THEATRE

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_ New Playhouse production
has great sense of reality

The Subject Was Roses, by
Frank Gilroy, brings Kate Reid
back to Toronto. The play was
produced in Ottawa and staged
by Frank Daley, one of our
young directors who works in
Ottawa. \

An additional cause for cele-

bration is that the production
_ temporarily re-opens the Play-
_ house Theatre on Bayview Ave-
_ hue—ard a most attractive,
intimaie setting it is for this

_ intimate, rovealing play.
It is sod to relate that just at
this moiment in the theatre life
_ of Toronto our two most pro-
_ fessional and lively companies

_—the Crest and the Canadian,

_ Players—are out -of action alto-
gether, and theatre audiences
_ here must depend almost en-
tirely .on the road companies
from Broadway. It is surely a
very saddening fact that ‘we
seem to be going backwards in

just as we are ready to celebrate
our 100th birthday. .

In this context, it is a happy
occasion to welcome back Kate
Reid, Bud Knapp and Doug
Chamberlain in Gilroy’s moving
portrait of a family — mother,
father and son — working their
way through many tangled re-
lationships. The author chooses
an easily recognizable family—
Irish, Roman Catholic, middle.
class. He sets them in the Bronx
in New York.

From the rise of the curtain,
husband and wife are obviously
pulling apart. The only thing
they have in common iis their
Son, who has just returned from
the war. The play progresses
through a ‘ug-of-war for the
loyaity of their son and, in the
process, the parents are exposed
to themselves and to the boy.
We watch with fascination the
public war of two peonle resuit-
ing in 2 Drivate hell for three.

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When the curtain comes down
you know that, just as in life,
there is no happy ending with
everything neatly resolved. But
all three have learned a great
deal, and it may be possible for
them to go on with more hon-
esty among them.

The story is told with humor,
a great sense of reality and a
good understanding of how
many people live.

Such a play obviously requires
acting that has depth, honesty
and the creation of real people
on stage. The director and cast
provide all of these require-
ments. Kate Reid as the mother,
Bud Knapp as the father and
Doug Chamberlain as the son
establish such a close rapport
that you feel you are eavesdrop-

ping on a real family untangline -

their lives,

‘Together and separately they
create poignant moments—fath-
er and son attempting to estab-
lish some intimacy and finding
it difficult, the mother’s deeply-
felt anguish in trying to explain
her marriage to her grown son,
the son groping to see his par-
ents as they really are without
losing his love for them. Over

all, they relish the humor, create

three-dimensional human beings
and dig deeply for their motiva-
tions.

The Subject Was Roses will
be at the Playhouse for a limit-
ed run only. There are not many
opportunities to see acting of
this calibre in a play that holds

a mirror up to life with sympa- _

thy and warmth for the human
condition. These are important
reasons to fill the Playhouse
every night.

—G.R.T.

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Side
J. S$. Wallace

Vietnamese

Rate far below their rubber trees*

When both are roasted by napalm

Our foreign aid to Vietnam.

The cause for this is quickly told:

A man spurts blood; a tree spurts gold.
Our foreign aid? Yes, Ottawa

Abets their war on life and law

While you and I—I’ll leave out you—
What have I done? What can I do?
Words upon words till words sound sham
They can’t eat words in Vietnam.

There, in our heart of hearts, we know
Hinges the whole world’s Stop ... or Go.

| (*Man: $34, tree: $87 — U.S. rate of compensation.)
|
|

SOFIA
NE hour out of Moscow by plane I looked in a mirror

and was disgusted with my wish-washy face. It was

a quarter of an hour later before I realized wny: | was
Stemmed from India to

surrounded by complexions that
_ Japan.

Oct. 181 suimed myself in a summer jacket on a busy
square in Sofia. I counted: 10 trams went by a minute
(many old-fashioned, all two-thirds the length of ours). AS
in other socialist cities the fare is about five cents and you
can go as far as you like .. . but not with the girl conduc-
tors. In the centre of the square one acted as traffic director
for the trams. ee i

In Moscow, my friend Frieda spotted an 18-year-old —
American girl looking so disconsolate she asked if she could
help, The American almost blubbered: “They take me here,
they take me there, they take me to the Kremlin and to
Lenin’s tomb, but they don’t take me anywhere I can buy ~
a Coca-Cola.” | a

They should have taken her to Bulgaria: it’s on sale
here. Most prices here seem lower than. in Canada.

bi ¢
FOR ALL MY CHILDREN
I love twin sisters
With all of my heart
And always manage
To tell them apart. —
It makes a whale of a difference
Whether
I tell them apart
Or tell them together.
(Is that too old for you?)

THEY'RE LINING UP -

Lots of free entertainment for Expo

_ While Expo 67 will feature
entertainment by many famous
professional talent companies
and groups from many countries
(Tribune, Oct..24) a major on-
site free entertainment program
involving thousands of perform-
ers is also being prepared.

The vivid color and excite-_

ment ofa country celebrating

national day will come to life
dozens of times at Expo as each
of the nations, the Canadian
provinces and the national and
international groups _participat-

in the Exhibition marks its

Day” at Expo with an after-*

noon show staged at the Place
Nations, a spacious plaza at

tip of one of the Expo isl-
ands capable of holding up to
Heads of state of the partici-
- nations, or their repre-

sentatives, will be in Montreal
for these occasions and specta-
tors will be able to sample the
food and drinks of the celebrat-
ing nation while watching the
free show.

Amateur performers from
across Canada—bands, folk sing-.
ers, dancers, choirs, etc. — will
add to the free entertainment
program, performing in six band-
shells on the site. About 400
such groups are expected to ap-
pear at Expo, representing a
total of around 10,000 perform-
ers.

Most pavilions at the Exhibi-
tion will feature free entertain-
ment. For example, the interna-
tionally-acclaimed Feux Follets
will perform at the Canadian pa-
vilion daily during the six-month
run of the Exhibition. Marion-
ettes, chamber music ensem-

bles, comedians, singers, folk
dancing groups and experimen-
tal theatre troupes are among
the numerous other attractions
expected to be seen in the pa-
vilions of Expo’s 70 participat-
ing nations.

Expo is determined that visi-
tors should even enjoy lining up
to get into a pavilion. Four mo-
torized troubadour units made
up of singers, dancers, clowns,
magicians and musicians will
circulate through the site, per-
forming to queueing crowds and
where line-ups are thinner, serv-
ing as draws for’ crowds. An
added attraction: the Expo Band,
a marching band that will tour
the site during the day.

One area of Expo will swing
Jate into the night, long after
the pavilions have closed. La

Ronde, Canada’s answer to the

director of the Exhibition’s ‘
erations department, asserts
everything possible is —
done to make sure visito
-Expo will have fun.

“For six months in
Montreal - “ill be the site
vast and exciting World Ex
tion and with it will co
package of entertainment
like anything seen in North
erica before. We want our
tors to be well entertained
above all, to remember ExP
because it ‘was fun.”

Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen,
and Disneyland and as such, one
of the Jargest amusements parks
in the world, will offer a wide
variety of free entertainment
highlighted every night. by spec-
tacular fireworks and the West-
inghouse Dancing Waters dis- |
play on Dolphin Lake.

Other free attractions in La
Ronde which will open in the
morning and remain open until
at least 2:30 a.m., will be log-
ging shows, water ski shows,
strolling entertainers such as
chansonniers, accordian players,
Magicians and __ instrumental
groups, and planned “‘happen-
ings” — seemingly impromptu
events such as jailbreaks from
the Fort Edmonton sheriff's “jail-
house” and stagecoach robber-
ies.

Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien,

December 23, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—