Word: playing
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...draft registration in World War II. When FBI agents tracked him to his mother's Chicago home in September 1942, they found him rolled up in a carpet under her bed. He was in federal prison at Milan, Mich, for draft dodging until 1946, later made a play for recruits among ex-convicts. His New York leader, Malcolm X, once Malcolm Little, is an ex-convict who has been arrested for larceny in two states...
With the limited facilities for John Beck's serviceable set, director Julius Novick has deployed his charges with a resourceful hand. He has obviously striven for split-second timing in speech, gesture, and sound cues--a facet of the play that presents unusually frequent and tricky demands. His pacing never drags...
...enjoys singing, sewing, and cooking, as well as working on the piers, is accused by Eddie of being a homosexual seeking to marry only for his citizenship papers, the tensions, conflicts, and jealousies begin to mount until they work themselves to their fateful climax. Towards the end of the play, it is said of Eddie that he is pure--not purely good, but at a time when men must settle for half, he allows himself to be wholly known. It is to Mr. Lurtsema's credit that he has captured the nobility of Eddie as well as the fire...
Lewis Lehman's staging in the intimate scenes is frequently static, (in the first scene, for instance, he has Mr. Lurtsema rooted to an armchair for what seems an eternity) but his crowd scenes are nicely handled. And his interpretation of the play is lucid and valid. Cherie Hughes has some very nice lighting effects, but the set, such as it was, could have stood a bit more imagination and atmosphere...
This is the first opportunity I have had to see this play since Mr. Miller revised it in 1956. It would seem to rank now with Death of a Salesman. In the true Greek manner, it provides "a proper purgation through pity and terror," a cathartic evening of theatre...