The Minneapolis Star from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 28

THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR June 1974 2G variety Young British playwrights offer Wife sees her mixed-and disappointing'' as generation oag vJh rf'H yl's i adapt we one Mlnneapolli Star Phoio by Jack Glllli Reviewed by PETER ALTMAN The Star'f Book and Art! Editor LONDON, England Tom Stoppard's extraordinary "Travesties" 1974 has been a year of mixed results so far for Britain's established younger playwrights. David Storey's new play skillfully handles typical material, but seems unadventurous and has the feeling of a safe work by a dramatist considering new departures. Peter Nichols' latest comedy is an insightful view of middle-aged middle-class marriage and it is a popular hit because of a star cast featuring Albert Finney. But I think it represents a false step, and certainly it is less resonant than Nichols' "Joe Egg" and "The National Health." Peter Barnes, 'best known heretofore for "The Ruling Class," has come forth with an enormous historical play that some critics usually worth heed lng have praised lavishly, but which audiences are shunning and I found over-wrought and irrelevant. David Hare, however, emerging for a wider public after two non-West End successes, has scored a special victory with a very curious but thoroughly skillful and MAUREEN AND PAT FLAHAVEN OF ST.

PAUL Comfortable members of thejover-30 group Maureen' Flahaven, 31, "definitely does not feel out of "I guess I tend to identify somewhat with an older-generation because many of our friends are older, but I've remained in the I mean, I marched for civil rights. And even though there were those younger than me Out in the streets against the war, I fought the war." She sees her generation as an adaptive one, and one that has bridged the gap between World War II and Vietnam well. And, as a woman, she feels like the middle of a huge transition. She classes herself as semi-retired because she quit work as a research specialist at the Uiiversity of Minnesota to have a child, Sean, now 20 months old. She is planning to return to work as a researcher in her special field, government.

"I'm part of a generation of women who are too young to say, like many of our mothers, that we will accept our role as homemaker or whatever. But we're too old to walk out the door without feeling guilty." She remembers 1961. "I went to college and took political science, and I remember they made a lot of jokes, "Ha, ha, ha, you'll be here a year and then you'll get married and go away. But there have been many profound changes and I guess I feel that we're part of the between generation." As a woman and a mother, she has mixed emotions about some of the things that have changed in the last decade, including sexual freedoms. "In 1961, I did not feel that contraceptives were prop ct.

But now I believe that a woman has the right to decide if she wants to conceive. When I was growing up, sex was the last stronghold, it was forbidden. Now, today, I guess I don't see anything wrong with a relation-, ship like that (extramarital sex). But in all honesty, if I were the mother of a daughter I would be concerned. "I guess I'd like to have a daughter with a sense of values that would allow her to base things on other things than sex and that's because it's more than just the sex act I worry about, it's the whole relationship and whether she would be able to be mature enough to handle it.

I guess I just don't think promiscuity is a normal human trait." She says she has always been politically active and interested in events, but that she stops short of agreeing totally with those younger than her. "I guess where I disagree with the kids today in their approach is where they have become radicalized. While I can agree with them on the problems, I can't agree with them in the solutions. I'm waiting for them to stop seeing things all black and white and start seeing some grays." Great Exhibition," it Is a political play very critical of contemporary British commercialism and corruption. But it also is a tongue-in-cheek mystery In a tough, Raymond Chandleresque style.

The social criticism is kept beneath a brittle surface of admirable brightness, and a well-maneuvered plot carries one along effectively. In a sense, Hare has used his thriller conventions as crutches. His real interests obviously are in Surrey where the action of "Knuckle" is set, not in Philip Marlowe's Los Angeles or detective-story attitudes. But whether or not "Knuckle" represents a success that points to future achievements, it's a play with flair and wit. Michael Blakemore has staged It smartly; Kate Nel-ligan (in her West End debut) Is smashing as the Bacall heroine; and Edward Fox, if more Cary Grant than Bo-gart, is engaging as Hare's sleuth.

Barnes' "The Bewitched" is so much vaster a play that I would regard Its discussion In the same breath as "Knuckle" as preposterous if I thought it at all successful. Set in the Spanish court in the dying days of the Hapsburg dynasty, it runs 3'4 hours, Involves scores of actors and 17th century costumes, and is ornately yet roughly written. The author evidently had in mind a modern equivalent of Jacobean drama bloody, grotesque, absurd which would appeal to the tastes of a violent modern era and reflect the deathly disorder of our age. No less a critic than the distinguished Martin Esslin thinks this has been achieved. Esslin, in Plays and Players, called "The Bewitched" a "masterpiece," a "work of true genius" and "a topical play for our times" which he dppicts as terrible.

Perhaps. But I think this time the public's reservations are basically valid. The lurid pageantry of Terry Hand's Royal Shakespeare Company production seems purposeless, however shocking. And Barnes has not made It clear that he's done more than self-indulgently go on about an obscure historical subject of which he found the bizarre details more intriguing than any timeless lessons. Finally, Nichols' new comedy, "Chez Nous." This is much less pretentious, but it too seems over-fascinated by its own concerns.

There is shrewd portrayal of the ways in which marriages develop, and there are some funny bits of satire about the quirks of people newly rich. But the plot of "Chez Nous," having to do with the hypocrisy of liberal society towards adolescent sexuality, is weak, and generally Nichols' play lacks the conviction and authority of his earlier comedies. ADAMS: College sad Hes 'comfortable' entertaining off-beat play. Storey's "Life Class," his eighth produced play since 1967, is now running commercially after opening (like all its predecessors) at the subsidized Royal Court Theatre. Its star is Alan Bates, whom I think rather miscast, although his Butleyish performance has typical shambling charm.

Lindsay Anderson's trademarked production is ideally solid and authoritative. "Life Class," like most of Storey's plays, reflects close observation. There is a bit more plot than in "The Contractor" or "The Changing Room," but this is not so much a matter of a sustained story as of events that emerge out of a situation in an art college. There also is quite a lot of speculative talk about the value of creative expression and about modes of art. Storey's characters come across clearly, especially his protagonist, Allott, the class instructor.

His scenes feel truthful, and their metaphorical value is neither over-emphasized nor neglected. The play's mood is also consistent one of wry skepticism and hardheadedness. Nonetheless, one feels that "Life Class" is less confident and purposeful than Storey's best previous plays, and that perhaps it presages a new type of drama by its author in which he will be less reserved and documentary. It's not that "Life Class" doesn't work. But whereas in the past Storey has gloried in writing scripts that were hermetic and minimal, here he seems to be questioning whether a different approach might now be better.

Hare's "Knuckle," by contrast, is a tour de force which confidence has brought off a play based on a daring gamble which combines two unlikely elements. Like its author's previous dramas, "Slag" and "The now, but denies his Continued from Page 1C Adams seems torn by his discarding of many beliefs, yet hanging on to many others. "It was sort of sad back when I was in college," he says. "There was never a question why we were there. We were there to get an education so we could get a job so we could buy that house in the suburbs.

There was an intense interest in engineering as a career, a belief that science and technology were the saviors of the world." "Yet at the same time, I sometimes resent the feeling I get that the people coming up behind me find nothing at all in this society to like. I'm happy in my job, I like what I'm doing and I have a sense of accomplishment. You look at the institutions that have been torn apart in the last 10 years the presidency, the military, the church, J. Edgar Hoover. None of them stand for what they used to, I'm not saying they were all good; but, hell, they weren't all bad either." And, also like a lot of others his age, he was inspired once by "Camelot." "John Kennedy had a profound effect on us.

He followed on the heels of eight years of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Milhous Nixon and he was a daring young man on the white stallion, and he set high goals, at least in public." He sees his generation, or at least himself, as striving more than those younger. "Our style was not to stand out, to make noise. It was more that you strove for success, not for changing things. It was more of a self-serving thing. Go out and have fun, the music said.

Rock around the clock." Adams, who holds a doctoral degree, lives at 5117 Heritage Hills Bloomington. ARTISTS ARE 'CO-OPERATORS' 'Modest' art gallery marks 10th year generation's stagnant Pat Flahaven, 30, 1073 Lincoln St. Paul, grew up in Stearns County, and made it to Washington, D.C., in pursuit of the great American dream. He made it. He is the secretary of the Minnesota Senate, and a young man convinced that there is value in what these days is a dirty word: politics.

"Those of us who worked in the Kennedy campaign of 1960 think we were part of a revolution," he said. "We were getting away from eight years of Eisenhower, but more than that, we were saying that politics and the people in politics could be respectable. It was a profound change for the country, and you saw it mirrored in things like civil rights work and the Peace Corps." He is comfortable, but does not see it as meaning he is tied to the values of the generation that preceded his. "It happens to every generation," he said. "As they get older, they get more successful.

There are a lot of people in college now who are doing the same sorts of things we were doing when I was in college in the '60s. Youth is a wild time, burthen people get down to practical things like a family, a house and how to feed that family. I'm not all convinced that the generation younger than ours is all that different. I've seen those people get jobs and have children and go through college." He also disagrees with those his own age who say that his childhood era, the '50s, was all that stagnant. "From a political standpoint, the '50s were not all that calm," he said.

"There was the threat of the bomb, with Hiroshima and Nagasaki fresh in everyone's mind, and there was the Eisenhower-Khrushchev confrontation, and there were civil rights problems." He also feels a bit upset when he is classed in a generation that didn't do anything of value. "The war protests have obscured the fact that the '60s, when I was in college and after, was a period of great social awareness for my generation," he said. "For about three years after President Kennedy was shot, we had a golden age for civil rights. I was aware that was going on and participated in it, and I think many of my generation did." And he tends to be philosophical about such a thing as a reputed generation gap. "I thought it was very funny after I got out of college," he said, "that the media started talking about the youth cult, about oh my, how much they were going to do.

Now the same media are talking about the youth cult and the fact that they're going back to fraternities, to proms. The only thing this proves, I guess, is that the whole thing goes in cycles." "OF COURSE Weiler selected for new NCC post NEW YORK, N.Y. (RNS Dr. William L. Weiler, an Episcopal clergyman and scholar of classical rabbinic texts, has been named executive director of the National Council of Churches' newly formed Office of Jewish-Christian Relations.

Weiler, a Philadelphia native, holds a Ph.D. degree in rabbinic literature from Hebrew Union Col Minneapolis Star Photo by Jack Gilils MINDY SALITERMAN AND BETTYE OLSON In gallery they and nine other women operate I USE ELECTROLYSIS If" I By ROY M. CLOSE Minneapolis Star Staff Writer The West Lake Gallery celebrated its 10th anniversary this month with a modest party modest, because that's the way the gallery prefers to do things. At a time when many other independent galleries in the Twin Cities are finding it increasingly difficult to stay in business, the West Lake is thriving modestly. The gallery is operating in the black, and its exhibition schedule is already filled for the 1974-75 season.

Its 11 co-operators all of them practicing artists and all of them women have kept the gallery solvent by sharing expenses, donating time and selling their works through the gallery. None of them has become wealthy in the process. But over the years, said co-operator Bettye Olson, "I feel I've been paid for my time, paid for my investment and paid for my art supplies." Mrs. Olson is one of six women who founded the gallery. All six were members of the Minnesota Artists Association, which in 1964 was beginning to consider establishing a cooperative gallery for its members.

For one reason or another, the association deferred its plans for a gallery. Meanwhile, however, the women had found a building they liked a former coffeehouse at 1612 W. Lake St. so they went ahead and started the West Lake Gallery on their own. "The original idea," Mrs.

Olson said, "was that it would be a studio gallery. The studio idea kind of fell through, because of lack of space and because all of the members had studios or places to work of their own." Most other policies established at the outset remain in force, however. Members must be active artists, and are required to exhibit their works at the gallery regularly. The requirement is designed both as an incentive and a prod, Mrs. Olson explained.

Exhibitions by non-members usually six of the gallery's 10 shows per year are limited to artists from the Twin Cities area. This policy, she said, reflects the members' conviction that "area artists need a place to show, and that we have qualified artists here." Members still vote cn every proposed exhibition, share the cost of keeping the gallery open and take turns running it. With 11 co-operators, each member usually works one four-hour shift per week. lege, Cincinnati. The epitome of beautiful shoe for beautiful people.

appa' 2 ELEGANT SHOPS Gatortc-EdlnaOn Th Hill WayuM Of its six charter members, two Mrs. Olson and Jo Lutz Rollins are still with the gallery. The nine other members are Joyce Blegen, Mindy Saliterman, Shirley Hanson, Florence Hill, Betty Wilcox, Dorothy Hall, Claire Berg, Mary Helen Horty and Alice Benjamin Boud-reau. Although the gallery is run by women, and most of its shows (including the current 10th anniversary exhibition, a group show which will run through Sunday) feature female artists, there has never been a gallery policy to exclude or limit male artists' works. "We didn't really plan it as a woman's gallery," Mrs.

Olson remarked. "We certainly didn't have any thoughts about being out to sh6w women's art only. We've always existed as artists first, though we felt and still do feel that women, especially, need places to exhibit." For a time, she added, the members "played down the fact that we were all women" for fear that the gallery might be thought of as a "ladies' gallerv" catering to Knick-kiiuck shoppers. That's no longer a problem. At age 10, the West Lake Gallery is firmly established in the Twin Cities arts com-mumtyand is comfortable with its image and reputation.

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Phone 224-1881 Continued from Page 1C incapable of being a part of society because he's over 30. he's over 30. "I've been in situations where people have been using marijuana and that's fine with me as long as they don't try to force their beliefs on me. I don't object to grass as long as nobody hurts anybody. I've tried it.

But I don't like people telling me that ju.st because I don't use pot, I'm out of it." Farstrup Is a consultant to the 51316 Department of Education in a wide range of fields, Including assessment work. He is living in California this summer. He sees those people in the 30-to 40-year-old group as a "swing" generation between the beliefs of his parents and the beliefs of those who came after him. "I identify more with the current generation than those in their 40s and 50s. I remember us back then as things, but more than that, hav-ing no interest in seeking things out.

Civil rights was not LnnhU ni i as much as il was a Subi-Tt of philosophical discussion. But within two or three years after Lf of.u"dc,rRritluate school, people were protesting, getting into legal battles over rights. The only thing rWu lhat KCCni whllt 1 Kaw nntl heard In the regard We''C thC lasl of Mohicans in that Ho says ho feels his generation was one that wanted change, but one that adopted different an-proaches. 1 WH "fr Cr part of 1,10 unl'-wr protest thing. Oh, I went to rall.cn but the street riots, that sort of thing were not my idea of change.

I felt, and still do feel, that change thlnR, you get inside the system and work for changes. And remember, there were few social issues to identify with back then. I mean, look at the timesffistes Kefauver running for Resident?" of building complex follow the Casual Corner signs A New Ridgedale Mall Opening August 1.