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arts & entertainment
S'CASEYA T THE BA T
The Michigan Daily-Friday, March 23, 1979-Page 7
'Red Roses'
a
thorny mess
By ANNE SLHARP
Grand though it is when a work of
an O'Casey, that silver-tongued
insian poet, treads the time-honored
ards, his works simply cannot suc-
ed all on their own. A production
ust back ,script with a conception
rong and simple enough to get across
e basic message of the play, yet still
t us savor O'Casey's rich, flowery,
most Shakespearian language. The
iversity Showcase's current produc-
n of Red Roses for Me, though,
ats the work as if it were just another
diocre, minor show added to this
ar's University theater lineup,
d, as a result, that's just what it is-a
less, discontinuous, amateurish bit
tagecraft.
'Casey's script, in this case, does
ve its flaws. It introduces big issues
e struggle of the working classes,
igious bigotry), but somehow they
n't seem to fit together. The issues
fast and furious around the main
aracter. Ayamonn is a gentle, liberal
.blin youth who dabbles in painting
d drama and flirts around with his
girl, Sheila (Elizabeth Harrell).
Evidently we find that he also works for
a living and is about to lead a strike
against his employers for higher
wages. Suddenly, after two rather
domestic scenes, Ayamonn becomes a
ranting revolutionary who is martyred
when the national guard busts a few
strikebreakers' heads.
*THIS PRODUCTION doesn't bother
to unify these strikingly different
scenes. The early scenes at Ayomonn's
house are relatively quiet and realistic.
In abrupt, contrast, Scene III opens
on a stark, dimly-lit stage.
Before a blue backdrop with abstract
lines representing the city of Dublin, a
few low-life characters glower -about
something in tones that sound like Ac-
ting 265 vocal exercises. Ayamonn
bounds- onstage and rouses these
creatures to revolutionary fervor in
preparation for dashing off to the
strike; the backdrop obligingly un-
derlines his impassioned speeches by
turning orange and magenta (angry,
warlike colors). Clever effect, but it
doesn't have any connection with what
went before. How has the cute Irish sit-
com we were watching turn into an im-
passioned Soviet ballet?
Thomas Stack is blessed with a good
voice and clean, Ron Howardish looks.
But somehow, through lack of "Vocal
richness, "getting into character," ans
sheer physical presence, he's not
believable or interesting as Ayamonn,
who must perforce be a strong,
charismatic character. Stack remains
a student actor walking through a part
in which he is sadly miscast, burdened
with lifeless movements and a brogue
that continually fails. If only Stack's
work could have matched Elizabeth
Kelly's, who played Ayamonn's
mother.
Kelly seems perfectly at ease with
O'Casey's flowery language, tossing off
her lines smoothly and conver-
sationally. She has the physical charac-
teristics of Mrs. Breydon down pat. One
can accept that this is a 50-year old
woman (barring that ghastly gray
makeup that stage people are convin-
ced makes young actors look aged), yet
she moves with grace and dignity.
The worst that can be said about Red
Roses is that it is amateurish, and at
best, that it is just another student
production. Not a very nice thing to say,
for sure, to a group of theater students
that would like to be performing
professionally in a few years, but that's
show biz, kids.
SPECIAL
..9) ATTRACTIONS presents
An All Professional Cast in
- A-
4; -
'imino
's
grand cinematic vision
(Continued from Page 6)
e Deer Hunter institutionalizes the
cept of working class inarticulation.
r a while the film abrogates this
ough its sheer drive and visual vir-
sity; yet in its later, more quiet
ges, the redundancy becomes ex-
ciating:
ichael to Linda: "How you feelin'?"
"OK."
'What's the matter?"
"I don't know."
"What's the matter?"
"I don't know."
"It must be something."
"It's OK."
'I got the car outside."
'It's OK. Leave me alone."
'OK."
The torpidity grates; it numbs; it
bidly condescends to the very people
e film is supposed to be trying to
alt. As it denies its characters any ar-
ticulation, The Deer Hunter effectively
denies them their own selves.
What do we know about these people,
whose existences are shattered by for-
ces of a dark world so far beyond the
boundaries of their small town? What of
their thoughts, goals, their inner joys or
terrors? Did these elements matter so
little to the quartet of screenwriters
who provide us so few clues to the inner
workings of the protagonists they
profess to love?
We must take Deer Hunter's people
strictly on faith. We want to love them
too, but we never find out enough about
them. We are held at arm's length by a
sterile, poverty-class character star-
vation that all the hijinks, macho back-
slapping "fuckin' A's" can't camouflage.
Though burdened with this crippling
void, it's amazing how well Deer Hun-
ter's performers -succeed through
almost exclusive reliance on visuals.
There is more eye contact on display,
here than in any other film I can
remember. The assorted actors are all
so good at it that they manage to convey
a depth to their characters missing in
the script, through the sheer force of
their own personalities.
Though he runs into trouble in the
final, murky third of the film (as does
everyone else), De Niro is simply
brilliant otherwise. When Michael
works himself into a calculated rage in
order to dispatch his Viet Cong captors,
it's one of the most remarkable pieces
of acting you could ever hope to see - a
half-laughing, half-crying frenzy every
bit as terrifying as. it is inspiring.
(Ironically, it is the one scene in the
film where language works as a
dramatic element; though captors and
captives speak in different tongues, the
simple force behind their words con-
>yeys all the brutal meaning they in-
4Pnd)g
See CMNPage 14
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A
L
L H Ame~iiricani ureami
The Zoo Story
5:00 p.M.
8:30 p.
Listening
'IT &
Counting The Ways
All Four One-Acts Written and
Directed By Edward Albee.
MARCH 31-POWER CENTER
SPECIAL OFFERI! Buy First Show-
3Get Second Show 1/2 PRICE!!
TICKETS $4-$8
Available at PTP Ticket Office in
the Michigan League, from 10-1
and from 2-5 p.m., and at all J.L.
Hudson's stores. In formation: 764-
0450
TL. ii N AN AAM MAA W\
...
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