`Tis Pity She's a Whore'

Tis Pity She's a Whore has great possibilities. Intriguing, suggestive opportunities for passion and subtlety are richly woven into every act. Unfortunately, the HDC makes the least of nearly every opportunity; their production of Tis Pity drops Harvard theatre to a low level--an overacted, externally acted, embarassing, awkward level.

Responsibility for the general fiasco rests with nearly everyone but the set designer, John Beck, whose amazingly careful stone walls and interesting extended floor areas triumph over the standard limitations of Agassiz. The sets were helped by fine, if not always timely lighting. It is a shame to waste such a fine background.

Nicholas Thompson, who directed the production, has much to learn. Nothing happened. What appeared on stage was a mere walking around of John Ford's lines. Passionate speeches were declaimed with restraint, and the speaker usually appeared to forget what he had just said, if he had even listened to himself at all. No one dared to be physical at all; people in the throes of fury or love kept their incongruous intellectual distances as they hurled power at each other only in their words. Excited Italians looking for a murderer cried, "Follow! Follow!" and slowly walked of stage.

The acting is generally overacting. Among the few who were exceptions to the general awkwardness was Ann Brennan, whose nearly perfect performance of Annabella was often a saving grace for the play. Thomas Lumbard lived up to a small part with dignity, and James Swan, Gerald Malone, and William Bruckner were usually respectable. Benette Schultz played the juicy role of a maid with an occasional flair.

Gerald Medearis, in the starring role, forced high-flown gestures and hyperdramatic postures down the throat of his role whenever possible. His obvious creativity and talent were buried under overacting. He often seemed a high-school Hamlet.

Most embarrassing among the other actors was William Graham, although L. Borden Brown, in his disconnected performance, came close. The whole cast suffered under flabby Elizabethan costumes; the HDC seems to feel that in the good old days, no one ever changed his clothes.

Many in the audience made the appropriate intermission comment about the whole production: "We can learn from mistakes." Others simply said, "Tis Pity."

Ford's impressive play is the story of an unhappy incestuous affair between a brother and sister. Three sub-plots are woven in to introduce, other suitors for her hand, their vengeful opponents, and a comic lout, who is murdered by mistake. Pregnant by her brother, the girl's affair is discovered, which leads to a climax of deaths. Read the play some day.