side | #7 by side J. S. Wallace

He believed the earth was flat, that the English were descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel, and that the United States was a democracy.—Sinclair Lewis in Babbitt. : MOSCOW To the Right Hon. Lester Pearson Prime Minister, Ottawa. a

‘ Dear Sir:

Several years ago you asked the Soviet government to allow its citizens who wished to visit relatives here to do so. Your appeal got results. But the RCMP has taken on itself to offset your appeal in some cases:

Phoebe Singer accompanied: her husband, a reporter, to the USSR 30 years ago. When he died she remained there wor'.ing as a translator. Hearing your appeal she applied to ine Canadian Embasy in Moscow for a visa so she could V 5.¢ ner brothers and members of her late husband’s family. Financial guarantees were given at her end. ~~ >

A visa was refused, the Immigration Department here explaining “this is not the type of visitor Canada wants.”

A retired woman who has no criminal record here or in the USSR .. . who undertook, when objection was raised to her entry, that she would neither write nor speak in public while here . . . coming for only a week or so... What’s the RCMP afraid of—that she’ll say boo to them?

* THE ST. LAWRENCE

The sun was high in the heavens

But the stars were in my eyes

As I came to the. great St. Lawrence

And the gates of Paradise. s

As my heart was deep in dreams

Of the far-off reach of the river

Where it drank from a thousands streams. ' Back, far back, to the tundra

And half way back through. time

Bearing the weight of human ‘freight

Glory and grief and crime.

Bearing at last the promise

That man will soon be free

When I'll stand up for Everyman

And Everyman for me.

Roll on, O noble river,

No longer. without a plan

To the universal ocean :

And the brotherhood of man.

With the above, Joe Wallace wrote us a note saying he would like to discontinue his weekly column for a while pie he is “feeling a bit tired” and would like to take a rest. :

We believe Joe’s rest is well earned. We join with our readers in thanking him for allowing us to be “‘side by side” with him as he reminisced and commented on both the pas- Sing scene and the scenes long past. _.

Good health and good fortune to you, Joe. It was nice to have you with us... John Boyd.

Se nena enema

THEATRE 7

The Man of la Mancha

‘remarkable experience |

OSE FERRER sings his songs as if his suit of armour is about six sizes too small. The _ dialogue and voice inflections of many of the supporting cast seem more out of Damon Run- yon’s New York than 17th century Spain. And even if Don Quixote’s mind is as addled as a Spanish omelette it still seems a little much that he can’t orientate when he has both hands on a lovely young dancer’s bust.

But there are rather minor items in a stage production that in total is a remarkable experi- ence. In all ways the. Man of la Mancha, now at the O’Keefe Centre is really extraordinary.

It is a presentation of episodes from the tale of Don Quixote, told and enacted by its creator, Miguel Cervantes, as he awaits the call of the Inquisition in prison. There is but one set used in the production, a stark prison with a grim drawbridge overhead which lowers to extract prisoners to face the tribunal. Thus with effective use of lights and stage properties, acting excel- lence and the sheer power of the dialogue and music, the story of Don Quixote is conjured be-

fore the audience. =

The story is of the dreamer, who sees himself as a knight errant, who cannot see the world as it really is—or perhaps he sees it too clearly and resorts to the absurd. As a knight he ventures forward to set imaginary wrongs to right (or are they imaginary?)

But Quixote is a figure of ridicule. As it must, his dreamworld is shattered.

Quixote, the figure of the imagination, can re- ject the world and.can die, but he is his creator’s alter ego and Cervantes in real-life is excommu- nicated from the church and awaits the Inquisi- tion—what of him?

What of the larger question of the relation be- tween the dreamer’s dreams and the real world?

We are given the answer when Cervantes is finally called before the Inquisition. As he pre- pares to walk up the ominous drawbridge at the climax of the production he sings again a song which Don Quixote sang in his dreamworld. The same words in the stark prison setting mean so much more.

pr

To dream the impossible dream ue To fight the unbeatable foe, a To bear with unbearable sorrow 4 ‘.

- To run where the brave dare not go. . And the world will be better for this 2) That one man scorned and covered with scal*im Still strove, wits his last ounce of courage hh To reach the unreachable stars. 4 Ah

The Man of la Mancha, tilts with the Philist!™ci through the whole production, and most of "es evening the Philistines seem to be ahead Ad points. But in the overall effect there is the vic!tin of those who dream, and whose dreams give t®g courage, “‘To fight the unbeatable foe.” (R.M.) er

_JEW COMMIES TREMBLE... NIGGER CRUAINALS QUAKE IN FEAR... LIBERALS HEAD FOR THE mrs Vv

~ SMILES

HARD DAY

' Someone told us the story about the golfer who returned home one day, glum and morose, from the links. “Poor score?” asked his wife sympathetically.

“No,” he said, “not bad. An 822.

“You and Charlie have an

argument?” ARR oo “Well I can tell something meee

went wrong,” persisted the wife.

“Yes,” the golfer acknow- Jedged. “As a matter of fact, it did. Charlie dropped dead at the 11th hole.”

“How dreadful!’ said the . Q wife. “No wonder you're upset.” .

“Yeah,” said the golfer. “From then on it was: just shoot and drag Charlie, shoot and drag Chane. =.

HERE COMES ac

TWICE AS. FAST AS THE SPEED OF LIGHT... MORE POWERFUL THAN ATOMIC ENERGY... SMART AS A WHIP... ARCH ENEMY OF JEW-

COMMUNIGT TRAIT ALL RACE-MIXERS [

-WHITEMAN FIGHTS AN INTERPLANETARY

DUEL WITH A tm DIABOLICAL FIEND...

WHITEMAN ALSO BATTLES Dp

SUPERCOON!

| ke i ait Prof. Waynegartner (Johnny Wayne, left) shows Frank Shuster Prospective buyer to ‘.: ::ro- rics

. u = distributed from Ame his laboratory for color television experiments. Two of the four Wayne _ nic-brain salesman: ‘$228,000 is THIS SAMPLE of propaganda being Coe jal to

Nazi party headquarters in San Francisco is from a spec

i and Shuster Hours to be seen on CBC-TV’s Show of the Week this a little steep. Do you have one sert in The Stormtrooper, the Nazis “official news magazine.”

season will be in color. with a lower I.Q.?”

January 20, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page ?