home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac (Reference Edition)
/
Time Almanac Reference Edition (COMPACT Publishing)(1994)(Mac 4 TM-030).iso
/
TIME
/
051892
/
05189937.000;1
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-04-13
|
3KB
|
105 lines
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^REVIEWS, Page 78THEATERTo the Rescue
By WILLIAM A. HENRY III
TITLE: Conrack AUTHOR: Music by Lee Pockriss; Lyrics by
Anne Croswell; Book by Granville Burgess WHERE:
Ford's Theater, Washington
THE BOTTOM LINE: An unashamedly old-fashioned, optimistic
tale, told with charm and polish.
As soon as playgoers perusing the program spot that one of
the big song-and-dance numbers is sardonically titled White
Liberal to the Rescue, they can guess three things about
Conrack. First, it has an unabashed political concern. Second,
it tackles issues with more complexity than is found in most
musicals. Third, it is unashamedly old-fashioned -- talky,
story-driven, folksy and optimistic. What one can't foretell is
that mostly obscure creators and cast can achieve a show of such
charm and polish, so heartstring-tugging and hugely likable.
The story comes from Pat Conroy's autobiographical novel The
Water Is Wide, recalling how, as a '60s burnout, he turned to
teaching deprived black children on a backward island off the
South Carolina coast. In the time-honored tradition of
teacher-student tales, this man whom the kids call Conrack
enriches not only their lives but also his own. Spurning
conventional curriculum and methods, he gets his young charges
to enthuse about his hero, Beethoven, and his other hero, soul
singer James Brown. He instructs them to take pride in America's
history and also in Africa's. Touchingly, he lifts the
self-esteem of even the slowest.
But the more he teaches, the more he realizes that the
island he views as a refuge is for them an intellectual prison,
cut off from stimulus and change. By the end of the show, the
rebel ex-hippie has talked himself out of a job but is convinced
that his firing is for the best, because it will prompt the
children to leave and grow. Onstage he departs vowing to become
the world's greatest teacher. In life he went on to grace the
best-seller lists and the movies (The Great Santini, The Prince
of Tides and 1974's Conrack, starring Jon Voight).
The stage adapters and actor Patrick Cassidy keep the
character endearingly ordinary -- a bit silly, a bit rash,
bright but not brilliant, decent but not saintly. He is a hero
anyone can emulate. The children, talented and engaging, have
the same down-home appeal, in contrast to the adult villagers
and visiting officials, who seem contrived. This is not a
portrait of an artist as a young man, but a portrait of a young
man sharing with the next generation the art of everyday living
and learning. Every society needs such do-gooders to come to the
rescue, working for the common good with uncommon goodwill.