Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-09-02


Thurber' and Elliott Nugent's
comedy the pair wrote in 1910
out of it's fragrant memories of
days at Ohio State and no one
else ever found so much amuse-
ment in a Big Ten education.
At each revival of 1.-THE Male
Animal" veterans who remember
its-and their own-youth are
amazed that the play remains
so funny. It still is in this pro-
duction. in spite Of the fact that
the repertory company, fronted
by John Dali as summers final
star. was by no means at ease
in last nights opening per-
Torrance.
The performance, directed by
Dan Rodden, inspires lot Of
laughter but IL Is more In the
intrinsic wit of the authors than
in the grace Of the playing.
Once the Olney cast develops an
easy familiarity with the truth
that Thurber and Nugent need
principally the relaxed support
of actors, 1.-THE Male Animal"
could be the perfectly amusing
note on which to wind up q
summer.
Even q less than brilliant in
depreciation of 1.-THE Male AMI
NAL" however, cannot conceal
that there was something time
less in the inspiration Of its
authors.
Away back there in the pre-
atomic age. Thurber and Nugent
thought something amusing, but
sharply pointed, should be said in
behalf of academic freedom and
the correlative personal liberties.
Accordingly, they wrote three
funny acts around mousey. little
Prof. Tommy Turner. a human
version of Thurber's famous de-
jected dogs and the least likely
hero of humanism imaginable.
It is the joyous impact of "The
Male Animal" that this i,nprob-
able, pallid intellectual finds it
in his bookish nature to turn into
a lion when both his job and his
marriage are in jeopardy. Other
playwrights. of course. have toyed
with the same idea. but few with
such happy results.
For all the flavor of gay
mockery which makes it so
tempting as summer drama fare.
1.-THE Male Animal" is not a
comedy easily come by. It's
characters are deity drawn
carricatures. a perfect Thurber
album. and exacting in their
demands upon performers.
Dali plays the toughest Of
them in the role of Prof. Tommy
Tucker. a mild young man to
whom it never occurred that he
might one day have to defend
his home against a predatory
football player and his ideas of
freedom against a witch-hunting
board Of trustees. No one could
know better than he his utter
lack of qualifications to win
either battle. Yet in the process
of discovering. with q reinforcing
batch of whisky, that he has the
resources of all male mates in
defending their lairs. no man
could be more ridiculously
heroic.
Even more absurd, and almost
as funny, is Joe Ferguson, the
football-playing rival, imper-
sonated on this occasion by
William Graham. It is "Whirl-
ing Joe's" idea that the essence
of higher education is a cham
pionship football team and that
no reward, including a young
English professors wife, is be-
yond the merit of a great run
ming halfback.
With the woman CFrances
Sternhagen) who finds herself
the unwilling prize in the con-
f1ict between these two, 1.-THE
Male Animal" is safe in resting
its case on the daffiest triangle
trio in modern comedy.
Homecoming Week, the per-
feet target for satirists of Thur
ber's and Nugent's old grad ilk,
is the setting of this battle be-
tween the rival male animals.
1t provides them with the per-
feet situation in which to OPP
pose not only such as Prof.
Turner and Gridder Ferguson
but also the matter of whether
academic freedom Is really as
important as a new football sta
dium. The end of both conflicts
has long been public knowledge,
but the way in which 1t works
out is an enduringly comic sight.
4 \
In his direction of 1.-THE Male
Animal" Director Rodden has
not fully imbued his actors with
the spirit of the comedy, but he