PAGE SEVEN THE DAILY STAR - BEIRUT, LEBANON Two Tend to Bog Down ART, Phoenix Players Produce Double Bill Here By LOUISA KENNEDY mark and it is the producer actors. Like Anderson, Shaw and in this day of competent who reacts - as will the au- hangs ideas on a situation. realism-maddeningly coy. ART and the Phoenix Play- dience, we presume to the Shaw's clothesline, however, I must say, quickly, that act- ers opened their respective shock of recognition. is an endlessly long one. The ors and director alike have theatrical seasons in tandem While Anderson's dialogue is ideas scattered along it have pounced with assurance upon with two One-Act plays at the snappy and appropriate to the been out in all kinds of weather the needed energy and speed. British Council on Thursday scene he conjures up in pro- and age has taken its toll. Krikor Satamian as Bonaparte evening. Performances will ducer's office, ART's cast, with The scene is set in the gar- is excellent in every respect. continue through Saturday. the exception of Kerry Johnson den of an inn in Northern Italy His gestures, his petulance, his ART's offering is "TheShock who plays the obliging actor, during the summer of 1796 and innate cunning and magnitude Of Recognition" by Robert An- seem bogged down from the very finds Napoleon in the middle are always apparent. (I wish derson which is one of his four beginning. Jack Barnstable and of his Austrian campaign. Im- his uniform had been better one-act plays jointly entitled Jeff Stallings appear to rely on portant secret documents have tailored.) He has a jovial yet "You Know I Can't Hear You the lines alone to project their been stolen from one of his slicing presence which fills the When The Water Is Running". characters. The result is an officers and it becomesap- stage and rivets the attention. overpowering and steady aura parent to Bonaparte that the Shirley Irving as his glamor- This segment is a long, stam- of unease outside of any that thief is none other than a young ous opponent never lets down mering scene between a play- wright and his producer in Anderson implies in his script. lady who also occupies rooms her side of things and is highly which the two argue about the One has the feeling, frequently, at the inn. A confrontation be- believable as an emotional con- that this is a play reading al- tween them occurs. Neither ad- niver. For the most part, stage direction that puts an beit the actors have memoris- versary is lacking in intellig- Michael Mills as a cynical yet actor on stage naked with a ed their parts. ence; their exchange is like an blustering Lt. and John Bassili toothbrush in his hand utter- encounter between expert SW- as a cheerful, sometimes sly ing the words: "You know I Donna Egan, as the secretary ordsmen, Each retreats, each innkeeper keep the action mov- can't hear you when the water with a Bennington College back- retaliates and in the end each ing in pleasant terms. is running." The playwright ground, produces a brief, con- gains what he or she wants. The The director ,John Bird, has contends that the importance vincing vignette but even she process iş full of Shaw's usual put his attention to small de- of his play rests in that mo- is a victim of the production's verbal artillery and lashes at tails (admirably encompassed ment of recognition when the over-all falsity. She is like an Anglo-French attitudes. Anglo- by Antony Irvings airy and audience sees "itself", so to unsuspecting swan who settles French differences exist to- Italiante set) and successfully speak, in the form of a slight- down on a lake to discover, dat, to be sure, but in a very yanked (I feel one has to do this ly pathetic nude male. uncomfortably, that the sur- different context from those with Shaw who hangs on to his Seeking to prove the impro- face is, in fact, glass. which Shaw chose to dwell on own) from Shaw much that is bability of finding an actor wil- Kerry Johnson is totally for the benefit of his middle- urbane and egocentric. ling to expose himself in this three-dimensional and it is thr- class Victorian audiences. "The Staging, with the possible ex- manner the producer summons ough his performance that the Man Of Destiny" appeals to at- ception of the first scene be- an actor into the office for a play achieves some meaning. titudes associated with no mo- tween the General and his Lt. casting interview. When-after Anderson's ideas, under the ment of history remote enough in which Bonaparte upstaged his initial shock has subsided- surface of his unconventional to stand as an interesting, wholly the officer at the time when the actor proceeds to remove comedy, are penetrating ones. contained entity nor is it suffi- he was describing the rather most of his clothes the play- But I cannot see that the dir- ciently relevant to present-day complicated loss of the docu- wright leaves the office and the ector of this piece allowed his concerns. It falls instead into ments, is fluid and amazingly actor, too, is sent out of the actors to come to grips with a middle catagory which more effortless when one realizes room to dress. Moments later, any of them. often than not becomes disturb- how very tiny the stage is at as the producer talks to ano- The Phoenix Players "Man ing if not irritating. Theatri- the British Council. ther actor on the phone, the Of Destiny" by G.B. Shaw also cally, the same holds true. The Lighting for both plays was door opens, the actor reap- tends to bog down. In this case structure of the play and the designed by Ian Petrie who ma- pears-- naked-- on the thre- it is the material which is at method by which the playwright naged skillfully to catch the shold to utter a parting re- fault, not the production or its contrived his satire is archaic, atmosphere of both.