Word: murph
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Some people say that the only good freak is a Dead freak. Murph's a Grateful Dead freak-he thinks they're the best rock-and-roll band in the world-and when he heard that the Dead were going to play at Boston University on November 21st, he started making plans. He arranged to get his tickets as soon as the box office opened ( the concert was sold out in a day ) and when the 21st finally came, Murph was at the door of B.U.'s Sargent Gymnasium, with food and friends, at one in the afternoon, ready...
...INDIAN, the better play, was also better cast. Its New York run drew Horovitz great critical attention and a popular following. Lazaro Perez gave a very nearly touching performance as Joey, a JD-with-a-conscience who has been seduced, it comes out, by his friend Murph's mother. Michael Heit as Murph was more a Beach Boy than a tough Irish kid. Michael Hadge, the patient, Gandhi-like Indian, was eloquent in delivering his gibberish Indian talk but not quite as mysterious as we could wish for. The setting was again New York City, a Fifth Avenue bus stop...
...play opens endearingly with the two street kids grooving to a song called, "I walk the lonely streets at night/ A-looking' for your door." Murph and Joey discover the Indian mutely waiting for a bus. The kids wonder if he is an Indian or Turk and go through a series of delightful digs at each other, horseplay, and anecdotes such as the time Murph pulled down his trousers, sat on a Xerox machine, and sent the copies to his friends as Christmas cards. However, neither Heit nor Lazaro really got wound up in the roles. Horovitz is striving...
This time Horovitz came down hard on these themes. The boys discover the Indian's identification card and torture him with the possibility of calling his home. Joey is torn between sticking with his buddy Murph or saving the Indian from this cruelty. However, the conflict of this kind must be subtle, but is no more subtle than anything else in the play. The play occasionally smacked of the "East Side Gang," the only difference being its slight political edge...
Joey chooses to side with Murph and pins down the Indian as Murph calls his son. The Indian is put on the phone, but to no avail, since Murph has cut the cord and stabbed his hand. The Indian is left reciting "Thank you," the only English words he knows, a receiver in one hand, a wound in the other. This time the play is much more to the point, a grotesque reminder that it is no more grotesque than what it documents. Why guerrilla theatre if it already happens on the streets...