It's explicitly sordid

By William Glover

NEW YORK (P) You don't have to imagine any thing in Sal Mineo's version of "Fortune and Men's Eyes" at off-Broadway's Stage 73.

Homosexual rape, auto eroticism and vicious assault are displayed with simulated, fierce exactness and with nudity that luridly shoves today's mania for theatrical super-realism a few degrees closer to terminal exhaustion.

Such explicitly sordid details were not visible in the original concept of John Herbert's grim drama about the brutalizing sexual aspects of male prison life that was strongly praised here several years ago and which subsequently has played around the globe.

Mineo, who used to star in films about juvenile delin-

quency and is now described. in the program as an "erot ic politician," has deter mined to show whatever the script previously left off script previously left of stage with Grecian stage with Grecian re straint, In unspecified de tails he has also been al-

lowed to make dialogue changes. The basic story is intact.

Four very able actors roister through the narra tive about a young first-offender who is hardened into the animal boss of his cell by exposure to relentless communal depravity.

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The group includes Mark Shannon, victim turned tough; Bartholomew Miro Jr., Jeremy Stockwell and Michael Greer, with the lat ter entrusted with epicene whimsies to generate laughter among camp followers. Peripheral roles are performed by Joe Dorsey and George Ryland.

There is a sustained intensity about the whole affair that belies any notion that the aim was shoddy sensationalism or prurient appeal. This is nightmare drama, not easily dis-. missed.