The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 8, 1973 Page: 8 of 10
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Saroyan plagues 'Cavedwellers' with confused identities
by KATE JONES
The question is, are they ac-
tors pretending to be actors,
with a set representing a de-
serted stage, or are they real
people living in an empty the-
heater? The cast of Brown
College's "The Cavedwellei's,"
Bernard Gold
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opening tonight, never really
resolves that problem for the
audience or l'or themselves.
William Saroyan, the play-
wright, wishes us to believe
the latter; unfortunately, he
has made it extremely difficult
for any of his characters to
convey his desires. With a
script containing more empty
rhetoric and self-conscious mor-
alizing than a traveling evange-
lical revival, it's a wonder that
the actors can stop cringing
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long enough to deliver any Trained Bear. Such is art.
lines at all.
The highly symbolic -jiames
of the characters should'be suf-
ficient to indicate the style of
the play: Queen, Duke, Girl,
Construction Worker, etc., etc.,
etc. The only real name in the
show belongs to Gorki the
But "this is how it is," as
King says, and you work with
what you have. Miraculously,
some of it actually does work.
Kathy Clifford, as Girl, is
particularly good at the begin-
ning of the play, before Saro-
★ ★ CAPSULES ★ ★
'liberty Hall pulled a sur-
prise two weekends ago when
Neil Young and Linda Rons-
stadt, still in town after their
Saturday night concert in the
Coliseum, joined Gram Parsons
and his fine female lead Era-
mylou Harris for a while dur-
ing their final stint Sunday
night. Texan Willis Alan Ram-
sey, a Leon Russell protege (he
records on Russell's label, Shel-
ter) will play this weekend,
Thursday through Sunday at
8pm with 11pm shows on Fri-
day and Saturday.
Frank Zappa and the Moth-
ers move into the Music , Hall
this Monday; it's a conglomera-
tion of the other Mothers, Hot
Rats, Grand Gazooers and new
friends. Wild West Productions
hosts the man that outraged
people with his bizarre, free-
form style in the sixties; Zap-
pa continues to widen the bar-
riers of acceptability in music
styles.
On the theater scene, Carol
Channing does the remake of
G<^tlemen Prefer Blonds, a
fifties hit. The remodeling is
called Lorelei, and Channing
continues to be the best thing
in the production. The show
garnered a dumb, wishy-washy
review in the Chronicle. When
it moves out of the Music Hall
with its last 8 o'clock show on
Saturday, Paul Zindler's second
play, and Miss Reardon Drinks
a little, will take over a one-
night stand there Sunday.
Among other strangers is a
woman who sneaks bits of raw
meat from a showbox at dinner-
time because her crazy sister
is a vegetarian; it's a really
sharp play. Pace Productions is
putting this one on.
* * *
The Effect of Gamma Rays
on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds
is a play by Paul Zindler, full
of muted jjassions and signifi-
cant outbursts. The Paul New-
man-Joane Woodward team,
which made its initial effort
with the fine Rachel, Rachel,
seems to have mellowed it out
too much in their film version,
and the film makes you think
that perhaps the play should
have remained unattempted on
screen.
Steelyard Blues, despite its
intimate exposure . of what's
going on in the lives of some of
the top members of the Holly-
wood freak set, is so muted
that it's blah. Jane Fonda, Don-
ald Sutherland and Peter Boyle,
among others, feeling that their
characters are more exciting
than you are, as they drive the
establishment crazy "'with their
derby demolition dreams.
H. David Danglo
yan drowns her in homilies
and the True Meaning of Love.
Her natural movements con-
trast strikingly with the bom-
bastic woodenness of the King
(Cliff Zabriskie), a has - been
actor who is not quite convin-
cing as an actor or a person.
Cliff does a credible job for
someone stuck in this halfway
role, but Saroyan doesn't help
him a bit.
Monologues are the order of
the day; Cliff and Judith Rau-
din, the Queen, each have one
good one, but these get lost
among all the really bad ones.'
Max Zimmerman, doubling as
director and Bear, made the
wise decision to cut most of
the play; maybe he should have
cut more. There are a few ex-
changes which pretend to be
conversations, but don't let
them fool you.
Cash Tilton as th aging
prizefighter gives the most con-
sistent performance. He doesn't
have quite as much verbiage to
struggle with, and has a better
gifip on his characterization
than most of the others.
Two noteworthy cameos are
Ellsworth Thorp, as the Silent
Boy, and George Tamm as the
Construction Worker. It takes
a while after they enter to
realize that they are part of
the play, because they seem
much more real, which leads
us back to the opening ques-
tion.
Some of the cast are acting
with the first alternative as
their conception of the play,
some are using the second, and
some of using both simultan-
eously. Until they all decide
which to use, The Cavedwellers
will never be able to achieve
the continuity and credibility
whoch it so badly needs.
Fellini directs lively tour of Roma
by MORTY RICH
"Fellini's Roma" is not so
much a place as the spirit of
a time here radiantly alive
with a nostalgic collage of the
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director's youth and entry in-
to the "Eternal City."
A vibrant sensuality appears
through the sweat and grime
of people feasting outdoors
during his first night in Rome,
a vitality charged by a master-
ful use of heavy blue smoke
and glowing, pulsating lights.
Later, sharp, piercing .lights
illuminate contemporary Rome,
a fitting juxtaposition.
We follow the young Fellini
through darknened alleys' and
twisting stairways to the tap-
roots of his consciousness.
Though the prostitutes are
gross and frightfully gro-
tesque, he understands them,
and sems to prefer their blatant
sexuality to the ambiguous,
relationships of the hippies liv-
ing on the ancient steps of
Rome, for these befuddle his
sensibilities. He longs for the
organic interaction of and open
spontaneity between audi-
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ence and players, as they par-
ticipate in theatricals during
wartime Italy that put those
of "Carbaret" to shame. At
the same time, he lashes out
at the blind patriotism of the
Fascists as well as the rep-
ression of the freaks singing
on the steps during the happy
summer festival in Rome, which
he likens to a "general amnes-
ty."
The. past looks at the present
in the fantastic sequence
of the ecclesiastical fashion
show. In it, Fellini pokes fun at
both the stodginess of the
of the church and the gaudy
superficiality of modern ma-
terialism.
The "degeneracy of the past"
theme in "La Dolce Vita" and
"Satyricon" has yielded to a
certain nostalgic longing for
the spirit of that past in Fel-
lini's later films. He has over-
come the sentimental excesses
of his "Clowns" and in doing
so, has created a new impres-
sionism. Anyone who betrays
a wistful smile when he hears
the Mickey^louse theme played
softly will appreciate "Fellini's
Roma."
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&
the rice thresher, march 8, 1973—page 8
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Jackson, Steve. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 60, No. 23, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 8, 1973, newspaper, March 8, 1973; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245157/m1/8/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.