‘ESCHATOLOGY’
REVIEWED
Performance by Richard
Purdy. Oct.Ist, Room
113, 7:30p.m.

In a darkened room in the Foundation area,
eight incandescent lights hung low over eight
hospital beds. A table with two chairs on
each side and a desk lamp in the center. The
sense was one of clean symmetrical order, of
mystery and discipline.

Seven students quietly entered from the right
and each wore patients garb. Two doctors
(Purdy and Sylvia Scott) and two attendants
entered from the audience...

The performance had an air of theatre to it
as each movement by the cast was
choreographed with beauty and flow of
human movement. The timing of body and
hands was comparison to imaginative pain-
ting in air, and the attention given to the
lighting enhanced the atmospheric quality.

‘Eschatology’ in the Larousse means; ‘The
branch of Theology which deals with the
final end of man and of the world.’ We see
Purdy’s interest in this philosophy as his
statements comment on chemicals and
preservatives in processed foods and, the
cold, statistical elements that are a facet in
medical and various practices. Is _ it
sometimes we are so fascinated with facts
and numbers we count the diseased instead
of attending them with greater compassion ?
Is our fear of disease so pathetic that we ac-
tually believe that if we consume chemically
processed foods it doesn’t matter, because
their harm can be neutralised by ‘natural’
foods ? All the attempts to neutralise dif-
ferent chemicals may one day neutralise us.

So, what are we to do ? I keep on thinking of
a quote by Robert Fripp: ‘If we change our
way of doing things, structural change
necessarily follows. If we wish for this per-
sonal change we need discipline, and the
only effective discipline is self-discipline.’ Is
this one of Purdy’s messages ?

‘ESCHATOLOGY: THE EFFECT OF
DISASTER ON 20th CENTURY
SOCIETY: THE EVOLUTION OF MAN
UNDERGOING THE ULTIMATE
CRISES.’ Quote the evening’s handout. The

vision is bleak, but the awareness obtained
from the ideas and concept is perhaps the
evolvement needed.

The students assisting Purdy worked
strenuously throughout. Without them the
performance would have been too solemn. It
would have lacked a certain innocent sense.

Then in the course of the evening, the
audience was offered portions of butter and
an egg as ‘natural’ foods to offset ‘synthetic’
foods - for me, it made me think of the din-

ner I just had.

Laiwan Chung

IMAGE FROM RESEARCH MADE BY RICHARD PURDY

THE CAST
Dr. Melvin Peevy...Richard Purdy
Maj. Elke Seltzer... Sylvia Scott
Assistant 1...Brid MacConville
Assistant 2...Paddi McGrath
PATIENTS:

Mary-Lou MacDonald...Michelle Normoyle
Candy Cane... Josie Kane
Charlotte Osbourne...Carolyn Ryan
Gerri Raf...Kieth Paquette
Patti Rowood... Tenesh Webber
Abbie Hoffsinger... Shiela White
Maria Selvinski

Assistant: Avery Agostino
Technical Assistants: Barbara Bernath,
Roland Koch