Page Two

THE

COLLEGE NEWS

 

Wednesday, March 19, 1952

 

Princeton Theatre Gaily Rejuvenates
Helen’s Trojan War With Excellence

by Ellen Bell, 53

“The Trojan War Will Not Take
' Place”, produced by the Princeton
Theatre Intime, and performed
from March 4 to March 15, is a
difficult play. Though it is well
known in Europe, this is the first
time it has been produced on the
Eastern seaboard, and it is its
second performance in the United
States. The play is a difficult one
because its tenor ranges from the
long soliloquys of Hector on the
evils of war to the equally long
speeches of the nearsenile ad-
mirers of Helen of Troy. Girau-
doux, the author, emphasizes
words rather than action since he
was a novelist before he was a
playwright, and this stress could
have made the play extremely
slow going. But John Capsis, the
director, was able to transform
words into a lively production,
capitalizing on the vitality of the
script, so that the crowded, inac-
tive stage became a backdrop for
these words, and did not stifle
them.

The success of the staging was
its simplicity. In the first act,
the severe abstract marble forms,
gave the impression of strength
but did not crowd or overweigh
the stage. The rose and beige
tones in the slabs were cut against
a wet blue patch of sky, and the
costumes, too, radiated — this
warmth in bright white, earthy
browns and reds, and by an occa-
sional electric violet or yellow.
By planning the settings‘in this
way, Hugh Hardy was able to
make them a strong and lively
complement to the script.

The plot is a simple one, involv-
ing the conflict of warriors, espe-
cially Hector, who are tired of
battle and see its meaninglessness,
with the older generation, who,
through boredom, desire a war
based on the kidnapping of the
glamorous Helen. Giraudoux em-
phasizes the two factions and easi-
ly shows his own opinions on war
by making the warriors noble and
serious and the elders comic, to
the extent of clownishness. These
older people, however, make the
production enjoyable in a way that
Hector or Andromache, with their’
heavy
could never achieve,

contemporary meaning, and Girau-
doux, “went back to the ancients,
only,” he said, “because his own
fellow-citizens would not sit still
long enough to be photographed.”

The actors themselves were ap-

propriately chosen for their parts

and portrayed the characters with

originality and understanding. The

leads were much more successful
than some of the minor characters,

burdens of axe-grinding,
The theme.
of peace versus war obviously has.

 

or rather the masses, who some-
umes shouted meaningless com-
ments into an _ embarrassing
silence, which although in itself
is a relatively small tault, shows
chat their own feeling was not one
of being part of the drama they
played in.

Hector, played by Dan. Seltzer,
though frail in physical appear-
ance, excellently portrayed the
imposing figure of a brave and
skilled warrior, tempered with the
gentle characteristics also present
in his wife Andromache. These
two realized the. smallness of
wars, the smallness of the causes
on which they‘are based, and the
tremendous suffering which re-
sults from them: “Nations, like
men, die for almost imperceptible
indiscretions.” But Hector is still
a warrior in temperament and his
thoughts conflict with it, “The
more I hate war the more I desire
to kill.” In a later scene when he
allows Ajax to slap his cheek and
Ajax says, “Man, where are your
military reflexes?”, we see that
Hector has matured, even in the
course of the play. His maturity,
however, is unable to counteract
the war-mongers, for in the end
they do go to war shouting, “With
the panther in the bushes, Hector
hunts the rabbit.”

‘The two causes of dissention,
the blase, handsome, immature
Paris and his willing captive
Helen are glossy in their good
looks and selfish behavior. Mau-
rine Matthews interprets her char-
acter as the dumb blonde type
who stands in glaring contrast to
the other females, Her character
is also a satire on British Empiri-
cism, for “In the future I see col-
ored scenes and gray ones, and it
is only the colored ones that take
place.” Hector, in an exasperat-
ing attempt to get her to return
to Greece, comments, “With your
colored picture book you thumb
your nose at the world.” John de
Britto as Paris, does an excellent
job producing a male counterpart
of Helen, whom he admires be-
cause she is more remote than
other women who “make up them-
selves as if they wanted to print
themselves on you and that’s what
usually happens.” Goading these
two on, creating friction, and
counteracting Hector are the num-
erous old men. Their clown-like
characters gave the actors a
chance to perform with original-
ity, which most of them did. Most
outstanding was the geometrician,
played by Robert Goldman, who
comments that, “A fat thigh can
make us suffer, really suffer,” who
claims that “Helen has given the
landscape reason and _ strength”

Continued on Page 4, Col. 2

 

“Wonder Boy” Displays Swift Action,
Mature Prodigy, And Excellent Music

by Nancy Fuhrer, ’55

From start to finish, “Wonder
Boy” is a wonderful picture. The
plot is fairly common, but not
trite. It concerns a little boy with
an unsympathetic guardian who is
kidnapped by understanding gang-
sters. The novelty of this story
is that the wonder boy, Sebastian
Giro, played by Bobby Henery, is a
child prodigy. Fantastic action is

built upon this basic structure of}

the boy who would like to be less
of a wonder.

The movie commences with the
finale of a typical Giro concert.
Sebastian masterfully plays the
last few bars and the audience
rises in near-hysterical ululations.
In the scenes which follow, one
gets a picture of Sebastian’s feel-
ing toward his life and his guard-
ian, Mr. Gorrick. While Mr. Gor-

rick (also Sebastian’s

 

‘

 

the boy resembles Paderewski,
Sebastian is yawning and asking
to go to bed. On the train trav-
eling to the next concert hall, Se-
bastian tries to entertain his Eng-
lish governess, Miss Frisbie, with
avery mangled rendition of a
Dick Tracy comic. Mr. Gorrick
overhears and puts a stop to it.
Not long after, when Miss Fris-
bie finds out that Mr. Gorrick is
going to legally adopt Sebastian,
she decides to do something about
it. She arranges for a taxi driver
and his “associates” to take care
of him a little while in a chateau
in the Tyrol. Sebastian is spirited
away during an intermission into
the company of some small-time
international renegades. One of
these is Rocks, a William Holden-
ish American who teaches Sebas-
tian how to play baseball and
drive a car. For once in his life,
the boy is completely happy. He
Continued on Page 7, Col. 3

 

SPORTS

by Emmy Cadwalader, 53

Last week was a very busy, and
also successful one for the. fenc-
ing varsity. On Thursday, the top
four varsity fencers, Caroline Mor-
gan, Joyce Greer, Lillian Smith,
and Alicia Gardner, easily won
their meet with the University of
Pennsylvania.

(Morgan and Greer each won
three bouts, and Smith and Gard-
ner each two, thus making Bryn
Mawr the victor by a score of 10-
6. On Saturday, Morgan; Greer,
and Gardner represented Bryn
Mawr in a varsity meet with New
Jersey State Teachers College.
After traveling all the way te
Jersey City for the meet, the Bryn
Mawr fencers were rewarded with
a 6-3 victory, and returned home
tired, but happy, having exhibited
excellent skill and technique in
the sport. _

The varsity badminton continued
their undefeated season last Tues-
day, when they severely trounced
Swarthmore by winning five out
of five matches. All the players
showed good “court sense” and
strokes. Unfortunately the J. V.
did not have as easy a time of it,
and in the end were defeated by
the Swarthmore J. V. 3-2, though
the matches were all extremely
close.

The varsity basketball team also
played Swarthmore last Wednes-
day on their court. Though Bryn
Mawr put up a strong fight, the
final score was against them 39-27,
Bryn Mawr’s great weakness was
in shooting as seems to always be
the case.
lent, but the forwards lacked
something and were not able to

Contnued on Page 6, Col. 1

Woodwind Quintet

Plays In Deanery

by Frances A. Shirley, ’53

PROGRAM

BOMSUNER 6 Bach

Variations sur un theme corse, Tomasi
Ibert

Trois pieces Breve
Habanera
Fastorale ...:....:..:;
Joyful Dance

Duex Pieces
Presto
Little Shepherd
Harmonica Player

The Curtis Institute Woodwind
Quintet presented the fourth of
this year’s Bryn Mawr Music Club
concerts in the Deanery on March
16. Dominick Fera, clarinet, Al-
fred ‘Genovese, oboe, Otto Eifert,
bassoon, and Merton Johnson, horn,
were regular members of the
group. The flutist and, one would
presume, regular leader, however,
had been called to Seattle to the
orchestra there, and Harriet Ed-
wards had taken over, almost at
the last minute. Miss Edwards
had had a week to work on the
program, but this was the first
time that the five had played to-
gether.

The lack of a previous rehearsal
would help to explain the unin-
spired playing of the Bach, which
was done well but not brilliantly.
The “Variations” showed more se-
cure feeling. The slower move-
ments were good, and at times the
tone of the instruments was blend-
ed beautifully, though here, as in
the other works, one was aware
of poor, breathy tone in the flute.
The notes were usually clear, the
rhythms were firm, whether slow
or spritely, as in the last varia-
tion. There was a feeling of fun
in the first of the Ibert pieces, and
the others were adequately played.
The quintet mastered the difficult
rhythms of the Ravel, and played
well, while the oboe passages
stood out particularly for tone and
clarity.

The second part of the program
was as varied as the first, and
again the timing was noteworthy,
The instruments gave each other
excellent support in the Stravin-
sky, where each player was at
some time in the fore. There was

Continued on Page 6, Col. 5

 

The guards were excel- |

 

 

“Father Unknown”

Increases Goodwill;

Play Enjoyed by Actors and Audiences

by Barbara Drysdale, ’55

What may be the highest aim of
any theatre presentation, if not
the furtherance of understanding
and good-will on the international
level? The Little Theatre Club
of Swarthmore College has at-
tempted what may be termed an
overwhelming undertaking in its
production of “Father Unknown”
by Vassily Shvarkin as a contrbu-
tion to our understanding of the
Russian people during Interna-
tional Theatre Month. The man-
ner of presentation and the char-
acterization, however, not only
gave the audience a delightful
evening’s entertainment and a new
appreciation of the latent possi-
bilities in farce, but also granted
both spectators and participants
an insight into the humor of the
Russian people.

The theme is the struggle be-
tween the old “bourgeois” way of
life and morals and the new or-
der. According to the program
notes, the farce was presented at
a time when “the new-won free:
dom was honored more in word
than in deed” and family relations
were discussed as freely then as
they are today, and thus some of

NOTICE

Bryn Mawr students have a
chance to win free smokes for the
next four weeks from CHESTER-
FIELD campus __ representative,
Gwen Davis. :

“It’s a CHESTER-FACT” is the
name of the contest which pro-
vides a free pack of CHESTER-

 

{FIELDS if you know the answer

and you are carrying a pack of
CHESTERFIELDS when Miss
ABC asks you, “Do you know the
CHESTER-FACT?” You can win
two free packs if you can state
the CHESTER-FACT verbatim
and happen to be smoking a
CHESTERFIELD from your own
pack.

The contest opens Thursday.
March 20, when Miss ABC will be-
gin making calls on campus. She
will approach students at random
to ask, “Do you know the CHES-
TER-FACT?” The answers (a
fact-a-week) will appear at the
bottom of the CHESTERFIELD
ad in the College News and will
be announced elsewhere on cam-
pus by posters and other media.

All you have to do to win is to
correctly state the CHESTER-
FACT when you are approached
by Miss ABC. If you are carry-
ing CHESTERFIELDS at the
time, you win one free pack—two
free packs if you are actually
smoking a CHESTERFIELD from
your own pack.

the situations and characters ap-
pear quite modern.

In brief, the story is that of an,
aspiring young actress, Manya,
who is overheard practicing her
lines for the part of an unwed
mother. This leads to great com-
plications in which Manya’s three
lovers, after ardently seeking her
hand, abandon their suits and then
decide to take them up again after
all. In the end, Manya is united
by some clever plotting and con-
trivance with her own true love
Kostya, and all difficulties are
cleared up. At the same time a
young technician, Raya, who has
been befriended by Manya, meets
Yakov and together they run off to
the Caucasus.

Susan Weil, as Manya, was an
excellent temperamental young
thing who could believably make
fun of all unfortunate circum-
stances occurring in her attempt
to make modern people out of the
surrounding bourgeois. Paul Noyes,
as Manya’s father, was not only
a convincing supporter of the old
school of moral conduct, but also
the kind of father you can always
depend on for a laugh in any em-
ergency. The audience was aware
that Sergey himself appreciated
the farce of which he was an in-
tegral part.

The outstanding comedian was
Charles Cooper as Yakov, a Mo-
hammedan student from the Cau-
casus. His large frame and frank
face contributed much to Mr. Coo-
per’s characterization of a great
and gentle-hearted man who aptly
described himself as “a bank where
all may deposit their troubles.”

The part of an ill-adjusted den-
tal technician, in love with Man-
ya, was imaginatively and sensi-
tively portrayed by Marc Merson,
whose talents extended even so far
as presenting probably the most
ineffectual serenade ever sung.

The remaining characters were
admirably well cast for their parts
as members of a Russian farce, es-
pecially Sheila Mills (Raya), Sally
Andrews_(the— midwife), _Geonge
Papanek (Manya’s lover), Jack
Hughlett (her own true love), and
Judy (Wubnig (Manya’s mother).

The most enjoyable feature of
this farce was the author’s tech-
nique of. using the unusual and ex-
tremely clever phrase or play on
words in the most unexpected
place.

Barbara Pearson Lange, the di-
rector, achieved from her script,
actors, setting, and most unusuai
blocking this most enjoyable ef-
fect: a common bond was created
between audience and actors...
they all were laughing at the
farce together.

 

 

Fascinating Science
Formaldehyde and

by Kay Sherman, °54

Science at Bryn Mawr, the new
pamphlet which was released re-
cently by the Office of Public Re-
lations, would appear at first
glance to ibe the annual report pub-
lished by a large corporation. The
gleaming silver cover, with its
modernistic impression of the sci-
ences, is reminiscent of the beau-
tifully done covers of a report to
the stockholders. The cover draw-
ing is well done and particularly
striking, producing a touch of
fascination from the, beginning.

Once the cover is turned, the
booklet immediately comes alive;
even a sub-freshman to whom
none of the faces is familiar could
not fail to miss the mixture of in-
terest and yet a resignation to the
smell of formaldehyde on the faces
of the students at the dissecting
table. The intent expressions of
the chemistry students watching

 

Booklet Advertises
Facilities At B.M.C.

the drip, drip of solutions through
numerous glass tubes embody con-
fidence and competence.

The atmosphere of concentration

that surrounds the last picfare in
the physics section is so intense
that one can almost hear the
Geiger Counter tick. And, then,
as if to prove that all scientific
study is not connected with white
coats and shining tile walls, the
‘cheery naturalness of the jean-
clad, pick-carrying geology stu-
dents pops up. The photography,
‘sureiy, could not fail to evoke a
spark of interest in the mind of
any reader.
. The arrangement of the pages,
the pictures interspersed with Mr.
‘Fritz Janschka’s amusing and
clever impressions of the sciences,
‘particularly the goose-flask look-
‘ing quizically over its shoulder at
‘its contents, are attractive and
varied. The explanatory material
|. Content ee Fame fo: Ont. &