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PENN
STATE REVIEW: FIVE O'CLOCK THEATRE
By David Long
A
pair of one-act plays was presented at Five O'clock Theatre last
week: "No One Is Exactly 23,"'written by Susan Miller,
and "There's a Dead Mule in the Street," by Jan Haag.
The plays were balanced in length and each was presented in a direct,
uncluttered style. But there the balance ended? both in the script
and on stage Miss Miller's play greatly outweighed the other.
.
. .
The two characters
of "No One Is Exactly 23" are absolutely free agents,
free to act and say exactly what is in their minds. As the author
explains: "What people think, we cannot know; what they say,
we can only interpret, and for what they do we have no motive. It
is a matter of connecting the dots whose position we have merely
surmised."
But instead of
connecting these dots and tying them together in a neat plot or
story, the author takes a more penetrating look at her characters
and attempts to project this "inside story" on the stage.
The worn-out single theme we saw in the first play is replaced by
variety as wide as the characters themselves.
In this case
the skill of the author is considerable. The audience is clearly
shown a Man and Woman who, as is all too common, are not talking
with each other but to and often at each other. Though they try
to be friendly, they can't seem to get together. For the Man talks
like this: "How good of you to drop by. Mary will be so glad
to see you. She hasn't had a visitor in months, you know. Isn't
it awful the way friends will let you down? I've never known it
to fail. A friend in need, as they say... (pause) Or is that what
they say? well, it certainly is true, isn't it?" And before
long he blurts out at the Woman, "Can't you follow a straight
line of thought?"
Of course the
answer is that neither really can. The closest they ever come to
real communication is on the topic of written records, form to be
completed, which sounds something like a Penn State rallying cry.
Man (frantically); "Forms must be filled out'." Woman:
"Oh, yes, I agree. I agree completely. How are we to know anything
without forms?" Man: "How are we we to know anything without
forms?" Man: "How are we to find anything without forms?"
Woman: "How are we to be anything without forms!"
John Gingrich,
in disheveled black tie and tails, and Linda Diehl, uninhibited
and quick, fit these roles to a T. Direction at the end of the act
is an improvement on the script. The play's main flaw is its hurried
pace; a great deal is skimmed over, and maybe missed. It is the
kind of play that could be seen again profitably.
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