N.Y. Critic Kerr Talks on Theatre

"Sodomy, sacrifice, nudity, blasphemy, and blood," Walter Kerr, New York Times drama critic, said last night at Lowell House.

He spoke in front of about 50 drama buffs in the Lowell Junior Common Room on the topic, "The Theatre Explodes." He also discussed "the difference between catharsis and orgasm." (The difference, he explained, is "very interesting.")

This last distinction arose during a discussion of the similarity between religion and theatre. "Theatre is being asked to touch every aspect of our lives," Kerr said, "to give us a direct intellectual and spiritual experience." The prospect does not please him completely. "I would like to keep the difference between life and theatre, religion and theatre, so we can have two things instead of one," Kerr said.

Kerr discussed nudity, film, and participatory theatre.

On nudity: "The remarkable thing about nudity in the theatre is that there are no surprises. You look and say 'But I already knew that.'"

On the difference between theatre and film: "Film is the medium with which you really identify, because it's up there on the screen and you can't do anything else about it. In effect, in the theatre you are daring the actor to make the performance stick, and he is daring you not to believe it. You are fighting each other,"

On participatory theatre: "When an actor comes at me I feel completely alone. What I don't feel is communion-it's isolation. A group grope is when you allow yourself to be pawed over by five or six actors quite thoroughly. But I've never seen anyone pawing back."