'Summer' The Michigan Daily-Friday, Februarv 8. 1980-Page 7 stays in season Looking for an Alternative To Rock or Disco? WE HAVE IT: For a fun-filled evening of music, singing, and good time Join-TheHAPPY PEOPLE atBIMBO'S Ever FRIDAY and SATURDAY featuring ,THE GASIGHTERS" Dixieland and sing-a-long group By GILLIAN BOLLING End of summer, by S.N. Behrman, appears to have all the makings of a 9rdy, dated, boring bit of trivia. The story concerns the woes of a "poor little rich girl" and her flirtatious mother set in a Maine mansion in 1936. For- tunately, through fine directing and (with few exceptions) energized acting, End of Summer becomes a delightfully enjoyable comedy. Director Martin Friedman employs a light-handed humorous- approach which paid off handsomely. He manages to avoid falling into the trap of trying to convey any big message about how awful it must be to be "rotten with money". Instead, he presents an array of personalities mingling and clashing amidst the trappings of a family which has remained filthy rich despite the depression. TO THEIR credit, director Friedman and his designers showed a mastery of details. The play took place over a period from spring to autumn, finishing literally and metaphorically with "the end of summer". Each change of season precipitates a change in mood highlighted by the lighting change from the brilliant golds of spring to the cop- per glow of fall. Fresh flowers accent the stage, changing from spring's fresh daisies to sutumn's chrysanthemums. Characters subtly changed also, initially exuberant, only to lose their vitality and wither as time passes. The entire production followed the seasonal pattern with a smooth flow. The most interesting interpersonal relationships revolved around the character of Leonie Frothingham, the middle-aged heiress who lives her life, in the singular pursuit of happiness for herself and those around her. Elizabeth Jahnke is marvelous as Leonie. She 'embodies all the endearing charm which is expected in a woman who believes that "to be in love is to be alive." Jahnke provides a pivotal presence which caused the other actors to display greater confidence in their interactions with her. RICHARD PICKREN, as psychiatrist Kenneth Rice, possesses a. wicked charm, as he coolly woes both Leonie and her daughter. Leonie's daughterm Paula, played by Susan Titman, has suffered all her life from comparisons to her mother. Titman shows her character to be a fine blend of a spoiled rich brat and a young woman truly confused by the fact that wealth is one of her major attractions. Unfortunately, she chooses to convey Paula's youthful exuberance by talking too fast and at times, running from one side of the room to the other. Her sen- tences runtogether so quickly that the meaning seems of secondary impor- tance to the speed of delivery. Pat Garner, as Paula's fiance Will Dexter, has a good stage record with physical humor, but as Will, Garner gets a chance to escape his usual bimbo role. Although he seems a bit stiff on some of the long, serious speeches, his Will was believable and sincere. Lorel Janiszewski does more than spray her hair gray and don a cane to portray Paula's aged grandmother, Louise Wyler; she uses her whole body to credibly show the aging process in the family matriarch. David Goldstick, as college cut-up Dennis McCarthy, delivers some of the play's most humorous lines, thankfully toning down his overly self-aware and smug delivery as the play progresses. ALTHOUGH THE production oc- casionally drifts into verbal one-on-one ramblings, it is salvaged by the frequent coming and going of charac- ters and an overall progressive pace. End of Summer provides a light, humorous winter offering in this year's Showcase Series. Valuable coupon I worth $2.24 I FREEI1 Buy ONE Mr. Tony's Sub* I I and alarge.drink. .get I -n identical Sub & large I I drink FRIEi' - I EX(PIRES FEB 14 1980 I I *ne coupon per customer I 'Tscoupon offer applies only to Mr. Tony's egor Submarines 'I I 1Q1J5 I PIZZA and SUBMARINES I 1 I I 1327 S. University I I Ann Arbor, Mi I 663-0511 .. DOWNTOWN r 114 East Washington C I ,;.4 I Now Playing at Butterfield Theatres KWEDNESDAY IS "BARGAIN DAY" $1.50 UNTIL 5:30 EXCEPT WAYSIDE I ADULTS FRI.. SAT.. SUN. EVE. & HOLIDAYS.. $3.50 MON. THRU THURS. EVENINGS. . . $3.00 MATINEES UNTIL 5:30 EXCEPT HOLIDAYS... $2.50 CHILDREN 14£8 UNDER. . . $1.50 MONDAY NIGHT IS "GUEST NIGHT" Two Adults Admitted For $3.00 EXCEPT WAYSIDE HELP JOHN RRTI IS ON ANNE ARCHE THE WAY!! (UPPERM LEVEL)fg' M u t i Family Robinson ' Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri at 7:05, 9:30 Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri at 7:00 9:15 Wed, Sat, Sun at WedSat, Sun at 1:05, 3:05, 5:05, 7:05, 9:30 1:00,3:00, 5:00 7:00, 9:15 State 1.2-3.4i4 231 S. State-662-6264-662-5296 Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri at 7:00, 9:15 (UPPER LEVEL) Wed, Sat, Sunat Mon .Tues. Thurs .Fri 705 930 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:15 Wed, S S "Sun"o 305 3:05 705 930 GEORGE SEGAL- NATALIE WOOD The comedy. that fools around a lot! )kdLAST MARED THE COMEDY THAT COMES OUT OFT STHE CLOSET k I Elizabeth Jahnke and Richard Pickern in S. N. Behnman's comedy "End of Summer", playing tonight and Saturday at the Trueblood Theatre. r Jonestown cult rewritten I By CHRISTOPHER POTTER I get, profoundly suspicious when a creative work is anteriorly condemned because of the subject it attempts to hngage. Currently making the ~heatrical rounds -is a film titled Guyana - Cult of the Damned. "Yec-. cch!" goes the unanimous public knee- jerk to this largely unseen opus; "What kind of perverts would make a movie like that? What kind of perverts would go S.t it?" Thus we morally and patriotically denounce any attempt to cinematize the Jonestown massacre, all the while con- tinuing to plunk down our admission bucks to gleefully imbibe the varied *elluloid atrocities of a Nero, a Ghengis Khan, a Hitler. Does the soothing num- bness of historical distancing always produce such ethical and artistic hypocrisy? Hasn't violence, either sub- tle or in exremus, been an accepted x- ingredient in cinema from The Great Train Robbery right down through Apocalypse Now? Though Jonestown remains the most painful of wounds in our national con- sciousness, its unique mixture of orror, guilt and morbid fascination eventually demands unflinching scrutiny: This was an incredible story, a macabre and perhaps unprecedented footnote to history that will never be sermonized or sanctioned away. WHY WOULD a community of nearly 'a thousand people willfully, even 'joyously commit mass suicide simply 'at the command of one person? What does such an event tell us about the dark, unexplored recesses of the human psyche, inaccessible to most, yet fright- fully responsibe to the twisted touch of an authoritarian madman? Could any of us, deprived of our suburban serenity, remain immune to such cryp- tic forces confronted by the right en- vironment, the precise pressures? Such perplexing questions merit the most thoughtful study in all forms of expression, including cinema. Here lies the material for an extraordinary motion picture, if handled with in- telligence and sensitivity; unfor- tunately Guyana - Cult of the Damned avoids such civilizing elements like the plague - it is a graceless, brutish film fashioned not by sensitive artists but by hustlers and thugs. THERE isn't a single moment in this joint American-Spanish-Panamanian production (released through Univer- sal) that betrays the vaguest pretense of artistry or conscience; Guyana is exploitation in its purest, most loathsome form. Under its creators' churlish ministrations, ritual violence becomes a ribald temple in which Jonestown's complex protagonists are reduced to walking, snarling cartoons - stick-figure caricatures that the film doesn't even have the courage to name (Reverend Jim Jones becomes Reverend Jim Johnson, Rep. Leo Ryan is grotesquely tongue-twisted into Lee into a priggish declaration of righteousness; he fairly oozes with nobility, so unctiously radiating his vir- tue that you keep expecting him to rip off his shirt to reveal the Superman costume underneath. The remaining cast is largely anonymous enough to avoid enduring infamy, though it is painful indeed to watch Joseph Cotton, here completing a 40-year descent from Citizen Kane to the nadir of phony jungle rot. Of necessity, though, both performances and cinematics in general take a back seat to the obsessions of director- writer-producer Rene Cardona, Jr., whose torture-murder predilections suggest moviemaking credentials heretofore limited to snuff films. SADLY, IT'S our heads-in-the-sand attitude which allows such cinematic ordure to surface and fill the void created by the flight of more respon- sible artists. Granted, Jonestown seems an unbearably, agonizingly short time ago; yet to deny part of our own history is not only tragic, it can turn ob- scene in absentia. For as Guyana illustrates, there's always a vulture out there somewhere looking for a fast buck - and history be damned. II 6 i do i W sFINAL WEEKI 3020 Menaw 434-1782 Mon, Tue. Thur, Fri 7 & 9 at, Sun, Wed 1-3-5-7.9 Wed adults $1.50 until 2:00( WHERE c4A 1 EVERY- Q THING ENDS.. 1979 Wait Oisney Productions I Iq I% El "1y 11y11T 1 1x 11x_11xIT]' I OPF A-.AIL -A " 'Al "A STRUTTING, RAZZMATAZZ CELEBRATION!" -. give Byrnes, N.Y.Post A Rhode Island Feminist Theater Production (RIFT) MONDAY, FEB. 11 MICHIGAN UNION BALLROOM-8 PM TICKETS: $3.50, $5.00/Sliding Scale at Schoolkids' Records, 523 E. Liberty and Ticket Central, Michigan Union and at the door. BENEFIT for SAFEHOUSE- -our local shelter for Battered Women FOR MORE INFO; 763-5911, 995-3790 Sponsored by National Organization For Women; Viewpoint Lectures, UAC; Women's Crisis Center, Women in Action N Ann Arbor Film C oertive Presents at MLB: $1.50 Friday, February 8 TRUFFAUT FEST THE BRIDE WORE BLACK (Francois Truff aut, 1968) 7:00-MLB 3 Truffaut is such a rare talent that one knows instantly as soon as the credits appear on the screen, that this is what movies are about, this is how they can be done."-NY TIMES. Truffaut's homage to Hitchcock is more than a simple hymn of praise to the master of suspense, it is a gentle comedy and one of the few plausible and strange love stories in a long time. Music by BERNARD (Psycho) HERMANN. Stars JEANNE MOREAU. FARENHEIT 451 (Francois Truffaut, 1966) 4:00-MLB 3 Truffaut's first film in color and in English boasts a stunning line-up: it's based on Ray Bradbury's classic study of a totalitarian society in the not-too-distant future; it stars JULIE CHRISTIE and OSKAR WERNER, the music composed by BERNARD (Psycho) HERMANN and it features stylish photography by Nicholas Roeg. "The resultant film is highly original, thought-provoking . . ."-Arthur Knight. Tomorrow: FLESH GORDON and FLASH GORDON--PURPLE DEATH FROM OUTER SPACE at MLB 3 and Bergman's FACE TO FACE at MLB 4 THE DEER HUNTER has been postponed. GET OUT YOUR HANDKERCHIEFS will! show both Feb. 12 and Feb. 13 at Aud. A. r I \ Music by EUBIE BLAKE A TOM MALLOW PRODUCTION FEBRUARY 8-10 Tonight and Saturday at 8pm Sunday at 2pm & 8pm POWER CENTER PROFESSIONAL THEATRE PROGRAM TICKETS: TODAY at PTP Ticket Office- Michigan League 10-1 and 2-5pm or at Power Center 6-8pm: SATU RDAY at Power, 1-5 8 6-8pm; SUNDAY at Power, 12-58 6-8pm INFO: 764-0450 or 763-3333 TONIGHT AT MIDNITE THE AREA'S FAVORITE CULT CLASSIC Ruth Gordon Bud Cort Harold and Mlaude His Hangups Are Hilarious! :State 231 S. Statt - 66 TONIGHT AT MIDNITE IF YOU LAUGHED AT "LA CAGE" .TH . THEN CHECK IN TONITE AT "THE RITZ." A HIDEOUT FOR A GAY TIME TONIGHT AT MIDNITE 2-6264 TONITE AT LE G! MIDNIGHT T kL r I AND. Ilki mft r I> I / ,,,,,/ o" - memo 9y fu' )CVeplneS Coiri er~y n"o jc .create pacC e1 ring SaoJ we v easna,s f eatu or i r 3,c~urse chiken orStds an SUP, ~slike bef;et "S.fresaasn enthre O sr Sf I 1