Wednesday, July 6, 1977 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five Wednesday, July 6, 1977 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page FIve I Arts I 'A BRIDGE TOO FAR' All-star Armageddon 'Darkness' shines By SUSAN BARRY NEW DRAMA is always ex- citing to watch, particularly when the originator is, or re- cently was, a student at this University. Innovative theatre in Ann Arbor tends to be a ris- in Ann Arbor tends to be a risky venture and is often sparsely attended, despite the area's regutation as a cultural haven. Perhaps this is the rea- son former student Barry K. Pugh chose to present his or- iginal play, Out of Darkness, in Detroit. It was Ann Arbor's loss. Opening night, Thursday, June 16, at the Mercy College audi- torium was remarkably well at- tended. Despite several techni- cal malfunctions, which the pro- duction crew assured me had been eliminated in the fol-wing presentations, the play incor- porated the various mediums of poetry, monologue, drama, and dance in ,such a way that the broad range In genre reflected and enhanced the widely en- compassing nature of the theme. The play intended to present "the flipside of reality - the darkness." The menacing voice of Andrew Crawtord as the poet/ narrator warned, however, that this force was a presence which must be inevitably incorpora- ted into one's experience, and was not to be avoided. "Stay on the safe side that you know as reality and I will crush you" PUGH INTENDED to il- lustrate the presence of this force in human experience. This was accomplished through a series of vignettes. These vig- nettes, interspersed with poetic monologues, were demonstra- tions, not of the definition of this force, but of its various manifestations. The presence of the darkness in death was dramatized by a junkie importuning his white- robed cocaine lady. This theme was brought more down-to-earth with a version of Shakespeare's "to be or not to be" soliloquy fdom a bedside philosopher puf- fing on an early morning buzz. With the narrator suggesting that "peach of mind might be right there - in your mind," the subject turned to memories. The ensuing scene presented Pugh at his dramatic peak. It concerned the memories of an old couple as they were clean- ing out their attic. MOVINGLY PORTRAYED by Myrenna Hawthorne, Mark Dell Miller, Cooki Winborn, Lewis Williams, and D Breen Tally, the characters presented the pathos of an old affair from the green- er days of the couple's marri- age through the eyes of a more mellow age. The infidelity of Winston (the husband) is final- ly put to rest when he confess- es to his wife, Maxine, that his extramarital affair failed be- cause his mistress detected his greater devotion to his wife. An exploration of the woman's movement followed, along with several effectively choreograph- ed sequences. Carole Morisseau of the Detroit City -Dance Com- pany was the choreographer for the work. And Professor Vera Embree performed an innova- tive solo to Black Swan. "I'm the architect, the build- er, the maintainence man," claimed the voice of darkness, hinting at clues to its identifica- ti-. However, it is soon evident that the identity is unimportant. "I am!" thunders the voice, and that is all that must be acknowl- edged. Pugh's play excells mainly in its poetry. The quality of the dance, drama, and acting are all fringe benefits. And all of them separately or in combina- tion tnake for thought-provoking entertainment that will hope- fully be available to the public for a long time to come. Haea o 'ar for artisic Writiaq? If you are interest. ed in reviewing poetry, and mustc or writing feature stories aout the drama, dance, fum arts. Contact Arta Editor, c/ oThe Michigan natty. By OWEN GLEIBERMAN PM NOT EXACTLY sure why Hollywood decid- ed to dump a barrage of war films on us at this moment, but one thing is for sure, we're current- ly in the thick of it. thus far, every war offer- ing this year has been in the old style-Hollywood tradition including Peckinpah's Cross of Iron; a seemingly deeper picture, but ultimately, boast- ing its fair share of stock characters and situa- tions. Hopefully, Coppola's Apocalypse Now, now in post-production, will offer something a bit more original. At any rate, the latest war film to make the rounds is A Bridge Too Far, a 3-hour account of Operation Market Garden, during World War II. The film smacks of Hollywood in every way possible; it boasts a star-tudded cast of almost laughingly large proportion, and the picture makes no significant attempts to read anything meaningful into the events. It is highly question- able how much potential for this last item there is in an action war film anyway, and A Bridge Too Far makes no such pretentions. DIRECTEDBY RICHARD AT- TENBOUROUGH, the film is a near documen- tary accounif of the famous World War II inva- sion in which 350,000 English troops were drop- ped behind German lines in Holland, and at- tempted to hook up with allied forces and secure all the bridges along a 64-mile stretch. Perhaps the film's saving grace is that it doesn't delve deep enough to cultivate a signifi- cant point of view. It ends up simply being a chronicle of events, and comes off as only a modest success. The makers use the old device of having the generals realize the potentially suicidal aspects of the mission but deviously withhoold the information from the troops or lower officers. But the point is not belaboured; despite its documentary-like flavor, the movie doesn't ex- amine the events from any sort of intellectual- ized historical standpoint. The dirty games of the generals comprise only a plot device, and the action soon takes front seat. A Bridge Too Far is well directed and ef- fectively edited, although there is occasionally confusion as to where we are, due to the large cast and number of simultaneous goings-on. The biggest asset of the star-studded cast is not good acting - although there are a number of fine performances - but rather the fact that so many familiar faces add a distinctly charisma- tic element to the film. Virtually every role is filled by a major star, and by the time Robert Redford was introduced (a good two hours into the movie), I felt as if I was watching a poker player with four of a kind (in this case, about 15 of a kind) glowingly lay down his cards, one at a time. Elliot Gould shows up in the most Elliot Gouldish role I think I've ever seen; He plays an American, going See WWII, Page 6 md"4 We .eeu in pastel sleepgowns. To look and feel feminine is to be in a soft float of filmy nylon tricot. . with flutter sleeves, deep V-neck and a bit of string to tie in back. . delicately colored in assorted sherbet shades. For 5 to 13 sizes. A superb value at $8 FROM OUR 4"J FREE PARKING IN THE ADJACENT RAMP - WE WILL VALIDATE YOUR TICKET '