THE GEM & CENTURY THEATRES

MIND GAMES

MARC SALEM'S

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Marc Salem can read your thoughts and proves it!

`Another Antigone'

"Hide your thoughts! Marc Salem's in town!
Quick-witted family fun with a WOW finish!"

- Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times

"Mind-blowing and very funny!"

AUDREY BECKER
Special to the Jewish News

I

n Sophocles' Antigone, the title
character willfully defies Creon's
command to leave her dead broth-
er — an enemy to the city of
Thebes — unburied, a sacrilegious
decree. Claiming that she follows a higher
law, Antigone bravely (and self-indulgent-
ly) disobeys his explicit prohibition.
In doing so, she risks death.
In A.R. Gurney's Another
Antigone the stakes aren't
quite that high. In this contem-
porary anti-tragedy, college senior Judy
Miller obstinately disregards the
requirements of Professor Harper's syl-
labus, insisting that, instead of writing
a 15-page term paper, she should be
able to turn in for credit her revision-
ist version of the Antigone drama.
In doing so, she risks an "F."
A somewhat heavy-handed look at
campus politics, Another Antigone
explores the controversy that develops
when this seemingly mundane conflict
between professor and student leaves
the office and heads for the stage.
The Jewish Ensemble Theater presents
a highly commendable production of
Another Antigone, directed by Evelyn
-Orbach, through March 11 in the Aaron
DeRoy Theatre in West Bloomfield.
Orbach, who also serves as JET's
artistic director, treats the material
\ with the utmost confidence. Monika
Essen's design is graceful in its simplic-
ity, beautifully capturing the Halls of
Academe, with dazzling white pillars
and decades-old desks.
The cast, featuring Emily Rose Merrell
as Judy and Gregory Olszewski as
Professor Henry Harper, works effective-
ly as an ensemble. A standout in the
company is JET veteran Travis Reiff,
who brings a charming subtlety to the
role of David Appleton, Judy's boyfriend.
Capturing the nuances of the boun-
cy, doting college student without
turning him into a caricature, it is
Reiff's David who makes the most
unsuspecting transformation.
Although Olszewski's performance
at times belongs on a larger stage — a
difficulty that many actors seem to
face when working in JET's intimate
space — he is effective as the conser-
vative Professor Harper, a pompous
and lonely academic who has alienated
his wife and children.
Facing several allegations of anti-

Semitism, Harper finds himself caught
up in a pseudo-tragedy of his own. He
is, of course, another Creon (Gurney
never lets us forget this), unable to see
how his own inflexibility contributes
to his ultimate downfall.
For all his acquired knowledge of
the classics, however, Harper is naïve
to the bureaucratic machinations of
the Ivory Tower and needs to be edu-
cated by Dean Diana Eberhart
(Diana VanFossen), who
struggles with her own choice
to give up teaching for a pres-
tigious administrative post.
While JET's production is com-
mendable — with energetic perform-
ances, effective staging and thoughtful
attention to detail — Gurney's treat-
ment of the material falters a bit.
In his efforts to develop the parallels
between Sophocles' Antigone and Judy's
"other" Antigone, the playwright (better
known for The Dining Room and Love
Letters), misses the mark. The topic of
anti-Semitism seems too contrived, an
underdeveloped afterthought.
When Harper's anti-Semitism is
ambiguous, possibly just a misinterpreted
academic argument, it adds a provocative
cynicism. But Gurney doesn't trust
enough in this suggestive ambiguity.
More importantly, the title character
lacks compelling motivation. An
unlikable slacker, she's something of
an accidental activist: a poseur. Unlike
Sophocles' Antigone, Judy Miller does-
n't seem to have any genuine invest-
ment in the politics of her own play.
But that doesn't mean that the audi-
ence shouldn't. Despite its problems,
Gurney's play teaches us about the
state of academia, the fate of classical
literature in the classroom and the fail-
ure of the American imagination to
grasp at the meanings of tragedy. It's a
lesson well worth learning. ❑

JET presents Another Antigone
through March 11 at the Aaron
DeRoy Theatre, located on the
lower level of the West Bloomfield
Jewish Community Center. Show
times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays,
Thursdays and Sundays; 8 p.m.
Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Sundays.
There also will be a 2 p.m. mati-
nee on Wednesday, March 7. For
more information or to purchase
tickets, call (248) 788-2900.

- Liz Smith, New York Post

The Purple Rose Theatre Company Production of

A dinner party for the boss turns
disastrous in this slapstick spoof of
office politics and corporate climbing.

By Jeff Daniels

313-963-9800 • 333 Madison Ave

(W IC

www.gemtheatre.com

or disci ii
Pelf indulge
demic life or just lif

mble Theatre presents

14 - March 11,2001

For ticket information call

248-788-2900

fax: 248-788-5160

Performances
Wed. 7:30 p.m.,
Thur. 7:30 p.m., Sat. 8 p.m.,
Sun. 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
In The Aaron DeRoy Theatre

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Mows

2/23

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