'Night of January 16th'

Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail The Community Council on the Performing Arts will present "Night of January 16th" this weekend at the Fox Playhouse. The murder mystery written by Ayn Rand, directed by Sandy Davis and sponsored by Metz Banking Company will be performed at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday, and at 2 p.m., June 27. Advance tickets for dinner and the show are available for $20 at Greenfield's Harvest House and CMJ Financial. Tickets for the show only are available at the Fox Playhouse box office. From left: Lyle Catron as the judge, Colleen Barrett as the defendant and Kim Bessey as the prosecuting attorney.

By Chuck Nash

Special to the Daily Mail

The world is divided between those people who adore the writer Ayn Rand and those who think her philosophy inane and foolish.

You can put me in the second group.

Since the 1930's, Rand has been writing puffed-up fiction "Atlas Shrugged; The Fountainhead" that purveys the philosophy she calls objectivism.

To the question, "What is my responsibility to myself and to others?" Rand's answer, time and time again, is, "Look out for yourself and let society go hang."

The Rand hero is like George Bush gone wild.

If you know this, you'll have no trouble figuring where she stands regarding the culpability of her off-stage hero, Bjorn Faulkner, in Rand's 1933 play, "Night of January I6th," now being offered by the Community Council on the Performing Arts at the Fox playhouse. While alive, Faulkner thumbed his nose at society's most honored dos and don'ts, amassed an ill-gotten fortune (whose collapse could upset the global economy), and, in the process, took a mistress (Karen Andre, ably played by Colleen Barrett) who became a willing disciple. But now he's dead, Andre is accused of dropping him from the top of a New York skyscraper, and the courtroom action is the basis of the play. All the upstanding citizens who testify against Faulkner (and they are Carol Branham, Matt Gardner, Marvin Klotz, Charlie Johnson, Lori Bures, Kenny Jones, Larry Hurst, Edi Gragg and Mike Bessey) are revealed as frauds.

Linda Davidson as Defense Attorney Stevens, and Kim Bessey as District Attorney Flint, have an untold number of tedious lines, and they do wonderfully.

There are a host of new faces in this play (Ann Walker, Peggy Lewis, Sarah Haney and Jason Besaw) and that is a wonderful thing to see.

Toward the end of the play, the actors seemed a bit worn out. Judge Heath (hilariously, although perhaps injudiciously, played by Lyle Catron), registered his final dismay by throwing up his hands in utter confusion.

Amen, brother.

Night of January 16th, directed by Sandy Davis, plays at the Fox Playhouse tonight and Saturday, at 8 o'clock, and June 27, at 2 p.m.