beef broth fortified
with a bit of spice.
Lynch and Lipschultz,
clearly co-conspirators
in this project, treat it
as if it were Campbell's
Chunky style. So, Lip-
schultz's Virginia is
voracious, intense, tak-
ing great hunks of al-
phabet soup and
slinging hash. It is, I
should mention, glori-
ous hash.
Lipschultz,
one
would think, could
never be, well, mousy.
She is larger than life,
with a gorgeous voice
and lungs that could
produce breath
enough to blow out a
fully lit 100th birthday
cake from across the
room.
O'Brien's play isn't
that much. It borrows
from Woolf s writing
and imitates Shake-
speare — even, at one
point, giving Virginia
this hoot of a line:
"Shakespeare would
have liked us tonight.
We're full of brio."
And, boy is there brio.
Lipschultz's perfor-
mance is dandy to
watch and hear. If this
is not quite the Vir-
ginia Woolf who wad-
Philip Fox and Nancy Lipschultz plays Leonard and Virginia Woolf in Swollen Art Productions'
inaugural show.
ed into the melancholic
English waters with
trginia Woolf: To the husband. Dinah Lynch directs stones in her pocket, there are, in
Bloomsbury Group she and also sashays and leers as the about an hour and 40 minutes,
was, perhaps, what lascivious Vita Sackville-West, some moments of power, some
laughter and, really, never a dull
Dorothy Parker was to Virginia's bisexual lover.
O'Brien catches the glimmers moment.
the Algonquin Roundtable. And
The production, which might
although Woolf has been dead (a of light and dark in Woolf's life in
translucent prose, with have been called Camping with
suicide) since 1941, she
incidents either talked Virginia and Vita, runs through
still lingers on: in a 1995
of or enacted. Woolf de- July 14, and I guarantee you
New Yorker bio/memoir,
scribes young men at won't find anything else quite like
in the recent film Car-
debutante parties "who it around this summer.
rington, and fully and
never heard of Plato but
firmly fleshed in Edna
could dance." She speaks
® V ll2
O'Brien's mopey playlet,
of meeting Clive Bell, "a
Virginia.
muscular atheist."
MICHAEL H.
Virginia was per-
MARGOLIN
"I love cruelty," says
formed at the Stratford
SPECIAL TO THE
Woolf, savoring and sep-
Festival some dozen
JEWISH NEWS
arating each syllable. "I
years ago or so with
could eat it with a
Maggie Smith as Vir-
ginia. Here, it's performed at the spoon."
O'Brien sometimes turns
Hilberry Studio Theatre as the
Wildean leaning toward
first show of Swollen Art
epigrams: "I only ask
Productions, a new the-
THEATER
someone to make me ve-
ater company on the De-
hement and then rll mar-
troit scene.
Virginia lives again in a great, ry him," says Woolf while, later,
galloping performance by Nancy Leonard speaks of "seeking
Lipschultz in the title role. Lip- melancholy like most English-
schultz is ably mirrored by Philip men."
Fair
O'Brien's pellucid prose is like
Fox as Leonard Woolf, Virginia's

V

........ 17111111•111 MMMMMMM 11.11111•

PHOTO BY G EORGE KRAYCHYK

'Virginia'

Jeremy Irons stars as a terminally ill playwright who meets a young American girl
(Liv Tyler) in Tuscany, and his last flirtation begins.

'Stealing Beauty'

Rated R

I

an uncut jewel. Although she
may not know everything that
there is to know, she seems to
know that she doesn't know.
And sometimes that can make
all the difference.
The storyline in Stealing
Beauty meanders like a walk in
a meadow, where the purpose
of the walk is the walk itself.
The destination doesn't matter
so long as you can feel the warm

t has often been said that
beauty is in the eye of the
beholder and in Bernardo
Bertolucci's Stealing Beau-
ty, there is plenty of beauty to
behold.
Set in the countryside of Tus-
cany, Italy, with lush, rolling
landscapes, the scenery is in-
spirational and dreamy. The
supporting cast, both young and
old, is flattered by a camera in-
tent upon obscuring all blem-
ishes.
Most of all, the film focuses
on Liv Tyler, a beguilingly beau-
tiful newcomer to the big screen.
The daughter of Aerosmith lead
singer Steven Tyler, Liv Tyler, caress of the sun or hear the
until now, has mostly been gentle song of the breeze. As
known as Alicia Silver-
much as Bertolucci must
stone's co-star in the
have intended to tell a sto-
MOVIES
video for Aerosmith's sin-
ry or make a point, the
gle "Crazy." Stealing Beauty film is mostly a vehicle for Liv
could be her first step toward Tyler to show off her looks and
widespread recognition.
screen presence.
Liv Tyler plays Lucy Har-
Undeniably, Tyler has the
mon, a curious 19-year-old who looks to carry a movie, but the
goes on holiday to Italy to visit surprise in Stealing Beauty is
some free-spirited artist friends that she also has the presence
of her late mother's. The stated to do so. Her performance is
purpose of the visit is to have honest, heartfelt and engaging.
her portrait painted, but, real- While the role of Lucy may not
ly, what she wants is to find out be the year's most challenging,
more about her mother and, Stealing Beauty gives us a
perhaps, herself. She had visit- glimpse of a potential star, ac-
ed once before, as a child, and tually providing us beauty in-
her return as an enchanting stead of taking it away.
young woman brings forth
hordes of callers.
VV
Amidst this jaded crowd, the
down-to-earth Lucy glistens like
— Richard Halprin

A vehicle for
Liv Tyler.