New Theatre Workshop: 6

Fired Marker's Die Quietly, My Love, one of the two new plays produced yesterday by the New Theatre Workshop, turned out to be a situation comedy rather lacking in situation. But sprightly direction and inspirited acting more than compensated for the faltering plot, so that the result was a thoroughly enjoyable-and sometimes hilarious-presentation.

Marker based his play on the unlikely but promising proposition that husband and wife should simultaneously hire assassins to kill each other. Some amusing lines ensue as the two murderers, male and female, meet in a dark apartment, and as Mr. and Mrs. Price subsequently discover their own respective plots. It seemed unfortunate, however, that the author declined to bring all four of his eccentric characters onstage at one time. With a little imagination this could have resulted in a wonderfully riotous scene instead of the slow fizzle with which the play did end.

But the antics of the characters themselves, superbly paced by director Glen Goldberg, were a constant delight. Jo Linch as the nervous, be fuddled Mrs. Price demonstrated a fine talent for slapstick, especially in a very funny cigarette-lighting episode. Sheila Tobias, in tight black suit and trenchcoat, seemed perfectly cut out to play the sleek female assassin, and only Jordan Jelks, as the urbane Mr. Price, failed to enter the whacky spirit of the occasion. Mare Bragnoni, on the other hand, gave the best performance of all as the male assassin a lisping, bumbling misogynist who dispatches women for purely "humanitarian" reason.

Charles Harte's We the Tribe, the other new play on yesterday's program, was not so fortunate as its predecessor. A farce involving savages and an American missionary party, it meandered all the way from rough sex jokes to a serious indictment of Christianity, but stayed nowhere long enough to make a clear point for either comedy or paganism.

Yet once again impressive acting came to the rescue and gave The Tribe some fascinating moments. Bill Wharton was especially appealing as a diffident little savage, and Carol Cohen expressed the tribe's philosophy with remarkable naturalness. As other savage, Dick Merlo, Fenton Hollander, Mimi Martinez, and Erich Segal were all suitably oivilized, while Ann Rand and bill Soring played the missionary's daughter and an American trader with the proper uncouthness. As the missionary, Earle Edgerton displayed just the right mixture of theological dogmatism and personal uncertainty.

Despite his previous sketchiness, in the last scene Harte finally achieves a moving portrayal of the religious conflict between the missionary and the pagan tribe. This comes a little too late to make The Tribe a strong play, but together with the merits of Die Quietly, My Love it promises another interesting performance in Agassiz this afternoon.