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Robert PoliakSecond City has top-notch talent;lt;Brecht play is a spotty masterpiece4IWPOLLAKSecond City, at 1842 N. Wells, is the localequivalent of New York’s Downstairs at the Upstairs where the magnificent Ronnie Craham et al cavort in witty miniature revues while the patrons drink happily in a drafty basement.The Second C ity' quarters are more attractive than Ronnie's, with prints on the walls, lots of little tables and a menu that defines a cappu-cino for squares unfamiliarwith the expresso glossary.F ood and drinks are good andinexpensive and the cover is modest.The revue itself is up and down. The Great Books discussion of “Oedipus Rex” is a side-splitter, and so is a True Story rendition of one pure-hearted Mexican girl’s life in a border hot-spot in which the maudlin True Story text contrasts hilariously with what goes on on the small stage. But much of the material is thin and the company desperately needs some new song and skit writers if it is to flourish as it should.It should flourish, because it is full of top-notch young acting talent. The bearded Severn Darden handles all kinds of comedy with precision and deftness and Paul Sand, a long beanpole of a youth, is a gifted mime. Andy Duncan fills the m.c. assignment nicely and adds his talents to the sketches; and the girls, Barbara Harris and Mina Kolb, are funny and easy of the eye. Darden, a kind of junior Ustinov, is the outstanding man in the company. You may see his name above a marquee one of these days.Much of the present-day criticism of Bertolt Brecht can mean very little to most of uswho didn’t live in Germany just before Hitler when the wry little Communist, Brecht, wras the hottest protestant playwright in Deutschland. We know him best by his critical reputation, which is formidable among the cognoscenti, and because of the “Three-PennyOpera i which has memorable words and music by Kurt Weill. In short, we know Brecht-Weill betterthan Brecht alone.Consequently we must approac h “The Good Woman of Setzuan” at the Goodman Theatre without awe and we must then comctothe conclusion that it is a spotty masterpiece, acynical piece with occasional brilliant scenes,o\w--nt by at 20 r,vrvjr,-it- fir-act (the second is by far the better) and lackingthe affirmation that we expect from a playwright with social ideas.This allegory about a Chinese prostitute in search of virtue denies the virtue of all. The gods judge humanity by the book and are either ^ asleep, merciless or indifferent. The poor (|cheat and connive, abuse hospitable charityand turn on their benefactors. The rich—well you can imagine what Brecht does to them.At the end of the play his appealing little tart is abandoned by the gods and human beings alike and a subsidiary character turns to the^. audience and asks for an answer to man \ P problems. This is a lazy playwright's trick.I suspect that the Goodman production is too much of a task for a student company, since a half-dozen roles require sterling actors and the half-dozen aren’t available. Frances Hyland, the tiny guest star who plays the Good Woman, is superb, however, and at intervals she pulls the whole piece up by its bootstraps. Jim Maronek's set, with an elevator for the goods, is intriguing and Charles McGaw’s direction is reasonably imaginative.
Newspaper Details
Chicago Hyde Park Herald
Chicago, Illinois, US
Wed, Apr 06, 1960
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Loyola U.
IL, USA 30 Mar 2020
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