THE NEW YORK TIMES: SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 1971 BY A.D. COLEMAN

“LOCKPORT”

What happened in Baltimore can be better understood as a result of shows like “Lockport,” an engrossing multi-media exhibit now at the New York Shakespeare Festival's Public Theater.

“Lockport,” which combines color slides, film, and a taped soundtrack including original music, interviews, and assorted effects, is a study in depth of the town of Lockport, N.Y. (a “company town"; most of the residents work for a GM subsidiary) as seen not through the eyes of an outsider but through those of the young people who live there.

Directed by Nathan and Judith Farb, “Lockport” was created last summer when the Farbs—aided by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts—set up a summer project in Lockport, teaching photography to some of the disaffected adolescents of that city. Their students decided to create something meaningful, and, with the Farbs's assistance, not only took most of the excellent color images included in the show but also created and put together the soundtrack.

It is precisely that factor—the involvement of people who know Lockport intimately, perhaps even better than their elders—which makes “Lockport” such a stimulating and meaningful statement. The tone of the work is one of mournful, occasionally sardonic disenchantment, but it rings true as an honest assessment of the failings of the Middle-American lifestyle for several reasons— quite aside from the excellence of the images, the high quality of the original music, most of it composed by Joe Degnan, and the professional polish of the entire production.

First, although it is short—slightly over half an hour—“Lockport” crams an astonishing amount of insight into its brief span, touching on almost all areas of the city's life, among them the economy, race relations, political and moral attitudes, the underground, the generation gap, the physical environment, and

the over-all lifestyle. Second, neither its intent nor its effect are polemical in nature; the show is devoid of distortions, filled instead with honest searching for the heart of a heartless community. Third, between the lines of “Lockport” the viewer can read statements of a deep and abiding (if disillusioned and unrequited) love for their community on the part of these young artists, a love not for what Lockport is—or represents—but for what it could have been and perhaps still could be.

All in all, “Lockport” is a more probing, revealing and affecting exploration of middle-American culture than anything seen in New York for some time. It is also a satisfying visual/theatrical experience. Additionally, it is recommended to anyone working with photography in a mixed-media context, as an example of superb integration of diverse media into a cogent whole. “Lockport” is being presented by the Benedict J. Fernandez Photo-Film Workshop at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, each Saturday and Sunday through March., Performance times are 6:30 and 10:00 p.m.