Women and Our Town

At the Unity Theatre on Sunday, 27th June, a packed house received most enthusiastically the first act of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," and five scenes from Clare Luce's "The Women." Both these plays demand skilled handling and in the main they got it, despite some weaknesses. The unorthodox approach used by Thornton Wilder makes it difficult to attain the atmosphere for which he strives but this was most successfully achieved—partly due to Unity being so essentially a theatre in time.

The play leaves much to the imagination and it is a tribute to the players that they so brilliantly succeeded in stimulating the imagination of the audience. One saw the breakfast porridge being unmistakably stirred, although there was no actual porridge, no range, no kitchen even. The "juvenile" leads were as praiseworthy as their "parents" in equally difficult parts. The American idiom was well translated and Wilder's simple sincerity has a timeless appeal; the editor of the smalltown paper was outstandingly convincing. It would be invidious to single out other individual performances when all were so good, but the exceedingly difficult part of the narrator was very well attempted indeed.

The lack of physical scenery would at first seem to make "Our Town" a producer's dream of delight, but it could equally well be a nightmare. If it were the latter in the case of Unity, the finished production showed no sign of it. In "The Women." too settings were of the simplest and most happily focussed attention upon the acting. It was noticeable that both plays being American, some of the casts assumed appropriate accents while others did not attempt to do so. The results seemed to show that those who had sufficient confidence to do so were wise in their decision white it is equally probable that the others were aso wise, if they feared failure in this respect only.

"The Women" is so sophisticated a play, so slick, and so swift-moving that in advance one doubted the wisdom of a small amateur company attempting it. Thus, as in the case to some extent with "Our Town" also, one arrived prejudiced in favour of being critical. So that to be happily surprised was all the more a mark of the merit of the productions. Once only did "The Women" seem a little to drag—perhaps a little more cutting would have been wise—but the audience was kept almost constantly in hilarious laughter as the witty dialogue cut tautly across the stage, with its undercurrent of tension. The woman writer in particular was played to perfection.

Nola Millar produced "Our Town": and Bob Stead. "The Women." Both must be heartily congratulated upon their productions. It would have been too much to expect faultless plays: but it can truly be said that a most ambitious evening was attempted. And it did not fail. If all Unity produclions can maintain this level it is quite apparent that a larger theatre will speedily be required.

Take another look at the election issue of Salient and you'll find that half the candidates say exactly the same thing in their "policies." Why not run an over-all policy speech, to the effect that all the candidates believe in the same things. Building Appeal pep-up sane student government, etc? Lot of space wasted in that election issue. One candidate says he has no political affiliations. What he intends to convey by that we are left to figure out.

English department motto: Read Shakespeare and drink Speights beer.