The Michigan Daily-Friday, March 28, 198-Page5 'THE MASTER BUILDER' Constructing a workable Ibsen By OWEN GLEIBERMAN 'ake no mistake about it: The ter Builder is no roller coaster ride. Ibsen's intimate study of a wayward architect torn between his empty life and his crystal dreams makesan audience work for enjoyment, sorting out meanings from the odd, contrived, fragmented story. The current Univer- sity Showcase production at Trueblood (presented in conjunction with a two- day symposium on Ibsen and an impor- ted exhibition celebrating the 150th an- *rsary of the playwright's birth) is a "homes for human beings," reveling in the guilt and misery of his mundane life. ENTER Hilda Wangel (Terry Hallquist), a crazed, head-in-the-clouds drifter who had a rendezvous with Halvard ten years ago and never let go of what she saw as the chivalrous glory of it. He promised to build her castles in the air, and now she's arrived to claim them, reigniting Halvard's own crushed desire for transcendence and manipulating him into making one, final try for it. realistically detailed. Director Ala Yahya Faik hasn't helped focus the play's generally fuzzy tone by orchestrating a veritable collage of performance styles. Oc- casionally, the production almost seems to have shifted gears on us, as in Hilda's first scenes or a stunning con- frontation between Halvard and Ragnar Brovik, a young, up-and- coming draftsman. But this discontinuous approach isn't always at odds with the play's somewhat patchwork construc- tion, and the actors spark the perfor- mance with moments of blistering in- tensity that instantly-if jaggedly-cut to the heart of a scene. AS RAGNAR, Joseph Urla turns his few lines into fierce cries of rebellion, brimming with suppressed venom. As Aline, Halvard's icy-hearted wife, Johanna Dickey has been costumed in black and had her hair compressed into a tight bun, giving her the hateful, deathy look of Ingrid Thulin in Cries and Whispers. In the play, she represents the extreme of realism-"duty" divorced from love or warmth or reason-and punctuates her scenes with a chilly temper. The two leads bring the play both its finest and its most confused moments. Terryl Hallquist has been directed to play Hilda Wangle as a flirtatious space-case, a sort of Diane Keaton- cum-Bette Midler, and though her per- formance has terrific energy, it sometimes seems gratingly one- dimensional. Hallquist locks her hands on her hips, thrusts out her chest, pops her big, gaping eyes, and bounces her curly mane like some deranged, sexualized Shirley Temple; she comes on to Halvard like such a bubbly free- love freak that you keep wondering if he's going along with her banter about knights and tall, phalic towers just to get her in the sack. HILDA IS, of course, supposed to be a possessed, neurotic dreamer, but there's not much continuity between Terryl Halquist's performance and that of her husband, John Hallquist, as Halvard. Jon Hallquist simply acts too cocky and down-to-earth to convince us that his character is teetering between desperate extremes. His mellifluous, ad-man delivery has a surface urgency, but he never comes close to the brink of madness, and his, cowardice about climbing scaffolds is never magnified into a larger, symbolic cowardice-a fear of flying. But The Master Builder doesn't always have to make literal sense for its allegory to succeed. The last scene, with Halvard climbing his last tower, is powerfully staged, and watching the poor devil come to his inevitable end is a truly poignant moment. One wishes there were more such moments of riveting drama. But this sturdy produc- tion manages to stand up to its flaws. STUDENTS!9 The peer counselors of 77-Guide at Counseling Services "are offering a FREE WORKSHOP IN ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING Assertiveness Training is: " Learning to speak up for your rights, feelings, and opinions in a direct and honest manner. " Learning to distinguish between assertiveness, non-assertiveness, and aggression. " Learning how these principles may be applied to your everyday interactions. Join other students in a parficipation- orien ted small group setting. Thurs., April 3--7-9 pm 3100 Michigan Union " Enrollment limited 4 Register in advance by calling 76-Guide or come to the 76-Guide desk, 1st Floor Michigan Union .) t a rt Terry Wright Hallquist and Jon Hallquist in the University Showcase production of Ibsen's "The Master Builder" at the Trueblood, Theater (in the Frieze Building). The play will run through tomorrow, Saturday, March 29. t j iceable entertainment, but, it 't lend the viewer much of a jelping hand at figuring out how the. >ieces of this puzzle-play fit together. till; Master Builder is a journey into nadness that's often worth taking, specially as it nears its, tense and iorrifying finish. Ibsen's play only looks like an or- linary story: In fact, The Master wuilder is really a heady network of y olism concealed within a thin, t passive narrative. The play is ke a succession of freeze-frames with roicO-over dialogue. Halvard Solness Jon Hallquist), the master builder, is a uccessful middle-aged workman who ias ?'educed) existence to a painful iclidtomy: He sees' life as a choice etween dull, flat, empty "reality" and vision of pristine perfection. Halvard ised to build churches with tall, rajestic towers; now, twelve years af- er a tragic fire destroyed his house and *rectly) his children abd poisoned is wife's soul with bitterness, he's con- igned himself to designing bland Mistletoe was revered by the Druids. It was /considered so sacred that enemies passing beneath it would lay down their arms and exchange a kiss of peace. One of the keys to staging a play like this is striking a coherent balance bet- ween the particular and the abstract. The Master Builder is a quiet real-life drama that erupts into sudden arias of Expressionism. This production manages to skid off in both directions without maintaining any resonant ten- sion between the two. There's no driving consistency to the staging, no imaginative logic. For instance, the background projection, a wash of color suggesting the sun bursting through clouds, is simply and effectively evocative, but the set, a brown- bannistered, workmanlike represen- tation of the master builder's home and drafting studio, is visually ill-defined, neither nakedly stylized nor U U LS TRYOUTS Ann Arbor Civic Theatre Presents an Original Play .+A DPY 14M85ERT 'by Diane Monach Try-out times: 7:30-10:00 p.m. March 30, 31 April 1 Mass Meeting, Sunday March 30-7:00 p.m. 338 S. Main ROLES: EIGHT MEN, FOUR WOMEN A period comedy set in 1815 England Scholarships SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS 1'979- 1980 Each year at this time the LSA Scholarship Committee extends congratu- lations to those students who were awarded scholarships throughout the current year.-Names and scholarships awarded are as follows: OTTO S. GRAF SPECIAL LSA SCHOLARSHIP MERIT AWARDS Julie L. Anderson Julie L. Anderson Alison E. Hirschel Nina Shishkoff Robert W. Vishny Howard J. Wial HARRY HELFMAN SCHOLARSHIPS Lucia L. Allen Meredyth Bowler Kiren A. Chaudhry Randy M. Chudler Joshua A. Cohen Marcia L. Crouch David K. English Sean F. Foley Daniel J. Halloran Ani M. Janoyan David A. Jessup Daniel S. Jordan Irene Z. Kalynych Gretchen R. Kell Steve R. Kemperman Paul Martin Suzy Missirian Nabil A. Munfakh Byong C. Pak Martin C. Patrias Charles A. Peck Randolph G. Potts Marc E. Robinson Catherine G. Rosneck Jane S. Schacter Craig S. Selig Robert H. Shurtz Karre L. Slafkin April E. Stone Karen R. Sukenic Steve G. Van Meter John H. Wilson Cheryl A. Woods Howard M. Yerman HERBERT E. BOYNTON SCHOLARSHIPS I Benjamin J. Webber John F. Hickey Brian R. Kelly James M. Lindsay SAMUEL J. PLATT SCHOLARSHIP Katherine R. Friedman GENERAL UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS Sharolyn Aschenbrenner Anne R. Ballew Susan Baskett-Atkins. Leslie P. Bayern Kirk A. Beadle Marianne Blasko Daniel W. Bodine, Carolyn Bowler Meredyth Bowler David W. Campbell Jonathan L. Chang Michael M. Epstein Joshua C. Ezekiel Ihor O. Fedorowycz Mary D. Fenech Thomas J. Flanigan Aaron M. Frankel Jeri R. Glick Peter C. Gorman Alice E. Haddy David A. Handelsman Alan B. Heirich Jennifer B. Kane Seth I. Kaplan Frank A. Kohtz David A. Kotzian Jennifer R. Krato Lawrence R. Landman Lynn T. LaPointe David A. Laverty Sanford J. Lax Walter W. Lee Marc A. Lowe Denise M. Rokosz Diane C. Sallade Kristine E. Schmaltz Stanley A. Sedo Richard B. Sheridan Kong Ying L. Sien Paul R. Silverman Joshua M. Skoff Jerome Sobieraj Jr. April E. Stone Michelle L. Toering I I