“Butterflies are free”

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33776, 24 February 1975, Page 14

“Butterflies are free”

“Butterflies are Free,” by Leonard Gershe. Directed by Brian Deavoll for the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society. Repertory Theatre, February 22 to March 1. Running time: 8 p.m. to 10.5 p.m.

Reflecting on why I liked Brian Deavoll’s production much more than the film of two years ago gives no very obvious solution: both film and play follow the same predictable story-line in which a beautiful person who happens to be blind gropes his way through a day of cataclysmic selfdiscovery. The black sea momentarily divides into threatening tides of sentimentality and selfindulgence, which finally crash together again; the only permanence is the philosophy of the title which, though credited to Dickens, seems eouallv worthy of Earle Nightingale. | The production did not

really raise my opinion of the play, though it did make me freshly aware of the professional skill with which Gershe exploits this material. The play contains some very good lines, and anticipates most objections (“What is this? Is it ‘Be kind , to the handicapped’ week?” asks someone with an irony that is not entirely local). But Gershe’s dialogue is based on ideas so commonplace that it cannot by itself support those areas of the play, especially towards the ending, where situational tension subsides into limp debate. The extra power of Brian Deavoll’s production comes i from the heightened awareness of sensory contact that it generates. In the theatre, every sound and gesture seem both meaningful and authentic; by local standards, the accents are very good indeed, and everything seems so thoroughlyi • rehearsed that the atmos-

Iphere never looks like faltering. That it is not, in fact, rehearsed quite as well as it seems simply makes the depth at which the production is conceived the more impressive. Two relative newcomers, both known on the Elmwood stage, handle the main parts in a very promising fashion. Cliff W’ood’s blind boy is effectively low-key, making our shins wince every time he moves towards a coffee table, and Sue 800 l does the All-American extroverted flat-mate with remarkable consistency. Beryl MacLeod, as the boy’s mother, brings her usual crisp delivery to .make the most of every line. “Butterflies are Free” may [not be the best American (play that Brian Deavoll has •staged in the last few years, i but his production is very |well controlled, and its {appeal to a large, generaf {audience was on Saturday [evening well shown. — H. D. McN.