The Michigan Daily-Friday, February 23, 1979-Page 7 'BANDIT' UNMASKED: Attic offers a dismal log .)Ui.) Special Attraction I By CHRISTOPHER POTTER Mark Medoff is arguably one of the most talented new American playwrights around today. He is capable of producing works of searing intensity, as anyone who's witnessed his powerhouse When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? will attest. We now sorrowfully discover he can also in- dulge in vehicles of completely pedestrian tedium, as the Detroit Attic Theatre's current, abysmal production The Halloween Bandit wincingly bears out. The Attic's presentation is almost the equivalent of a world premiere: Bandit did play in New York for a brief two- week run last November, but was buf- feted throughout by cast illnesses and other unforeseen cataclysms. Medoff subsequently yanked the show, perfor- med an extensive rewrite on the second act, then acceded to the Attic's request to premiere the revised version. IT TURNS OUT to have been a dubious artistic coup at best. The Halloween Bandit is poorly written, poorly staged, at best inconsistently ac- ted. Presumably it has not yet reached its final form, yet the play's current framework is so wobbly and its last act such a chaotic disaster that I wonder if Medoff didn't speak sagely when he on- ce said he never wanted to work on Bandit again. Medoff's dim tale of a menage a trois opens in the New York apartment of Eddie Rose and Grace Rice, seemingly happy unmarried marrieds secure in their Big Apple environment. Eddie (Randall Forte) runs a successful catering service, Grace (Divina Cook) is a famous TV actress-model (mostly commercials), now strictly part-time, as Eddie prefers being the household's sole breadwinner. On the surface they're a model couple - yet once Eddie has departed for work we see that Grace is discontent. Clothed in her bathrobe she stares wearily into her mirror for a long minute, and you can practically hear her pour soul screaming, "Why am I so bored and unfulfilled? Why, - oh why must I wither away inside these four walls?" FORTUNATELY, relief is just a stairway away. Into the apartment and plot bounds Medoff's equivalent of Ten- nessee Williams' wandering stud. He goes by the pseudonym Hector, and gains access to Grace's quarters by masquerading as the grocery eliveryman. He swaggeringly refuses o leave, and soon has his unwilling stess both terrified and entranced by 4s scarily:, erf.tic yet rmesmerizing achiinations. Played by'actor James Woods -(who ears an unnerving resemblance to aul Newman), Hector is by turns harming and menacing, coyly umorous then savagely brutal as he, atiently stalks Grace around her apar- ment.; Sex is obviously an over- owering concern to him (and her), yet it proves only one -item among many. ike an erratic philsopher-king, Hector bombards Grace with a rapid-fire Mb monologue of barbs, endearments'and insults, with the slogan "PROFOUND TRUTH" unsubtly hung like a sign on every line. The parallel between Hector and the psychotic drifter of Medoff's Red Ryder is temporarily obvious. The concept of a powerful, enigmatic stranger har- pooning others into seeing the hypocrisy of their own lives is at best a risky, conceit-threatened theatrical device; yet the sheer ferocity and rhythmic build in Red Ryder brought the whole concept off. In Halloween Bandit it doesn't work at all, largely because Medoff abruptly drops the idea in midstream. Hector suddenly discards his stud mode, dons a pair of glasses and declares himself to be Alvin, an ex-college beau of Grace's returned at last to claim her. Grace is more bewildered than ever, but nervously humors him as Hec- tor/Alvin gushes into a long speech about how she forsook hin first for someone named Bobby Bergsteen, then later for Eddie Rose. He rants against Bergsteen, mourns 1 Grace's loss,, decries her eventual evolution into TV's "golden girl." Working himself into a frenzy, he viciously throws her to her knees and seems about to commit oral rape as the scene abruptly ends. Material like this can't help but be' crudely compelling, though its often as thin as tissue paper underneath. It sinks or swims largely as do its actors,. and of the two performers James Woods fares much better. He milk's his God-given Newman aura for all it's worth in his movement, his delivery, his oft-flashed killer smile. It's patently derivative, of course, but still effective. Woods handles the transition from Hec- tor to Alvin rather clumsily, but has worked up such a white-hot intensity by then that his fury carries him through the act. DIVINA COOK'S problems with Grace are more obvious and acute. Physically, she just isn't pretty or charismatic enough to embody convin- -cingly a media goddess lusted after by millions. Emotionally one never gets the feeling she's really a victim of the menacing predicament threatening her; one doesn't sense the maddening, contradictory war between terror and carnal liberation which plays havoc with Grace's psyche from Hector's ministrations. Cook is too passive - not indignant enough on the one hand or turned-on enough on the other. When, after a bombardment of sadistic taunts, Hec- tor declares, "You wish you could kill JUMPFISH JUMP ATEANECK, N.J. (AP) - Caviar lovers have been buying more lumpfish eggs than any other kind of roe, accor- ding to an industry leader. With the price of sturgeon caviar climbing sharply because of over- fishing, sales of lumpfish, salmon and whitefish roe have moved into the lead, me for this" and she screams back "Yes!", you don't believe her for a second. It's acting as acting, not being. Thus far, Halloween Bandit is at least a diverting show; then Act Two clob- bers us like a lead balloon. It's evening now. Grace stands alone in her apar- tment - dark save for the glowing TV set - looking sadder but wiser. When Eddie comes back from work, she's cold as ice. EDDIE SEEMS not to notice, an- nouncing that an old college buddy is stopping by for drinks. And, in the best Sigmund Freud-Johann Strauss tradition, it's - you guessed it! - Hec- tor/Alvin at last revealed as the real Bobby Bergsteen, a relic from Eddie's, not Grace's past, and a successful Miami plastic surgeon. Egad!! It seems Eddie and Bobby/Hec- tor/Alvin have been bearing a mutual cross these many years: A mutual lost ladylove committed a memorably grisly suicide in the lads' fraternity house long ago, with Bobby and Eddie blaming both themselves and each. other ever since. In the process, Bobby has symbolically meshed the dead girl with Grace, as has Eddie in a more subliminal sense. Thus, Bobby hates Eddie, Eddie hates Bobby, and Grace for the moment hates both Eddie and Bobby; so for the next hour. we watch the three of them hurl bitchy, skeleton-in-the-closet revelations at each other in a fourth- rate Virginia Woolf exorcism rite minus the slightest insight into what they're exorcising or even what they're being bitchy about. MEDOFF'S DIALOGUE is stupifyingly banal and flat, scoring at least ten misses for every hit. He throws up a lot of off-color anatomical references, a large dose of pseudo- symbolism about Halloween ghosts cleansing hurt souls, and gobs of trite neurotic desperation ("I just can't seem to take control of me," Bobby moans). Actor Woods is once again saddled with carrying the brunt of this cumber- some load. Yet, burdened with a character far less interesting than Hec- tor/Alvin of Act I, he completely runs out of steam. Woods' delivery slowly withers into a numbing monotone so inert that after awhile it's virtually im- possible to concentrate on what he's saying at all. As Eddie, Randall Forte transmits a booming, ennunciated delivery a bit jarringly at odds with his slight physique. Forte is a smooth, assured actor, yet his projection of Eddie - a rather priggish, righteous individual - is so overtly smirky that it costs him more sympathy than Medoff perhaps intended. Divina Cook . remains laid back throughout the act, her Grace haughtily serene in her liberation from plastic idol into full womanhood - though how her liberation came about from Medoff's murky manipulations and indeed, just what it is she's been liberated from is anybody's guess. - The Attic's Susan Brinkley directs the show's misanthropic proceedings with an unflagging lack of visual or rhythmic distinction. The Halloween Bandit is a truly dreadful play, a confused, threadbare work that rests in an embryonic state despite Medoff's claim that he spent three years working on it. It's most un- fortunate that a company normally as superb as The Attic is now stuck with this turkey, though the lure of producing a new piece by a famous playwright must have been understan- dably irresistable. Regrettably, in art as well as in life, fame isn't everything. William Windom in AN EVENING OF THURBER POWER CENTER SUN. FEB. 25, 7:00 tickets are available at: the Michigan League, 764-0450 hours: 10-1 and 5 weekdays and Hudson Ticket Outlets The Ann Arbor Film Cooperative presents in MLB 3 Friday, February 23 ANNIE HALL (Woody Allen, 1977) - 7& 10:20-MLB3 Perhaps his most polished film, ANNIE HALL succeeds not merely as good comedy, but as good filmmaking, brilliant acting, and as a stunning, intel- ligent love story as well. Woody and Diane Keaton star in this chronicle of a relationship between two New York.City neurotics. Academy ;Award, Best Picture, Best Actress. WOODY ALLEN RETROSPECTIVE 8:40 only-MLB 3 Recently unearthed from the archives, THE LAUGHMAKER (1963) concerns a group of improvisational comics (including ALAN "M.A.S.H." ALDA and LOUISE "Mary Hartman" LASSER) whose one goal in life is to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. In WOODY ALLEN: AMER ICAN COMEDY (1977), Woody traces his development from a non-literate adolescent to a mature comic and filmmaker. Great clips from woody's best. Tomorrow: THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE & THE GODFATHER g- * NOW! Fri. & Sat.7:30 & 9:15 Sun. 5:45, 7:30, 9:45 Your eyes.. "r" .Your ears.. '~ . Your seses... will be overwhelmed PG - . y 'c:. * ii ,.. 1 1.., :t :- " ALL SEATS! FRIDAY& SATURDAY' 2.00 " r . a .-. . 1 ' R >r 111' ; za .J .J MaY' - "7 {> h :i''._"T 4 p4 t 14 .44 i T a- 4 Pt { .4 1 4 4 aq n5 N 4 4 :P R 3 5 R N A GEORGE CUKOR'S 1940 THE PHILADELPHIA STORY CARY GRANT, KATHERINE HEPBURN and JIMMY STEWART in the sophisti- cated High Society comedy by Phillip Barry. Two reporters from Spy magazine crash the latest pre-nuptial proceedings of Tracy Lord, spoiled ex-wife of Dexter Haven, who seems to be hanging around a lot . . . and Virginia Weidler creates one of the few child roles in films that leaves you wanting more. With Holiday & this film Cukor ranks up there with comedy directors like C.opra, Sturges and Lubitsch. SAT: Richard PryornIn BLUE COLLAR SUN: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE CINEMA GUILD TONIGHT AT 7:00 and 9:05 OLD ARCH. AUD. $1.50 U i Classic Sex Comedies Festival Hawks and Cukor Night: mmmmmr Detroitjazz stars to arrive in Ann Arbor For many years, the Motor City has een identified as a rich source for ajor musical talent - from Motown tars to big band stars, and such major azz people as Thad Jones, Barry arris, Yusef Lateef, Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, and Tommy Flanagan. "Detroit Jazz Artists On Tour 1979," a project made possible through the support of the Michigan Council for the Arts, this Saturday will bring to Ann Arbor a packaged show displaying some of the most prominent jazz musicians currently rooted in Detroit. The show is being sponsored by Eclipse Jazz, and will be at Hill Auditorium Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Presented by the non-profit Allied Ar- tists Association, the "Detroit Jazz Ar- tists On Tour 1979" show features a diversity of the rennaissance city's musicians, composers, and performing groups, including: «' Sam Sanders and Visions, a hard- driving quintet skippered by saxophonist/composer Sam Sanders, an active musician and educator in the Detroit area today; « Griot Galaxy, an eight-piece "ava'nte-garde" ensemble spearheaded by saxophonist Faruq Bey, and featuring guitarist Spencer Barefield, harpist/flautist Kafi Patrice Nassoma, clarinetist Elrita Dodds, and the two- man percussion unit of Sadiq Bey and Mubarek Hakim; « Lyman Woodard and the Paradise Theatre Orchestra, a 13-piece ensemble featuring stellar trumpet player Mar- cus Belgrave, guitarist Ron English, a saxophone section of Allen Barnes, the most Lamonte Hamilton, Kenney Garrett and Doc Holladay, popular drummer Leonard King, and leader-organist Lyman Woodard. The purpose of "Detroit Jazz Artists on Tour 1979" is to "provide com- munities throughout the state with this unique opportunity to see and hear Detroit's world-class jazz artists,"-and in many situations various performers will be able to establish workshops and clinics. The "On Tour" project was designed and is administered' by Strata Associated, Inc., a Detroit-based "arts management/advertising/public rela- tions firm" which has provided similar services to many other Detroit-area jazz organizations. 20th Century A super early screwball comedy that set the stage for the rash of crazy sex comedies to follow. Egotistical producer John Barrymore tries to seduce star Carole Lombard while riding the 20th Century-the famous New York City- Chicago train. Zany incidents and characters abound in script based on the- legendary Ben Hecht's and Charles MacArthur's sta geplay. Hawks (later, director of one of screwball's finest, BRINGING UP B BY) says, "We got the fun out of John Barrymore and Carole Lombard." With a rash of famous character actors: WALTER CONNOLLY, ROSCOE KARNS, EDGAR KENNEDY, EDWARD GARGAN. (90m) 7:00 & 10:20 Holiday Three top names, representative of the best in sex comedies, teamed for this one: Director George Cukor, one of Hollywood's most reliable and con- sistent handlers of the genre: KATHERINE HEPBURN, the most durable, talented, and likeable interpreter of emancipated women's roles; and CARY GRANT, who in HOLIDAY firmly solidified his irresistible screen presence. Despite Hepburn's legendary off-screen relationship with Tracy, Cary Grant remains a strong contender for being her most inspiring screen partner. In HOLIDAY, Hepburn plays the eccentric member of a N.Y.C. society family whose conventional sister i engaged to Grant. But Grant is drawn to the spirit of foolishness and freedam that Hepburn represents, and subsequently, begins to defect from the traditional road mapped out for him. Cukor and his two stars would team later in the classic THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, but it is HOLIDAY that boasts the more lively romantic escapades between them. With EDWARD EVERETT HORTON, LEW AYRES, DORIS NOLAN, and HENRY FOLKER. (1938, 94m) 8:40 only SAT: THE 7% SOLUTION SUN: "Rocky" & "Fonzie" In LORDS OF FLATBUSH OneShow-$1.50 ANGELL HALL AUD. "A" Double-$2.50 TONITE ONLY WE =RIC WEDESDY IADULTS FRI., SAT.. SUN. WEDNESDAY IS MONDAY IS EYE. &% HUASA-53.5- "BARGAIN DAY" 'GUEST NIGHT'' MV.-HUiSivi. 5a $150 until 5:30 TWO ADULTS ADMTTED ALL MATINEES $1.56 HIDTO5FOR PRICE OF ONE CI 41 r.r.r.. mmmmw Wayside Theatre 3020 Washtenaw Ypsilanti FRIDAY & SAT MIDNIGHT,SHOW WALT DISNEY'S "North Avenue Irregfer - -------- - - P m. I "1 F MON, TUES, THURS, FRI 7:00 & 9:25 SAT, SUN, WED 1-4.7-9:25 FRI. 7& 9:25 SAT. 1-3-5-7-9:25 SUN. & WED. 1-3-5-7-9 They couldn't have celebrated happier anniversaries-if they were married to each other. Ellen Alarn Burstyn Alda " 3ame i i me, ~'Next~'Vear s' moo F WDEE and Eastern Michigan University welcome Wa ylon Jennings and the original crickets at BOWEN FIELD HOUSE Saturday, March 10 at 8 pm I I 4 f Ra 0 r F. ! m I I ....:.. ............... .. ....... ........ ... .1 I