” . have been inferred fi.0111 the Phdhar- interveningthan can most music of monic perforlnance this lund, includ~ng Feldman’s own Of all the new works in the Phil- John Cage’s Atlas EllzpticalLs, on the harmon~c’sseries, however (I exclude other hand,camlot be described m Stefan Wolpc’s Symphonybecause such purely musicalterms Wlthout only two movementswere performed imputing mohves, it seems, like all of and because the work isstraightfor- Cage’s Jokes, priaclpally designed to ward enough so that one could tell it see just how far patrons can be made was badlymisrepresented on this oc- to spendmoney, musicians be made casion),the mostconventionally at- to performabsurd and humlliatmg tractivesounds were unquestlonably tasks, andaudiences and crltics be and thoseproduced by Morton Feldllian’s made to endure the necessity of choos- Out of Last Pieces. Although the ulti- ing between the embarrassment of re- mate interest must be hmited in any maining to “l~sten”and of making a piecewhose prmcipalqualities- are publicexit in themiddle of a per- 5 Days Moscow ...... $86 those of indnndual sounds rather than formance-an alternative preferred by 14 Days Moscow-Leningrad- therelahons between them,the suc- surprisinglymany atPhilharmoqic Kiev-Valta ...... $287 cession of quietflgurational curls in Hall. BENJAMIN BORETZ 0 15 Days ~Moscowand Soviet Central Asia the winds, and gentle sustamed sonor1- ...... $442 ’I-day tours in ties of varying tone-color mixtures (This zs pal t two of a three-part clLs- Czechoslovakia, Poland, could be l~stenedto for much-longer cussion of new nzuszc laemcl zn New Hungarifa, Bulgaria, withoutthe fatigue of noz sequitur York this season.) Rumania or Yugoslavia ...... I...... from $95 REGULAR ~EPARTURES THEATRE WE OBTAIN VISAS

I, For free booklet‘ 64N, write THREE’AT TC~ECH~R’RY LANE ton to- 1776 BROADWAY,’ It is altogetherhkely tihat the folk is a perversity in her approach which N.Y. 10, N:Y. who go down to the Cherry Lane The- finally provokes him to a hymn of > PL 1-9605 atre to see the thTee one-act plays now hate.With lyricalobscenity he, de- beinggiven there are witnesses to a clares that murder is in his and every slgnalevent the emergence of an Negro’s heart and were it to reach the outstanding dramatist - LeRoi Jones. point of action there would be less Hls is a tullbulent talent. Whlle tur- “dmgln’ of the blues:” 1,ess of ‘that de- bulence 1s not always a sign of power l~ghtfulfolk music and hot jazz which or of valuablemeaning, I have a beguile bhe white man’s fancy, more hunchthat LeRoi Jones’s firewill calmin the Neao soul.Meanwhjle, burn ever higherand clearer if our it is the black man who is murdered theatrecan furnish an adequate ves- What we must not overlook 111 see- sel to harborhis flame We need it. ingthe play isthat, whilethis ex- He is very angry. Anger alone may plosion of furyis its rhetorical and merely make a loud noise,confuse, emotional climax, the crux of its sig- sputter and die. For anger to burn to niflcance resides in the depiction of usefuleffect, it must be guided by the white girl whose relevance to the an idea. With the “angry young men” play’s situation does notlie inher of Eagland one was not always cer- whiteness but 111 herrepresentative tain d the source o€ dlssatlsfaction value as a token of our clv~lizatlon. nor oi its goal. With LeRoi Jones it is Shc is our neurosis Not a neurosis in easy to say that the plight of the Negro regard to the Negro, but the absolute ignited theInitial rage-Justlhcatlon neurosis of American society. enough-and thatthe rage will not She 1s “hep”: she hasheard about beappeased until there is no more everybhing, understandsand feels black and white, no more color except nothing She twitches, Jangles,Jitters as differencesin hue and accent are with a thin but inexhaustible energy, Are You Moving? part of the worlds splendid spectacle propelled by the vlbrat~ons iron1 mil- To insurc unintcrrlnptcrl dclivery But bhere is more lo hls feroc1,ty than lions of ads, televislon quiz programs, oC The Nation at your new address, ’ a protest against the horrors of racism. newspaper columns, mtellectual jargon notify us at least three weeks in ad- Dutclman, the fmt of Jones’s plays culled from countlessdigests, panel wncc of your moving-qd send us yo~wold address as well as the new. to reach theprofesslonal stage, is a dlscusslons, illustratedsummaries, Thc I’ost Offico will not forward styllzed account of a subway episode. s~natterlngsof gosslp on every con- your copies free, and we cannot rc- A whlte girl picks up a young Neao ceivable subject (reslpectable and il- place lost capies. who at first is rather embarrassed and licit), epithets, wisecracks, formulas, Write to: The Nation, 833 Sixth Avenue, N.Y. 100148. later piqued by her advances. There slogans,cynicisms, cures and solu- New York, April.13, 1964 383

,I ijons. Bhc is thc most “inlormed” pcr- son m the world andthe most igno- The Baptism’ rant (The information feeds the Igno- rance.) She 1s thebubbhng, boilmg Anyone wishing lo check further funny,both in itsessential com- garbage cauldronnewly produced by on LeRoiJones’s suddenand com- mentand from the shock of in- our progress She is a calculating ma- manding mtrus~on ‘upon the theatre,congruity. Jones hasthe gift of may be able to see h~sThe Bapt~sm, vivid economy that sparks his scene chine gone berserk; she is ~ thereal killer What she destroys is not men whioh is nowbeing presented, on into mstant activity. of a certain race but mankind. She is 2 week-lo-week basis, Monday In The Rnptlrm, he gets the in- ihe compendlum inhttlc o€ ihe uni- nights in of[-Broadway houses that valuable cooperation or Taylor versal mess. are otherwisc dark, bul €or which Mead as the campy Fallen Angcl. I€ Du~chrnn?z(a title I don’t under- backing is being ralsed fqr a regu- Mead, who was one of theantic stand) has a fault, it IS its complete- lar production cast fiheof film, Hallelujahthe nessIts’endlng 1s somewhat too pat, In thisblack mass version oQ a HzZZs, has amocking intelhgence, too pointed in Its symbolism If one Passionplay, Jones converts his superb tlm~ng anda face and bode hascaught the drift of the play’s rage to slapstickblasphemy A of andescribably mobile depravity rneanmg before its fmal moment, the homosexual satan and a cant-smg- On the night I was present, Mead ending is supererogatory, if onehas ing Negro preacher war for the soul also played the title role in Frank failed to do so, ,it is probably useless of the young feckless Son ofGod. OHara’s TheGeneral, a vaudeville Dutchmanis very wellplayed by Thereal evll is hypocrisy, thesm m which an exceedingly great lead- Jennifer West and Robert Hooks. of euphemism, and the ded drives erreturns to his scenes of Pac~flc it from the stage with a coruscating glory There is not, nearly enough The Jones piece is preceded by flow of obscene vernacular. Th~sis substance to the series of loosely- Beckett’s Play (previously reviewed in not a fin~shedor carefully thought- integrated sklts, and Mead holds It The Nation, Jan. 27. 1964), a dra- out play, it is rough. work, in every together by main force a€ mgra- matlc “poem” dn the futile tragicomedy sense, thepurging outrageousness tiating corruption of adultery, perfect of its kmd. There of a fme poet. It is also wildly ROBERTHATCH ’ can be no doulbt of Beckett’s mastery or of his right to say whathe does. One may wonder If one “needs” it French. I found this skit enervatingly this occasion to write an appreciation Another itemon this program - banal. I have become sick and tired of , but only to speak of “Three atthe Cherry Lane”-is The of matricidal dramaturgy. Won’t some- Miss Streisand who 1s a young woman Two Ezecutmners by Arrabal, a Span- one writea truly bold playproclaim- of unmistakable gifts. lad whose home is Paris and language ing the author’s love forhis mother Shewas brilliantly hilarious in I and his equally cordial relations with Can Get It For You Wholesale. She TRAVEL his father?If you don’t llke the human manifests new qualities in her present race why don’t you go back where you vehlcle. She has rhythm-although camefrom . . ? . therhythm in hernumbers ‘now is forced because supplied by her rather Broadway scuttlebutt has it that than by the composer; she knows how $750,000 was spent on the new musi- to color the words and phrases of her cal Funny Gzrl (Winter Garden). For songs so as to give each of them their SUMMER RENTAL allthe ,value in the show the pro- specific emot~onalquality. She has a ducers would havebeen well advised disarming directness and a simplicity. way nxlt IS) Modern- Bwlgniows for cul- turd people Day@amp, Social Hall Filter- to, permit its I, star, , Very littleis “put on,:’ exceptwhere ed Pool, Ilandbnll, F~shrng, Playgrounds, Lnuuderette Golf nearby IC1 C;-188G-III3-7428 to come out andsing some songs on herplayfulness IS a comic commen’i, the bare stage-but not the songs she usually a mockery of pretension, plus now sings, none of whichare any an apology for having so little to be’ good pretentious about. The nakedness, the Though Sydney Chaplin has greatly flat plainness of the world about her, improvedsince hemade his first ap- Its fundamental lack of glamour, and pearancein New York, andJean herrefusal or inability to rise above Stapleton and Kay Medford are funny it-though because she is so talented in thefew moments they are vouch- she feels it more than she shows any

””” safed, there is really nothing to Funny ,“””““” I consciousness of doing-constitute the ITHE NATION 4-1344 I Girl butBarbra Streisand The book essence ‘of herappeal, her pathos. I333 Sixth Aye., New York 10014 , if-it exists, is phony; ,there is no danc- What her acting (even more her sing- One Yew, $10 I ing to speak of and the music is hog- ing) says is: “I am a woman; I have i fl Tmwo Years, $18 I wash,though some ofBob Merrill’s imagination. I have spirit, humor, I 6 Months, $5 I lyrics are not bad. keencommon sense, a desire to hve !0 Bill Me u Payment Enclosed I For those who rememberFanny a full, vivid life, but I dwell in a place Brice-the show ispresumably her and at a time which really deny and ...... “story”-the connectionbetween that cheapenmost of these attributes. i great lady, a “funny girl” who at times Therefore I clown, and you who ap- I AlDDRElSS ...... I’ came close to being a tragedienne, and plaud me so rapturously do so because CTTY ...... 1 the star of the present is a little un- you sensewhat I am suppressing- I fortunate I shallrefrain from com- our mutual bereavement frombeauty.” ! STATE.,...... zrp NO...... I ’“””“” ”“”” parisons because I do not wish to take HAROLDCLURMAN -. The. NATION - . II ”-.-