The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 50

8-D THE TAMPA TRIBUNE, Monday. May 5, 1980 Cast Intimidated By fThe Children's Hour9 Review 7 QD A ON ALL DISCONTINUED vmm mmm mm With This Coupon INCLUDING DISCONTINUED SLEEP SOFAS, PIT GROUPS, SOFA AND LOVESEATS SETS CHOOSE FROM OUR MANY NAME BRANDS FEATURING BASSETT, FLEXSTEEL, KROEHLER FURNITURE STYLES AVAILABLE IN MODERN, EARLY AMERICAN AND TRADITIONAL THIS SALE ENDS MAY 8TH. SO HURRY IN NOW FOR THE BEST SELECTION. duction, and although she has done some of Tampa Community's best work in the past, this time she was not able to convince her players of who they were, where they were and how to fight back. She doesn't manage to strip her players of the inhibitions that act like fetters on their emotions.

So the high drama of "Children's Hour" does not work. But the story does. And Hellman has made this into a worthwhile look at how petty sentiments and selfishness can blow up in destructive eruptions. There is a lot else to recommend the play, like the way in which Hellman treats the reaction of the accused pair, their reactions to their accusers, reactions to each other, the way in which they almost come to believe what they've heard about themselves. Hellman has a keen sense of psychology, although she does treat the homosexual theme somewhat naively.

Other strengths and weaknesses of the production include a workable set, designed and built by company members, but less than dramatic lighting. Some other particular strengths are the child actresses in the production: in addition to Hernandez and Lindley there are Beth Gold, Betsy Hamrell, Tori Lindley, Beth Hirsch and Kelli Whipple. Also appearing are Carol Lee Schobel as Agatha and Joy Ryan and Terry McCormack. "Children's Hour" continues on stage this week Thursday, Saturday and Sunday nights and the following Thursday and Saturday. The site is the Jew-.

ish Community Center and the curtains are at 8 p.m. Valid Hil Thursday, May nth By BRUCE JONES Performing Arts Writer "The Children's Hour" is a nightmare play that should scare the hell out of you. It would, except that first it scared the hell out the Tampa Community Players who are performing it. They seem scared to speak out their lines, except for Maria Hernandez, 15, who is not intimidated in the least. She plays Mary Tillford, a boarding-school student who plays vile games to get her way, games that go so far as to wreck people's lives.

The two lives in particular are those of the school's owners, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie (respectively Mallory Lykes and Lisa Linda Knopke). When she is punished, Mary reacts. She blackmails her classmate Rosalie (Casey Lindley) into supporting her fabrication about an illicit affair between the two school owners. Mary's grandmother, a prominent woman named Amelia (Ruth Gottschalk), spreads the word that Wright and Dobie are lesbians, and in no time at all the parents of young female students see to it that the school's name is in shambles and its doors are closed. It is a pernicious story, one that puts you on the edge of your seat with a fist clinched at this girl Hernandez makes you really hate her character and at the same time you are stiffled with frustration, because little Mary has her lie tied together airtight; it works and you can't stand it.

The other characters. are caught up helplessly in the lie; playwright Lillian Hellman's dialogue begins to reflect the horror and the frustration of the situation; and tempers and defensive natures both grow hot and loud. But that's where many of the cast members, especially Lykes, Knopke, Gottschalk and Von Knopke (who plays Lykes' boyfriend) let down their end of this job: Their yelling and screaming is muffled, their horror is reticent, their frustration is held back inside. The biting Hellman dialogue becomes whispered anguish, and the intensity is lost. Zenobia Alvarez directed this pro- mmmmm 4 DAYS ONLY 10 AM to 9 PM ijte byB assett Auditions for the upcoming Tampa Community Players' production of "Annie Get Your Gun" are from 7 to 10 tonight at the Jewish Community Center, 2808 Horatio.

Singers, dancers and actors of all ages are needed. Singers may bring their own sheet music. Going Out FILM Monday evening films, Peninsular Branch Library, 3909 Neptune 7:30 p.m., free. MUSIC Rosemary Clooney, Top of the World supper club, Walt Disney World, Orlando, 6:30, 9:45 p.m. Ricky Lyons, Great Jazz Jam, Tampa Theatre, 711 Franklin Steet Mall, 8 p.m., 99 cents.

Recital by Patricia Sharpe, Univer sity of South Florida, Fine Arts Auditorium, 8 p.m., free. Al Grey and Jimmy Forrest, Village Lounge, Walt Disney World, Orlando, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. SHOW HOUSE Decorators-Show House III, 131 W. Davis 10 a.m.

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