Rated R D 'Arcadia' I C/) LJ-I Ci) LLJ CD LU LIJ F- 0 0 o the ancient Greeks, Arca- quent. Surrounding these two are dia was a rural paradise; to a constellation of stars, I only re- 18th-century thinkers, the gret that Mrs. Chater — the ob- English in particular, Arca- ject of every man's amorous dia represented an idyllic, clas- attentions (including Lord By- sical past, something to aspire to. ron's) — is only talked about. But To Tom Stoppard, the author her husband's cuckoldry is so ofArcaclia, it is a symbol of man's droll in John Seibert's charac- folly, foibles and obsession. All of terization that we forgive her ab- which he illuminates with great, sence. roaring wit and sharp dialogue, In the 20th century, Hannah as well as with low comedy and Jarvis, an author, is smartly wonderfully interesting charac- played by Margo Skinner — she ters spanning nearly 200 who can make a look of years. Raul E. Esparza distaste speak multi- Arcadia is the love sto- and Dana Powers tudes. Her competition is ry of Thomasina Coverly, Acheson in the don, Bernard a young woman in early Meadow Brook's Nightingale. Played by production of 1800s rural England who Robin Chadwick, he is by is on the brink of sexual Tom Stoppard's turns a lout, a poet, a and intellectual awaken- Arcadia, running greedy-guts, a con man ing. The 19th-century through April 23. and an actor up to the rig- scenes in her stately home ors of restoration comedy, alternate with a 20th-century un- farce and, certainly, anything raveling mystery surrounding Stoppard hands him — which is poet Lord Byron's visit to the the starring role. Coverly home and the reason for Designer Peter W. Hicks has his subsequent departure from impeccably set the one-scene-two- England. There are seven such century milieu of the beautifully alternating scenes and in the arcaded room of the Coverly last, the past and the pre- home, right down to the sent merge as "geniuses tortoise with a painted THEATER waltz and everything is shell. His costumes, too, found and lost." are superior. Great works can embrace op- Arcadia is a dense, brilliant posites and make them whole. play requiring audience partici- Arcadia does. pation: listening and thinking. If Meadow Brook's Geoffrey you're up to the challenge, Mead- Sherman has directed a superb ow Brook has created theatrical cast with elegance and playful- Arcadia. ness. He, too, embraces opposites — lumpishness and subtlety. Dana Powers Acheson brings great humor and passion to her role as Thomasina Coverly; as — Michael Margolin her tutor Septimus Hodge, Raul E. Esparza is vibrant and elo- Michael Margolin writes about 00 00 the arts. ue to the complexi- ty and nature of the subject, I would have thought J.G. Ballard's 1973 book Crash to be unfilmable. When I discovered that the movie was to be di- rected by David Cro- nenberg (Dead Ringers, M. Butterfly), I figured that if anyone could make some sense of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch and put it on the screen, he could probably do Crash jus- tice. But, maybe not. Crash is an auto-erot- ic (pun intended) story about James Ballard (James Vaughn states his goal leather and chrome Cr onenberg's Spader), who loses control of his as "the reshaping of the David full-body support suit Crash st ars James car and crashes head-on into Dr. human body by modern with leg braces. Spader and Holly Helen Remington (Holly technology," with an ad- I was left wanting Hu nter. Hunter); the two meet up later ditional interest in much more insight at the car impound and become recreating the auto ac- into the psychological sexually involved. Dr. Reming- cidents of the famous, such as drives of the characters and how ton introduces Ballard to James Dean and Jayne they got drawn into this obses- Mansfield. Vaughn (Elias Koteas), sion of sex, twisted metal and MOVIES a former scientist whose Ballard draws his challenging their own mortali- erotic obsession with car wife Catherine (Deborah tY. crashes has instigated an un- Unger), who herself has a fetish Crash attempts to take dri- derground network of crash sur- for cold metal, into this network. vers' desire to gawk at a traffic The couple's emotionally de- accident a step further, where vivors with similar fetishes. The group, led by Vaughn, tached sex life relies on their the metal on metal becomes watches crash videos. Its mem- shared knowledge of each one's erotic. This works in the book, bers seek out the violence of adulterous affairs Ballard even- but not even Cronenberg can crash sites and crash into oth- tually has relations with each translate this to film. ers for their sexual satisfaction. main character in the film, the most fascinating of these being ® 1/2 David Warmbier spends too much Gabrielle (played by Rosanna time in dark rooms. Arquette), who wears a black — David Warmbier 'Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie' Rated PG N o one's likely to see Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie unless he's already a fan (or parent of a fan) of the TV show. But kids will enjoy the cheesy special effects, costumes and plot, and even their parents might like them on a campy, nostalgic level. Turbo opens with a Star Wars-esque text crawl explain- ing how the evil piratess Diva- tox (Hilary Shepard Turner) plans to use the diminutive alien wizard Lerigot (a combi- nation of Yoda, E.T. and Gizmo the Gremlin) to release the de- Stephen Bitsoli is the former entertainment editor for Detroit Monthly magazine. monic Maligore from his prison in the "Nemesis Triangle." Ob- ject: matrimony and universal domination! So good guy Lerigot flees to Earth, where he meets the Pow- er Rangers. First, they rescue him from the African wilderness (where he's befriended by some chimpanzees), then follow him into the Nemesis Triangle when he's caught by Divatox. The Rangers pursue Lerigot in new "turbo" vehicles which can unite to form a giant robot warrior (anyone remember "Voltron"?). But first they need a new Blue Ranger. Enter Justin (Blake Foster), a pre-teen who grows when in costume. Former Rangers Kimberly (Amy Jo Johnson) and Jason (Austin St. John) also appear, only to be captured by Divatox. Comic relief buffoons Bulk (Paul Schrier) and Skull (Jason Narvy) pop up, too, and even former Ranger baddie Rita Re- pulsa shows up for a cameo. While a couple of scenes might upset young viewers (former Blue Ranger Rocky al- most breaks his back attempt- ing a kung fu move, and both Kimberly and Jason briefly turn into bad guys when Ma- ligore possesses them), all is well in the end. There's even a message after the Power Rangers turn back into regular teens: Ordinary people can be heroes too. Adults may enjoy Turbo best as a throwback to the heroes from Japanese science-fiction PHOTO BY JONATHAN WENK 'Crash'