The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 53, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 21, 1965 Page: 3 of 8
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AND SOUNDS
As everybody knows, Tennes-
see Williams always was an ex-
pert at getting the human voice
to words; 'A Streetcar Named
Desire' is a fine, exciting drama
with enough careful complexity
to make any English major
happy.
The present production works
—that is, its tension is sus-
tained from the beginning to
the end. Give it a gold statuette
of William Marsh Rice for good
direction. Unfortunately, the
Players seem to be hopelessly-
genteel, and the slice of life is
cut too thin.
The star of the drama is
Sounds
By MIKE KARCHMER
Monday night's opening Hous-
ton Symphony concert began
with the audience giving con-
ductor Sir John Bai-birolli a
standing ovation. Perhaps if
they had first heard the con-
cert, the music lovers would
have stayed in their seats.
Wagner's Prelude to "Die
Meistersinger," Satie's Gymno-
pedies, Villa-Lobos' Bachianas
Brasileiras No. 4, and the
Brahms' Fourth Symphony
made up a well-chosen program.
Unfortunately, the execution
was less than satisfying.
The orchestra suffered from
obvious under rehearsal, Barbi-
rolli having arrived in Houston
only two days before. As a re-
sult, the performance of the
Prelude was grim. The violins
were often not together and
the performance was utterly
without direction.
Satie's: Gymnopedies were
easily the most memorable of-
ferings-of .the evening,.'.The. en-
chanting melody was played
beautifully by oboist Raymond
ANOTHER VIEW
off the track
Blanche Dubois, Who bears the nSt Ev<
Blanche Dubois, Who bears
entire burden of Williams' po-
etry. The normal TRG, as any-
one could guess, would have
trouble playing an insane prud-
ish nymphomaniac, and so did
Linda Walsh.
Humanity Lost
The part is full of illusion,
delusion, and artificial ah-you-
precious-thing-you diction, and
it was this atmosphere that
Miss Walsh was trying to em-
phasize. But somewhere in all
that sickness and perfume there
is something like a human be-
ing, and that was simply lost,
beyond him. Perhaps he should
Weaver. Had the accompani-
ment been as sensitively
handled, the performance could
have really been first-rate.
The Bachianas Brasileiras No.
4, an imaginative and stirring
mixture of the spirit of Bach
with Brazilian folklore, was
simply not given sufficient re-
hearsal time. This was especial-
ly evident in the work's last two
sections. At times, however, the
performance was quite exciting
and the audience was given a
taste of what the Houston Sym-
phony can sound like.
Brahms' Fourth Symphony
took up the last half of the
program. Though the reading
was generally competent, this
reviewer disagrees with the
conductor's interpretation.
The first movement was
loosely treated, lacking both
power and movement. The
handling of the giocoso third
movement may best be described
as soggy. In general, Sir John's
crudely romantic « interpretation
seemed to obscure the sym-
phony's core.
Eliminate The Failures
Mr. Needham ii a Wiesa senior
majoring in political science. He is
off-campus representative to the
Student Senate.—Ed.
BY RAY NEEDHAM
Man has a soul, a spirit
capable of compassion and
sacrifice and endurance.
—Faulkner
Four seasons of Rice football
can change all that.
—Needham
I like to think that I am
known as a reasonable man. I
seldom shout, almost never kick
children, and occasionally even
speak kindly of Aggies. I have,
however, one streak of ram-
pant irrationality.
I like football. Worse than
that, I attend Rice games. Right
there is a potentially explosive
situation.
I am now suffering through
• another season of Rice football.
My fourth, in fact. (I wonder
if there is some sort of decora-
tion for this kind of thing?)
My fondest memory of past
years is of that incredible mo-
ment when we discovered that
Bill Whi'tmore had somehow
cohned 'Playboy' into picking us
sixth on their rpre-season poll.
"What a man!" we all gasped
in admiration.
Staff Blinded
But then our coaching staff,
blinded by its own press no-
tices, made a tragic blunder.
They actually let the team try
to play the game. Let me tell
you, Virginia, even Hugh Hefner
couldn't have made the Santa
Claus bit.
So who can blame me if my
compassion is beginning to wear
a little thin and my endurance
is ceasing to endure? Who can
blame me for raising several no
longer avoidable questions ?
For. instance, where do they
get those catchy new plays they
keep surprising us with? Such
as that amazing backward pass
they used to wrap up the SMU
game. Such as that stunning
quarterback sneak on third and
ten. Incidentally, in spite of
anything you might have as-
sumed, Nicholson was definitely
not trying to hit Coaoh Neely
with one of those forward
passes in the second quarter
last week.
Peace Offerings
And how do you think they
manage to fumble so often ?
Perhaps they're making peace
offerings to the other teams.
Perhaps it's some sort of a se-
cret play that Coach Neely has
forgotten the secret to.
Why am I so unfairly criti-
cal? Perhaps I am bitter.
Let's stop kidding ourselves.
Most of our football players
are here to do a job. They are
paid in terms of a scholarship
(Shall we pause a moment to
savour the full impact of that
word ?) to play football. Few of
them are here because they are
fine fellows or because they
have met the same standards
the rest of us have.
What is the result of their
attending Rice ? Do they at-
tempt to get the most out of it?
Gee, coach, sometimes I'd sure
(Continued on Page 4)
Even when the pretense was
stripped away (in various
scenes of Blanche being raped
or not raped, which ever was
more frustrating to her), she
was still a collection of manner-
isms: fluttering hands and ob-
sessive catches in her throat.
Hazleton Praised
Perhaps this is a valid way
to play the part, but it seemed
static, lacking in character de-
velopment; the acting- never
seemed like anything- but act-
ing, and Miss Walsh seemed
unfriendly. How can I say it?
effeminate.
The best actress was Faith
Hazelton, who played Blanche's
sister, Stella. The part is mostly
unspectacular and quiet; Stella
is a weirdly sane influence in
the Garden of Perverses.
Miss Hazelton's great asset
was her believability. A truly
convincing performance is hard
to get anywhere, and this al-
most naturalistic drama makes
an audience still more prateful
for such favors.
Earthiness Elusive
' Mike Cooper played Stanley
Kowalski, Stella's husband, a
dark, coarse, direct, heavy-
drinking man who commits in-
cest-in-law.
His performance was intel-
ligent: he shouted loudly enough
at all the right places, and de-
claimed with good timing the
peasant-humor jokes of the
don't - fall-in-the-toilet variety.
True earthiness, though, was
have scratched under his arms
more.
Minor Roles Well Played
The minor parts were gener-
ally done well, especially Bar-
bara Clark and . Dan Hazelton
as Eunice and Steve Hubbel, and
Roger Glade as the Young Col-
lector, who made the part as
unimportant as it actually is
(there is always a danger when
you get a star to do a star-
ling's job).
I don't think I have ever seen
a more elaborate, realistic set
design at a Rice production
(praise be to Wm. A. Wheat-
ley). The choice for realism
was perhaps the best decision,
but I missed the imaginative
lighting and scene-changing ef-
fects of many other Players'
productions.
'Pawnbroker' Offers
Best In Houston Now
By CHARLE DEMITZ
Certainly the most-competent-
ly made film n>w showing in
Houston is 'The Pawnbroker,'
with Rod Steiger, Brock Peters,
and Jaime Sanchez. Taken from
the book by Edward Wallant,
'The Pawnbroker' examines
the problem of the individual's;
recognition of evil.
The pawnbroker, Rod Steiger,
is an aging Jewish refugee from
Auschwitz, the concentration
camp. In the camp he lost his
wife and his two children. In
reaction, he has cut himself
off from communication with
humanity.
The rationale behind his re-
jection of man is the conviction
that all attempts by people at
large to conduct themselves in
a moral, humane fashion are
founded in ignorance.
To Steiger, who has seen
humanity reduced to animality,
striving to act upon ethical
standards is stupid and un-
realistic: animal does not re-
late ethically to animal. Steiger
treats, his clients accordingly.
The film is staged around a
Harlem pawnshop in a series of
confrontations coupled with
haunting flashbacks to Steiger's
treatment at the hands of the
■Nazis.
In his: shop, Steiger meets a
cross-section of Harlem: thieves,
a junkie, a derelict, an unwed
mother, a social worker. Fuller
treatment is given to the local
racketeer (Brock Peters), Steig-
er's assistant (Jaime Sanchez),
and his girl.
The film opens with the an-
niversary of the death of Steig-
er's wife. As his day wears on,
Steiger is reminded, meeting
his customers, of the days in
the concentration camp. He
CLOSE TO
THE HEART
OF THE
CAMPUS
2519 University Blvd.
JA 8-1509
Also Bellaire: MO 5-5557
LEBENSVERSICHERUNG?
(Life Insurance?)
the plans of hundreds of thousands
college students.
More than the total of all other age groups.
LARRY BELL
CLASS OF '67
In
of
reacts by feeling even less
sympathy for those around him.
He treats them not with
hatred, but with a refusal to
consider them more than eco-
nomic entities.
As days pass, the reminiscen-
ces grow stronger and more
haunting. Such memories are all
the more troubling to Steiger
because of their origin: how
can the people of Harlem re-
mind him of Auschwitz when he
has spent the last two decades
convincing himself that Ausch-
witz (not Harlem or anything
else) is the only true reality of
the human condition.
The resolution comes after
Steiger's realization that the
man from whom he takes pay-
offs (Brock Peters) is a whole-
sale dealer in prostitution and
dope.
As violence follows violence
at the end of the film, Steiger
is forced to see that what he
had considered the ultimate
human reality, isolated in time
at Auschwitz, is in fact uni-
versal but not ultimate.
The people whom he had
judged fools for their ignorant
attempts to find human values,
he sees, are in fact not ignorant:
even more than Steiger, they
are aware of evil, for they deal
with it. every day.
Finally, Steiger realizes that,
in treating pqople solely on the
basis of the horrors of Ausch-
witz, he has himself helped to
perpetuate similar horrors.
JA 2-9531
230 Will Rice
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THE RICE THRESHER, OCTOBER 2 1, 196 5—P AGE 3
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Kelly, Hugh Rice. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 53, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 21, 1965, newspaper, October 21, 1965; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth244953/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.