit arranging of it by himself and by his director and co-author Milton Kramer.
A prologue to this season's regular series of Play House productions, this show certainly succeeds in making the patrons happy and eager.
Banjo Dancing played for 57 weeks in Chicago, and after its special three week run ends here it will be opening at the Century Theatre in New York on October 21. One hopes that the pseudosophistication of Manhattan provincials won't cause it to be cold-shouldered.
"Cruising" bores Sydney..
SYDNEY (IGNA) Members of Sydney's gay community got together after a press screening of the movie "Cruising" and decided that the film was just not worth doing anything about.
They reported that they found the movie a bore and suspect that the public, both gay and straight, will get the message soon enough
They felt that picketing or leafleting would only create controversy, attracting to the film attention which it doesn't
deserve.