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| Randolph Dobbs, Rick Cluchey, Robert Poole, Ernie Allen. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
For background on how this previously
unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and
1975—came to be and its relationship to my three The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage volumes (covering every New
York play, musical, revue, and revival between 1920 and 1950), please check the
prefaces to any of the earlier entries beginning with the letter “A.” See the
list at the end of the current entry.
THE
CAGE [Drama/Crime/Homosexuality/Prison/Race]
A: Rick Cluchey; D: Kenneth Kitch; S/L: Jonathan Stuart; P: David Carroll i/a/w
the Barbwire Theatre Production; T: Playhouse Theatre (OB); 6/18/70-10/1/70
(126)
Author and leading actor Rick Cluchey, in and out of
jail since the age of 16, had been sent to San Quentin for life at 22 after
committing a kidnapping-robbery in which the victim was injured. In prison, he
founded the San Quentin Drama Workshop. When he was 33, he was granted clemency
when it became clear that he had been rehabilitated.
In The Cage,
this life-parolee wrote a drama intended to reveal the horrors of prison life
by telling the story of Jive IRandolph Dobbs), a white convict, jailed for murdering his
girlfriend, who must share a cell with a vicious killer and a couple of black
homosexuals (Robert Poole, Ernie Allen) who look on him as an outlet for their affections. All the actors
were themselves ex-cons.
The Cage continued a tradition of such
brutally realistic prison plays, represented in recent years by The Brig and Fortune and Men’s Eyes. It would eventually be overshadowed by the
similar Short Eyes of Miguel Pinero.
Didactic in intent, it nevertheless was extremely honest and did not
sentimentalize its subject. Edith Oliver appreciated its inclusion of “humor as
well as suffering,” while Clive Barnes thought it well done but vague and
conventional. Walter Kerr scored its lack of dramatic development, and Arthur
Sainer said it was too literary but nevertheless “remarkable.”
The evening began with a performance by a rock group
made up of former Rikers Island inmates and concluded with a discussion between
the cast and audience.
Previous entries:
Abelard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot
Barbary Shore
The Bar that Never Closes
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
The Beauty Part
The Beggar’s Opera
Behold! Cometh the Vanderkellens
Be Kind to People Week
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Bette Midler’s Clams on a Half-Shell Revue
Black Girl
Black Light Theatre of Prague
Black Picture Show
Black Sunlight
The Black Terror
Black Visions
Les Blancs
Blasts and Bravos: An Evening with H,L.
Mencken
Blood
Bluebeard
Blue Boys
Bob and Ray—The Two and Only
Boesman and Lena
The Boy Who Came to Leave
Bread
A Breeze from the Gulf
Brief Lives
Brother Gorski
Brothers
Bullshot Crummond
Bunraku
The Burnt Flower Bed
Butley
Button, Button
Buy Bonds, Buster