E4 - Sunday, Nov 27 190 IHE WASHINGTON POST attric Stab a

ROBERT: Shut up, Teddyt Can't you see were busy' A Berkeley. Veteran's BeSvSeller .Casti Lyndon Johnson and Keimeilys in Principal Roles .of 'Macbeth' BY Leroy F. Aarons • We,iiitliieton Port Staff Writer xilw y(7.41.1c—A biting 56-page par- proposton that the so-called Kennedy- il ody Of "lkiaebeth". which puts Lyn- j h „.,, rivalry „ has :; parallels in ° n anddon RobertJohnson F. inKennedy the role as ofunscrupu- assassin Shakespeare's classic tragedy about the lust for Power. Mrs. Gerson exploitS louh avenger has. become a best-seller ....;”. lities withkelever 4 r :- 14.•-::1:::41.f.:...: .,-1z-,.., ,,..wkthese possibi ironY, .- here. .„; ^'''''`.: casting Lyndon Johnson in, the. Mac -., The tract, entitled "Macbird." is .the- beth role,. John F. :‘Kennecly ,,aw...the .! work of . 25-year-Old7Barbara " Garcon; ' i.,.. ,,...... 4 .,..,...... .„, n'arl' Mint' "'"a :'''''''''''' entt's'y : 8.;-• traduate of the University 'of Cali- ..'"`' is comion MalColm-Macduff:.: . " - -fornia at BerkeleY:and i'leader of the"ic-!is .. gift fOrr, raPier- 1: : 1117' GarSou uses a • Frei Speech :: Movenient : during ' the, , v.,,,f like:, caricature to demolish most of ::' student ,riots there Mit -year: ,;•;,- ' ,,, ..;...,_,.,,_.,.; ..i..muiiiihlifcirnit:b ., .i,i :„1„i; 'America's ,r1 Political leadership. Mr. , t-r.99ulneu in Johnson is painted, as , e crude, bump" ', iG,,atirso...plen,,d Lher;:fi hushand '‘M., ,arvin, . ' kin,. Robert Kennedy as a duplieitoui: -4 inacoir 'h -.Xirst. Printing .of . 20,000 ..... conniver Ted KennedY,aee'simpletOn: copies ` isi selling out in bookstores and ' Even Earl Warren,. Wayne ',Morse, by-mail ; order as fast as they can be.deliVered. One Chain of paperback ' RStI)ebVerloMneNceanlarame iri,nfodr reiPlurei e 4Odi.a"r stOres—Bookmasters — repo rts 5000 But the play's most explosive pas- ' copies sold in , , month, many, 'sage comes in the first act, where, in Of there inen lots and of t 15 to indi-: keeping with the original, plot, Mac- ,44,6 give_ herf ,t bird" (Johnson-Macbeth) arranges' for friends. 'It is our biggest paperback the assassination of Ken Q"Dune...(John title, right now," ',Said Sy Rubin„ Kehheitrouneat);I:Thie-kiplitation al- dent of BooliniaXbers'. five- stores. -5 ready has created, difficulties for :the -' !.An second.,s printing:4;04.20,00Q 51s Gerson& gt- • - planned in December, with distribution 5,- At.!least. one -.off-Broadway theater around the country;- including Wash- refused MT house itheoplay, ,,partlY ingt013=;i.itm off-Broadway Production of because- of !the assassfaation";:section. the play hase,won. $30,000 backing Ramparts magazine; . a Ieft-oriented and is Casting- now for , an,' opening journal which this month published around the end, sof ,,the. year.; an article raising questions as to the • National interest in "Macbird" is ex- true assaasin of the, late President, pected to , quicken with publication of at first . turned down "Macbird." excerpts in the,: Pacemlior edition of Later it reversed; itself. Another na- -Rainpartatpagmineand hilig review tional Publication wanted to carry the bzilDwighta,MaiDonahlint the :New. full text of the play but insisted that 'York Review-of Books:, - ' the assassin be changed. The Gallons . The , run on ::!Machird"... Which be.- refused. ' • "' gani . as, .,aoke evolved into an Mrs. Gerson, a petite brunet Who • dergrotind '" pamphlet and now seems usually wears dungarees and now-lives headed for national notoriety, is based - in Brooklyn with her, husband, is un- largely on its arch and outrageous surprised but a little impatient with ,... publish the Free Speech Newsletter ' ,...'Newfieid 'in the ,yillage'IVoiee: . But "Macbird" stands on its own as an in- the attention being paid to this aspect ,, ■ .and put on political puppet shows Yin,' of her play. It was included, she said, ' ..gfroeit of Sproul Hall. She was one of genious marriage of Elizabethen styl- only to keep the parody as faithful as'• 4 isms and topical satire. :I the 800 arrested during the student•• • •. 1, possible to the original. rioting. • The play opens at the Democratic Her basic aim in "Macbird,"4-, she.: She also joined the Students for. a '! National Convention with Ken O'Dunc added, was to expose the hypocrisy of Democratic Society and became 'a mill-' and Robert debating whether to offer the Nation's political leaders, not to tart against the Vietnam war.' Result- the Vice. Presidency to Macbird. imply involvement of President John- ing activities—like circulating antiwar "But, Jack, you know it isn't merely •, • 4 son in the Kennedy tragedy. - - • ,scruples," °protests Robert "He has a "Most commentators irk me by only 1 fat; yet hungry look. Such men are taking up the critio6nn of Johnson,' leaflets on military bases—have landed dangerous." she said, "while they fail to notice that , her and her husband in jail from time ' The action moves through Macbird's the main villain—Bobby Kennedy— . to time. confrontation with the three witches (a I takes up the second half of the play." beatnik demonstrator, a Black Muslim It was while haranguing an audience and an Old Leftist), the shooting of The Robert Kennedy character in .:. of Berkeleyites in August, 1965, about Ken O'Dunc (while riding in a parade the play, conspires to destroy Macbird a projected peace march on Washing- 'arranged by Macbird and Lady Mac- and seize powers himself. -After Mac- . ton that Mrs. Garson made a slip of bird) and the coronation of his suc- bird's death (from a heart attack as cessor. Robert is about to plunge in the tongue, calling Mrs. Johnson "Lady sword), the Robert Kennedy character, Macbird." ' the makes this closingr.- • address to the Afterward, she was struck by populace: !.way present-day political realittrilt fit edy. "A tragic twist of fateful sorroia, ..,„the pattern of the Shakespeare friends, She was especially excited by what she "Our highest goalis peace," Mathird Makes me your President this fearful'; considered. to be the similarity of the : ,._moral issues: guilt retribution,., lust says in his inaugural . . sought it, history,. -What ; And though I never for power, the disparity.betareen Tut in■ its• 'quest Assigned to me her most demanding •is said and what li thought."':' ' We shall not'fear to use our righteous ":' ‘At first, she planned to write an might . ' So choked with grief, I. pledge my , word entertainment for the International In short, we seek that pox Americana solemn :protest Oct. 15, 1965. But the •To lift aloft the, banner Of Macbird.", Day.. of,. That all the freedom-loving world s day came and went.. and the play kept desires., . •- "What I'm doing, I is .reniinding 4' expanding itself.- The unity' f all alone contents us. radicals that they halve' to builesoine "Every' day I. woke up and read in We plan to guide this planet by kind of independent force; that,they t•Ithe paper something thatmade it true , consensus." . • can't get improvements by hopping on and truer." After four months of work, But Macbird's troubles begin to mul- the Bobby bandwagon," Mrs. Gerson "Macbird" was ready. tiply: a revolution in. Viet Land, the said. "Bobby really has no interest in growing Bobby conspiracy from his peace except as talking about it en- A Fashionable Theme exile in New York and the increasing hances his political fortunes: On John- HE GARSONS printed 5000 copies distractedness of Lady Macbird: son, it doesn't worry me if people think of an "underground" edition; circu- "Flower by the roadside . . . he killed. Kennedy. I really think I've lated it-at Berkeley and sold it out in a Plant these flowers . . . got Johnson right even if he didn't - , ••••,.• "te •• 4? few weeks. Encouraged by the response Let all the land be lined with living do it." both' at Berkeley, and from friends 'in blooms. . ; , New York, they tried-to find a paper- Yet all the petals of a summer's roses Goodnatured Toughness;: 'chick publisher who would sponsor gen- Can never sweeten this accursed, land." rpHIS KIND of tough talk from a tiny eral ,distribution, hut the publishers . pounds, Macbird, reassured by the witches, „IL package, 4 feet 11 by 105 either demanded unreasonable options is convinced that "no man with beat-- has the unreal aura of a Jimmy CagneY or woUldn't touch it at .all. -t id, ing heart or human blood"' can' harm movie except that it's, delivered, 'Sa the Garsoni moved 'to'New York, him. But as Robert closes' in,-he 'in- casual goodnattuedness over a cup of set up their own firm -- Grassy Knoll ' forms Macbird that his father, to "tem- coffee in a three-room flat in a Brook- Press — and put out 5000 additional - • -..: per us for roles of world authority," lyn tenement. '' 'Copies of , "Macbird" in October, con-. replaced his sons' hearts with steel and Barbara Garson is a Brooklyn prod- tracting with a local distributor to cir- plastic tubing and their blood with "a .; uct, a graduate of Junior High School culate them in New York bookstores. • tepid antiseptic brine.," ''L••••' • • 234 (where she met her future husband) They went like hotcakes. When another "And so, Mac bird, that very man you fear, and James Madison High School. She Printing of 10,000 came out two weeks Your heartless, bloodless .foe,now, lifts,e; beoame what she is today — a "liber- ago, stores put up signs saying, "Mac- his spear." " • • tarian socialist" — in 1960 after spend- bird is back." These copies, too, are ing her honeymoon In Cuba, where now almost gone. "everything wasn't perfect, but it was "Macbird's" phenomenal success is quite exciting. We got back and were due partly to the current fashion for so overwhelmed by* the fantastic dis- -anti-Administration tracts ia second tortions in the papers that we started play, "Viet Rock," is running off-Broad- :. working with groups trying to props ' way and a third is in the works) and gandize for Cuba." ,partly to favorable articles by Robert From there, it was a short jump to Brustein, an eminent theater critic and Berkeley (for a history degree) and dean of the Yale Drama School, in the involvement in the Free Speech Move- New York Times" Magazine and Jack ' ment., Where she helped found and 7iiirt:;;‘) late, Macbird, crying, "Thus cracks a nsbleheart!",ie?cPire%Azi-'„ Barbara. Garson is aiming her spear' at new targets. Living.off a $5000 grant "The Play's The Thing' frOni Pe Yale Drama School (a direct - Wherein I'll Catch The Conscience of the' Cing' consequence of "Macbird"), she, is writ- ing a second play based on the flook of Job.. In it, Job is a liberal Dernocrat, God is the Democratic Party aijid the 'Devil is the GOP. ;-:L But a play itself can't change pings, , she admits. ' "It's interesting for me. But the hard work of organizing peo- ple into a movement that can use ;its numbers to affect, politics is what has to be done. "The wealth of this country hal to be used for positive good, for liberat- ing people all over the world... from t The-cover of "Macbird" by:Liso. .1,3airis, who also ";did 'poverty and the illustration dreary work. It's' jiiit at left below and others in.the.booldet. . choosing between who is, going to be An power, but positively shaping:ione- thing worth while." , You leave, her; . at,, the _ Of-.5the Brooklin flat, intense, talking. You- go down the stairs;:and in the .,hallway dim , ancient her4 words Still echoing, god forgetWe a minute and it's almostjilie?, the ;1930s again. Then you're out on. Flatbiish ' Aienue with the television aerials and a new Thunderbird speeding by, and its 19131". The year of "Macbird." •