THE DAILY STAR BEIRUT, LEBANON '68 'Valerie at Pinnacle' Traverse Play 'Peerlessly Executed' By LOUISA KENNEDY murderess. When Lavinia's On Bill Russell (Captain brother Orin (Orestes) returns Brant) sits the mantle of the The Traverse Theater Com- from the war, he finds both wo- Non-Hero and he handles the pany's "Mourning Becomes El- men giving different accounts accompanying difficulties with ectra" which is being perform- of his father's death. Lavinia a sound perceptivity of charac- ed this weekend in Baalbek's convinces him of the truth of ter degeneration. He creates Bacchus Temple is something her story by taking him to the ultimate weakling. not to be missed by members eavesdrop on a tryst between of the English speaking audi- Christine and her lover in the Corinna Marlow, playing Pe- ence in Lebanon under any ter Niles' sister Hazel, who both cabin of Adam's ship, anchor- circumstances. loves Orin and is frightened ed in Boston, Confronted with First, it is clearly a case of by him, who, like a moth, is her guilt by the two children content and setting being a per- drawn to the flame, but whose Christine kills herself. fectly established unity. Second, intelligence is markedly dis- the production is peerlessly After her mother's death tant from the framework of executed; its depth detailed and Lavinia takes Orin on a long events surrounding her is a smouldering, the characters cruise to expel his terror and fresh and warm personality on lucidly developed and within belief that he is his mother's stage; a fine foil for the them, their tenebrous horror murderer. The voyage to the brooding women whom she must story deeply exposed. South Seas is not long enough try to contact. Eugene O'Neille's house of for on his return Orin's illness The director, Gordon Mc- Mannon, eerie in itscrumbling, grows and in an effort to ex- Dougall as well as Valerie monumental in its shattering piate himself writes down the Sarruf, Judy Campbell, John fall distributes its being on the story of the house of Man- Fraser and Robert Harris who pagan Corinthian columns of non, Her own happiness en- play respectively Lavinia Chr- the giant temple, cripples its dangered, Lavinia desparately istine, Orin and Ezra achieve inhabitants on these wide altar promises her brother to any- something remarkable as a steps, and impales their sha- thing if he will destroy the ma- group. Within his towering str- dows cruelly onto the gleaming nuscript. Orin's warped senses, ucture the playwrite himself of- surface of its immutable back seeing only his mother as he ten stumbles and falters. wall. In the malignant atmos- searches his sister's face and phere Furies crouch behind changing personality exacts the Ezra Mannon's role is relati- every crevice, their poisoned promise that she will commit vely sort in this very long fingers as fluid as the swoop- incest with him. This self- trilogy. Robert Harris builds ing bats in their swift passag- knowledge, however, turns the his tragic identity with sure es overhead. key that onlocks the last strong- and powerful strokes, Every O'Neill's tragedy is Aeschy- hold of his sanity and Orin,too, one of his gestures are auto- shoots himself. His act seals matically and unforgettably lus's "Oresteia" set, not in Lavinia away from her neigh- shot into the memory of the Classical times but in a South- ern, puritanical ambiance dur- bor and suitor, Peter Niles and audience. The importance of from the marriage tohim which what he achieves in Play One ing and after America's Civil War. The theme is incest in all she has believed might rescue is everywhere apparent in the its variants, and after that, self her from the evil draped about succeeding two. torture, self destruction and the house. Instead she bows Judy Campell's presence is profound guilt. O'Neill has before it, retreats from Peter a serpentine one, elusive at the created instead of one antagon- and turns to the task of guard- unset, but building instinctively ist a whole gallery of them ing the Mannon house and its and brilliantly to Christine's each one pendulous under the ghosts for the rest of her life, fatal moment of sheer and im- combined action of fear and Each member of this cast penetrable madness. hate. handle the double edges of their John Fraser's Orin is a deli- The story, in the main, fol- roles with restraint and clarity. cate study of disintegrating lows its classical ancestor. Thick Wilson as the ancient, personality. In him centers the While Ezra Mannon (Agamem- robust caretaker of the Man- black pit of tragedy. His killer non) is away at the war front non mansion couches his role instinct is savage and blunt. his daughter Lavinia (Electra) with dignity and a sense of ob- His spiral to lunacy is a scald- discovers that his wife Chris- jectivity becoming to the leader ing bath. tine (Clytemnestra) has be- of the Greek chorus. Sheila come deeply involved with a na- But it is Valerie Sarruf as Grant. Gwyn Marshall-Jones, val officer, Captain Adam Br- Bill Simons and Richard Wil- Lavinia who stands in the mid- ant (Aegisthus) who is also a son Peter Harlowe enliven and dle as a blazing pinnacle. She disowned member of the Man- embroider the fabric of the is at once the hunter and the non family. Taking advantage of tragedy with sharp, observant hunted, the haunter and the character portrayals which are haunted and against her my- rumors circulating that her riad surfaces the Furies attack husband is a victim of heart neither distracting nor super- trouble, the distraught Christine fluous. Harlowe's performance and polish their wings, wearing poisons Ezra on the eve of his as Peter Niles in the final her down, diminishing her play is particularly noteworthy lustre, scavanging her being. return, Lavinia, unexpectedly in his final rejection of La- The actress penetrates all of appearing on the scene as her vinia through circumstances Lavinia's dazzling, vulnerable father is dying, learns enough facets. With an undying inten- to know that her mother is a beyond his control. sity the character is gradually sculped in readiness for the fi- nal destruction. Lavinia's met- amorphic change into Christine briefly in the final play is a very frightening thing to watch. It is also very telling proof of Valerie Sarruf's sensitiviesand technical abilities as an act- ress. Donald McDougall's inter- pretation of O'Neill and Aes- chylus is an extraordinarily moving piece of theater. I am not sure I liked his choice of Dvorak's "New World Sym- phony" as background music, but in any case, background music is less than consequ- ential in the confluence of his effect. NOT TO BE MISSED: In between the pagan Corinthinian columns of Baalbek Valerie Sarruf (right) stands as the hunter and the hunted, the haunter and the haunted. With her, in one of their excelling roles are Judy Campbell and Michel Parrington.