The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 57, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 9, 1970 Page: 6 of 8
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24 Hours a Day.
KXYZFM
STEREO 96%
Progressive Rock. And More.
'Illusion' combines bizarref unique
DR. J. A. WARD
English Dept.
This week the Jones-College
Theater is presenting an "un-
deservedly neglected" play by
Pierre Corneille, "The Comic
Illusion," edited and translated
by the director, Jo Anne Tau-
rog. The mise en scene is a
| MANUSCRIPT, I
cave: 'the main props are a
bench and a campfire; the cos-
tuming is Versailles-ellegance,
and most of the men carry
swords.
The play is set off by a
father who comes to a magician
(residing in the cave) to find
out what his son has been up
to for the previous ten years.
The magician, doddering, benev-
olent, and humbly omniscient,
conjures up a play-within-a-
play to summarize the melo-
dramtic sexual and social con-
quests of the lost son.
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A gal who likes few limits on her job, not the same
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Someone who likes to stray off the beaten path with
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Does this sound like you? Then it sounds like you
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only limited by the imaginations of those who fill them.)
Get started in the right direction. See the South-
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At Southwestern Bell, we START college gradu-
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"no (©J Southwestern Bed
kidding. AN e<5ual opportunity employer
As this goes on, we are now
and theil reminded of the magi-
cian and the father at the cor-
ner of the stage responding
facially to the three-act melo-
drama in the center.
The surprising epilogue (loge
du theatre) requires the audi-
ence to readjust its attitude to-
ward all that has been seen,
as the magician unveils a sur-
prise ending that is also a
theory of the life art relation.
At this point the critic may
revaluate the whole thing as
a Pirrandelloesque, Navakov-
ian, Barthian, Borgean (hence,
"modern"), bafflingly obsure,
post-absurdist play about illu-
sion (life is art, after all, but
what is art, when you get down
to it?).
In the Jones production, a
different response is more ap-
propriate. Take the play as a
campy period piece in which
characters strike excessive pos-
tures and call each other such
names as "insolent knave" and
"impudent fool." The farcical
melodrama is uneven but gen-
erally funy.
Angel Silvia plays a marvel-
out braggart soldier, though
has bravura and physical style
tend to lessen the presence of
the other actors. Becky Greene
and Janet Hudson do nicely in
roles calling for quick shifts
in amorous emotion. Curt Lang
is effective in the leading role,
but Silva rules the scene when
he is on stage. After he runs
away in the next to last act,
terrified by rumored valets, the
play never really recovers.
Miss Taurog's translation
succeeds in capturing a period
of elegance. The tex displays
a resourceful English, often
deviating from the literal to
natural English vocal effects
and witty cadences.
One wishes that the perform-
ance were more consistently
stylized, playing up rather than
smoothing over the play's in-
herent artificiality, stressed by
the ending. But Miss Taurog's
direction gives coherence and
life to a flawed, unconventional,
• arresting play. Even so, the
play is rather too slow, and
there are a good many people
standing around waiting for
things to happen, a defect al-
most inevitable in the perform-
ance of a play with many long
speeches.
If you miss this premiere of
Miss Taurog's production of
"The Comic Illusion" you will
probably miss any production
of it forever. But there are
plenty of other reasons for see-
ing it.
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2 5
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| 9-3:30. |
page 6—the rice thresher, april 9, 1970
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Murray, Jack. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 57, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 9, 1970, newspaper, April 9, 1970; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245080/m1/6/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.