A Double Standard of Criticism for Off-Broadway TheateR
SHIPLEY, JOSEPH T.
On STAGE By Joseph ? Shipley A Double Standard of Criticism for Off-Broadway Theater The Moon in the Yellow River. By Denis Johnston. Directed by David Fulford. Presented by Fulford and...
...But perhaps their greatest problem is to make the public aware of the quality of their offering, or that there is an offering at all...
...So many plays open at the height of the season that a critic cannot cope with the flow...
...Off-Broadway productions demand a freer play of imagination...
...They manifest a true devotion for their work, but in the main they lack experience...
...This is most evident in the acting...
...They work on what one calls Christian Science applied to politics: Not liking the Government, they pretend that it doesn't exist...
...They experiment with new trends that, good or bad, should be tested but could never meet the rigorous demands of Broadway financing...
...And their prices are still within the reach of many who shy away from the midtown boxoffice, including the new young audience the theater needs...
...At the East End Theater...
...Presented by Fulford and William Dempsey...
...A clear sign of this double standard occurred when, after a prominent critic's rave notice, a downtown production moved to Broadway—whereupon the same critic damned it...
...He is heedless, too, of his adolescent daughter's need for love and tutelage...
...The play's young adults believe in action...
...At the same time, these minor houses are doing a major job...
...The problems of off-Broadway theater are complex...
...and his probing reply—beginning with the observation that man alone of all living things knows sadness, and ending with the thought that perhaps God and the devil are one—bring this sound and moving drama to a rich and challenging close...
...Most of them, being Irish, are against the Government...
...Roy Poole as the retired engineer is excellent in his detached, caustic observation, and Tom Connolly makes the most of his role of the young man who must be up and doing, though he knows not what nor why...
...Dobelle is a retired bridge-builder, a cynical man who sees no values in society and has withdrawn to live in an old fort near the mouth of a river in his native Ireland...
...As for the play's two older leading men, they are well contrasted...
...Frankly, our standards differ for off-Broadway and on...
...The comic portraits of Aunt Columba, the emancipated woman who keeps her bicycle in her bedroom and writes inflammatory leaflets, and old Agnes, the outspoken servant who is wrought up over a neighboring woman in labor pains, counterbalance the tender picture of the daughter Blanaid who is growing with wonder and sadness into an unwelcoming world...
...Which of the off-Broadway plays shall he choose to visit...
...But we are less concerned with the question whether the discontented faction will blow up the powerhouse than with the contrasting attitudes and natures of the people involved...
...Fine new dramatic talent"—and found myself watching tawdry work...
...The rest of the cast join to bring to life one of the best plays and best productions the city has seen this season...
...Since there are good reasons for encouraging off-Broadway theater, some critics tend to praise too highly and a few readers, who hurry to see the show, are disappointed...
...They revive plays that should be seen...
...One of my colleagues solves the problem by the simple procedure of looking at nothing off Broadway...
...Even though financial concessions are made by the unions, the playhouses seat so few patrons that they must run close to capacity just to cover expenses...
...My memories of the play made me glad to accept an invitation, and I watched a performance that would grace any stage...
...With less money, they must experiment with staging devices...
...Then there is the devoted but stupid Austrian Tausch, who has built the powerhouse and knows that civilization needs such power for its continuance...
...Nancy Acly as the adolescent Blanaid gives a superb performance...
...Others send the "second string" man to report...
...The final awakening of Blanaid's father to her growth and to her questions ("Why are people unhappy...
...This is a lengthy prelude to saying that I have telephoned several of my friends and told them to be sure to see The Moon in the Yellow River...
...I myself have gone to several plays similarly praised—"A hit is born...
...Most coverage is haphazard: If there is only one Broadway opening any particular week there will be more critics at the little theater premieres...
...Denis Johnston's drama, with its probing thoughts and ironic twists, flits over a story of the early Irish republic (1927) that keeps the action lively and tense...
Vol. 44 • March 1961 • No. 12
