World Journal Tribune, New York, Wednesday,
January 11, 1967
JFK Death Plot Play Defended
Parody Lampoons the Johnsons and Kennedys
O'Dunc is about to skewer him.
Then Robert O'Dunc reveals
By MORT YOUNG
that his father had replaced
Work! Journal Tribune Stol,
his and Ken O'Dtmc's hearts
In the opening scenes, the with steel and their blood with
An off-Broadway play, "Mac- dated with It. I'm ashamed." of California at Berkeley. Sci
Witches !assure MaeBird that "antiseptic brine" to fit them
Bird," which implies that ;There are limits and some= far, 20,000 copies have been sold he
need fear no man "with for "roles of world, authority.",
#
nation.
the
across
President Johnson plotted
say—enough, hold The script depicts 'President beating heart or human blood."
John. F, Kennedy's assassina- body's got to
MacBird then arranges . the The 25- year - old authoress,
tion and casts Sen. Robert it.' They can attack Johnson's and Mrs., Johnson as MacBird murder of Ken O'Duno (Presi- Mrs. Gerson, and her husband
Kennedy as a power-hungry policies. I couldn't care less," and Lady MacIlird, parodies of
live in Brooklyn. She Is
y).
now
Kenned
avenger, was defended today Rosenblatt insisted. "But to Shakespeare's Macbeth and dent
is portrayed writing a second'play, with the
by its co-producer as "thought Paint the man as a conspirator Lady Macbeth whose overwe- Lady :MacBird
of a $5,000 grant from the
help
is crazy, lunacy. It's wrong. ening ambition lead them to with all the single-minded vic- Yale School of Drama, ,which
provoking."
it before murder Duncan for his crown. iousness of Lady MakBeth. But
lt of writing
The play was called "taste- Somebody has to sayafterw
ard
instead' of thejutile washing she won as a...resu
Although hewing closely to of a bloody., "damned spot,"
less" by a printer, Jay Rosen- the play opens, not
.. • ,
done."
the Shakespearean version,
blatt, who refused to run off when it's already
"Flowers
7Walls;
raised
d
have
IvlacBir
:ers
Lady
prodtie
The
programs for the free verse WRITTEN BY STUDENT Mrs. Gerson has turned "Mac- by the roadakle,,41ant ..these $30,000 f r Otti 51'2:backers to
Parody. which lampoons the
the land be
ird" first appeared In beth's" three witches into an
Village
the
"MacB
at
..Let
,
play
flowers
the
stage
Johnsons, the Kennedys and Print last year as a free verse elderly liberal, a beatnik and a lined with living 1:1.porns.% , Gate, 180 Bleecker St. It opens
-intone
Adlai Stevenson.
Ross, the
pamphlet of satire, written by Black Muslim who
MacBird finalli2dies :of a reb.'8, said Dorothy
Miss Julia Curtis, co-pro- Mrs. Barbara Gerson when she instead of "bubble, bubble ,
heart attack, 1ttg44.as Robert play's publicist.
ducer of the play, commented was a student at the 'University "Burn, baby, burn."
that, "this is one of the best
things about a play, if somebody finds something offensive
about it. Too much, theater is
in good taste—and is terribly
dull."
Rosenblatt, who prints
"Showcard" in his plant at 588
Ninth Ave., explained his decision was not a business choice,
but a highly personal opinion.
"I'm shoe ke d," he said.
"Really rocked. They do a
parody on the Macbeth theme,
where Macbeth is MacBird and
MacBircl is obviously Lyndon
Johnson. It's the worst possible
taste. I don't want to be asso-