The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 27

R1DAY, JULY 5, 19S5- THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR- PAGE 271 Bard's 'Merry Wives' gives festival good start Arts Leisure The Indianapolis Shakespeare Festival opened its fifth outdoor sea son at Garfield Park Thursday night with a lively performance of the bard's least characteristic play, 77m? Merry Wives of Windsor, despite the distant crackle of fireworks and other distractions. Only a small crowd braved the holiday traffic jam to get there, but it saw a good show by a company of actors who seem likely to give a lot of pleasure in their well balanced program of a comedy. The Merry Wives, and drama, Hamlet, which is )v sic in the old English stayle is played by a small ensemble under' Philip Spray's direction. While admission to the ISF performance is free, donations ($1 is suggested) are being requested at, the gate. Contributions are being matched on a one for two basis by the Indiana Committee for the Hu- manities.

The IFS season actually will in-elude a third production this season. It will take A Midsummer Night's Dream on tour at the close of the- Garfield Park series and bring it to Conner Prairie Pioneer Settlement for three performances Aug. 23, 24 and 25. Towne as Bardolph. Michael Blan-kenship as Nym.

John Carey as Pistol Karen Eterovich as Anne Page, Scott Enzweiler as Host, Ta-mara Parsons as Robin. Glennyce Russcher as Mistress Quickly, Eric Hissom as Fenton. ISF artistic director David Edge-come has given all aspects of the production authority. The players are well costumed, especially the ladies, who look very much like versions of Queen Elizabeth. The set is a two story Tudor inn with plenty of windows that permit action on the upper level.

The set was designed by Mike Stair, the costumes by Vicki Bell Herald. Incidental mu The Lively Arts Wives of Windsor at Garfield Park. Elizabeth Ware, Rich Komenich and Gabrielle Vehar in Indianapolis Shakespeare Festival's Merry "Outrageously daring, delidously demented comedy -pact Trm pkople staff himself is not the same man. This Falstaff is still vain and boastful but he's at his wits' end as he undertakes to woo two virtuous wives, the Mistresses Page and Ford, simultaneously. They compare notes and decide to give him a lesson.

He is dumped into the river (off stage) while hiding in a laundry basket and forced to escape an irate husband in a woman's dress, among other indignities. The old Falstaff would have been more resourceful. Rich Komenich is a lusty Falstaff, and Elizabeth Ware and Ga- By CORBIN PATRICK opening tonight. They will continue in repertory on Thursday Sunday weekends all through July. The Merry Wives is uncharacteristic because it's virtually all prose, with very little of the blank verse Shakespeare favored, and because it's pure farce in which everytning depends on character and situation rather than flights of fancy and intuitive understanding of human nature.

Its plot is stuffed with the kinds of comic action the festival's ardent young players have shown they can do very well in past seasons. And they include some outstanding new talent in this cast, notably Darryl Maximilian Robinson as the madly jealous husband, Ford. The legend is that Shakespeare wrote this play because Queen Elizabeth I expressed a wish to see Falstaff in love. The name is the same as that of the roistering old rogue encountered in the King Henry plays, and some of his disreputable friends are with him. But Fal- bridle Vehar are splendid as the merry wives they are especially artful in their scenes meant to impress Falstaff, then in hiding off stage, of the danger he's in.

But the comic highlights are provided by Robinson and Roger K. Bechtel in vivid portrayls of two of the play's most extravagant roles. Robinson is the insanely suspicious Ford, who uses Falstaff to test his wife's fidelity, and Bechtel is the jack in the box Doctor Caius, a suitor of the Ford's pretty daughter Anne. The versatile Bechtel will be tonight's Hamlet. Robinson, in his first ISF performance, displays real theatrical flair.

The players all do themselves nrnHit in nartc hath larrro anrl email "Shrewd and of Jack Nicholson's boldest performances. Director John Huston has never offered more slyness and style. A very pleasant Richard Schickel. TIME ISO plays to record holiday crowd Jack Nicholson Kathleen Turner But it probably won't happen Andrew Barnes6as again at least until next year. Scott Strode as Sir Hugh Evans, Dennis Hardin as Page, Patrick CP.

The music was sparkling, the fireworks display spectacular, but the crowd was the story when the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra played its Independence Day concert at Conner Prairie Pioneer Settlement Wednesday night. A crowd variously estimated from 12.000 to 14,000, by far the largest paid attendance in ISO history, packed the natural amphitheater to hear a program of patriotic airs, climaxed by Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, The Stars and Stripes Forever and bombs and rockets bursting in air. The scene brought to mind concerts of the New York Philharmonic in the Sheep Meadow of Central Park, which draw even bigger crowds but they don't pay. William Henry Curry, who conducted the ISO concert, called it "Woodstock II." The previous ISO attendance record was 5,787, by official count, for the all Gershwin concert at Conner Prairie last summer. The size of Wednesday's turnout created a colossal traffic jam.

Traffic was almost bumper to bumper north on Allisonville Road between 1 465 and the entrance to Conner Prairie from 6 p.m. until after 8:30 p.m., when families carrying picnic baskets still were trudging toward the gate from cars parked as much as half a mile up the highway. Police bullhorns announced the concert was sold out and told motorists they would have to keep moving. ISO General Manager Bob Jones announced that persons still holding tickets for this special concert can exchange them on a twofor-one basis for tickets to concerts of the regular Conner Prairie series every Wednesday and Saturday night this month. People who saw the jam on Allisonville Road and found an alternate route apparently had no difficulty.

Some took the new Ind. 37 north to 146th Street, then drove south on Allisonville Road to Conner Prairie at 134th Street. Another alternate from the city is north on Meridian Street to 146th Street. FKIZZlS HONOR i 1 I i 1 I 1 1 i 11 1 I ABC MOTION PirniES A JOHN FOREM AN PROU (TION ni A HISFON FILM Tt IN ffl-PKlZZTS HONOR ALEX NORTH himrrf nmqnun ANDRZU BARTKOWIAK shRH'HARIirONDON JANET ROACH mriiARii rnvTuiv Tn-Star Rptease CHECK DIRECTORIES numiir iu i.Ji,rvi, rnniimi m.l1MI.1 I Ml DISTRICTED mill (-. rf rtf, FOR FEATURE TIMES Mt AC MOTION ICTUt.

INC HigMa Imind TWENTHTH CtNIum POK wwm mria vmwtw i CHECK DIRECTORIES FOR FEATURE TIMES BARGAIN MATINEES-EVERYDAY ALL SHOWINGS BEFORE 6PM "EMERALD FOREST" (R) 1:1. 3:25. 5:35. 7:45. 9:45 "ST.

ELMO'S FIRE" (R) 1:00. J10. 5JO. 7 30. 9 40 "LIFE FORCE" (R) 1:00.

3:05. MS. 7:40, 10:00 "PALE RIDER" (R) ROUSING ENTERTAINMENT WITH EASTWOOD AT HIS BEST. today, nbc-tv, Gene Shallt "Clint wins the west again in a bang-up western adventure! "GOONIES" (PG) 100, 3:10. 5:20.

7:30, 9:45 'HE -MAN SHE RA" (0) 1:30. 3:30 "PERFECT" (R) 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10:00 "RED SONJA" (PG13) 1:45. 3:45. 5:45. 7:45, 9:45 "COCOON" (PG13) 12:30.

2:45. 5:00. 7:15, 9:30 "lUUt alLfcNCE (H) 5:30, 7:45, 10 00 "A VIEW TO A KILL" (PG) in "FLETCH" (PG) 1:00. 3:05. 5:10.

7:15. 9:30 "RED SONJA" (PG13) 1:30, 3 30. 5 30. 7 30, 9 40 Go ahead, make your day make sure you see 'Pale Rider. Mlnnnm, i CBS Morning News, CBS-TV, Pat Collins "RETURN TO 01" (PG) 'BREWSTER'S MILLIONS" (PG) BACK TO THE FUTURE" (PG) 12:30.

2:45. 5:15. 7:40. 10:00 "PRIZZI'S HONOR" (R) 1:45, 4:30. 7:10.

9:45 "FLETCH" (PG) 12:45. 3:00, 5:20. 7:20 9:30 1:00. 3:05, 5:10, 7:15 "PERFECT" IR) 9:40 "BACK TO THE FUTURE" (PG) 12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 7:15, 9:30 PRIZZI'S HONOR" R) 12 30, 2:50. 5:10, 7:30.

9:50 1:45. 3:45, 5:45, 7:45, 10:00 "EMERALD FOREST" (R) 12:30. 2:45. 5:00. 7:15.

9:30 "ST. ELMO'S FIRE" (R) 12:45. 3:00. 5:15, 7:30, 9:45 "PALE RIDER" (R) 1:00, 3:15. 5:30.

7 45, 10:00 loiiowea nrifl-i Vi i jr "Easily one of the best films of the year!" independent Network News, Jeffrey Lyons "it fun to have Eastwood back in a solid, entertaining shoot-em-up!" "RETURN TO OZ" (PG) 12:30. 2:45. 5:10, 7:20 "SECRET ADMIRER" (R1 9:30 "PALE RIDER" (R) 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45, 10:00 "ST. ELMO'S FIRE" (R) 12:45. 3 00.

5:15. 7:30. 9 45 "ST. ELMO'S FIRE" (R) 12:45. 3:00.

5:15. 7:45. 10:00 "PALE RIDER" (R) 12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 7:20, 9:45 "EMERALD FOREST" (R) 1:00, 3:15. 5:30. 7:55.

10:00 "GOONIES" (PG) 12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 9:00, 10:00 "COCOON" (PG13) 12-45, 3 00. 5-20. 7 40, 10:00 Gannett News service. William wolf JKk Lr. mm "Back in the saddle, Clint goes west in a six-gun classic." Playboy, Bruce Williamson "Eastwood's instincts as an artist are well-nigh inspiring.

He has managed to keep the western genre alive through his heroic persona." The village voice, Andrew Sarrls "An exciting action a western in the great tradition of westerns. I liked it." at the movies, Roger Ebert A 1 MAJOR STUDIO SNEAK PREVIEW TOMORROW Get ready for the ride of your Ufa I Jf VsW 11 "ROCKY HORROR I PICTURE SHOW" I IwJ (At. At LAFAYETTE SO. I 11 5S55 I IE Mb mm I rrnWnTillt CLINT EASTWOOD "PALE RIDER- also starring MICHAEL MORIARTY CARRIE SNODGRESS CHRISTOPHER PENN RICHARD DYSART SYDNEY PENNY RICHARD KIEL DOUG McGRATH JOHN RUSSELL executive producer FRITZ MANES music by LENNIE NIEHAUS associate producer DAVID VALDES written by MICHAEL BUTLER DENNIS SHRYACK produced and directed by CLINT EASTWOOD WHTWICTtD JC? FROM WARNER BROS. rniouT oi1 A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS OOMPANY TOMORROW BVffiffi SSI iwa Hgia NIGHT! SB? CHECK DIRECTORIES FOR FEATURE TIMES i i0 rT- i ljr 0k 1.