ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Thursday, November 5, 1981.
Page 5
'Wings' fails
mi
By Anne Gadon
DaP ily t y DEBORAH LEWIS
Siouxsie Sioux
Siouxsie Sioux held court at the Second Chance Tuesday night, moment by
moment creating a role somewhere between a tribal shaman and a Vogue
model. Her savage beauty is rivaled only by the Slits, and it's clear that she
is everything Patti Smith had always wanted to be but never had the vision
to accomplish.
An added bonus was that her vocals sounded much fuller and were not as
cold as they feel on vinyl.
The Banshees (John McGeoch on guitar, Steven Severin on bass, and
Budgie on drums) performed their usual unusual repertoire of sensual
dirges and paranoiac dance music perfectly, just as you would expect.
Budgie, playing one-man African drum band for the night, was especially
crucial in creating the cathartic paroxysms of the orgasmic dance fury that
has become the Banshees' trademark.
John McGeoch filled out the sound with his guitar trickery that echoes of
paranoia as much as psychedelia.
-Mark Dighton
W ALTER EYSSELINCK'S ad-
miration of Wings, a drama by
Arthur Kopit, is understandable. In the
hands of a top-notch actress and
technical director, Wings is a dazzling
event. The version appearing through
Sunday at the Lydia Mendelssohn
Theatre, however, is not the play en-
visioned by Kopit; in all theatrical
aspects, it is an out-and-out failure.
Wings is the final presentation in the
Michigan Ensemble Theatre's (MET)
premiere season. Under the leadership
of Theatre and Drama Department
chairperson Walter Eysselinck, MET is
the University's resident
"professional" company, earning its
pro label by the presence of Equity, or
union actors, in its productions.
Although Eysselinck yaps con-
siderably about the theatrical manna
he brings to Ann Arbor, no heavenly
displays have appeared on the Men-
delssohn stage. He yeses the guise of
professionalism as an excuse for bad
theatre and dramatic misinter-
pretation.
FOR EXAMPLE, this year's produc-
tion of Carlo Goldoni's Mirandolina by
MET substituted burlesque for the sub-
tlety aimed at by the author. Mounting
museum pieces would merely bore
everyone, but the delicacy is essential
to Goldoni, who was trying to progress
from the stock humor of commedia
dell'arte to a higher level of comedy.
The Blood Knot, by Athol Fugard,
lacked its emotional core due to the in-
terpretation of David Little, who made.
up 50 percent of the two-man cast.
Wings, directed by Eysselinck, can not
be properly mounted without spending
a lot of money which the department
doesn't have for technical effects.
Wings is essentially a one-woman
show. The play traces the story of
Emily Stilson, an aviatrix and a Wing-
suffers
much TV. Coburn is going to use his
computer to make commercials that
will hypnotize an audience into buying a
given product. Crichton is able to get
some laughs out of the computerized
commercials he puts together for the
film. But the message of the abuse of
TV is too simple for anything but the
mindless kind of movie he
ridicules-yet has directed.
The film does have some good
sequences, such as the fight between
Finney and an assailant who holds a
hypnotizing gun. But most of the movie
is as ineptly constructed as when we see
a title card saying "SUNDAY" followed
by an immediate cut into the middle of
a car chase.
When watching 1950 s sci-fi movies, it
is very easy to laugh at the lousy sets,
the fake computers, and the contrived
electronic gadgets. Looker should be
able to look as slick in 50 years. Unfor-
tunately, the plot already looks 50 years
old.
walker who, after suffering a stroke, is
unable to communicate with or under-
stand those around her. With the help of
a speech therapist and her own
courage, she moves towards regaining
her wings, the ability of speech flying
from person to person, the act of com-
munication.
The imagery of the wings also refers
to the perilous voyages that the psyche
experiences during and after a stroke.
The play's set reflects the darkened
condition of Emily's mind and her per-
ception of the world around her. Black
panels traverse the stage, mirrors spin
in the background, lights flash, disem-
bodied voices fill the air,, all adding up
to Emily's disordered view of reality.
Wings is essentially a spectacle of
technical wizardry and good acting
when it's done correctly. Without these
elements, however, its flaws as a
serious drama are apparent. Wings has
no solid conflict; it presents no moral
problem. The play is about Emily's bat-
tle with herself to regain speech.
There's no suspense in the plot or great
questions to be mulled over. But with an
Emily such as Constance Cummings,
who played the role in New York, Wings
can be a very moving event. It's a great
show more than it is a great drama.
In MET's Wings, the black panels
drag across the floor, achieving an
almost comic effect, the mylared
mirrors look too much like mylar, the
sound system is muddy-essentially,
the technical end is a mess. The visual
effects play as large a role as the star in
this production. But after a few spiffy
flashbulb pops in the first 10 minutes,
the audience is stuck watching a black
void for the remaining 70, with the oc-
casional thrill of observing a scrim
limp from stage right to stage left.
Actress Lenka Peterson, as Emily,
isn't able to save the play's destruction.
In fact, she makes a sad contribution to
it. Emily's frustrations about her
inability to communicate come off as
serably.
arrogance in Peterson's interpretation.
She lacks vocal variety, giving Emily a
consistent and tiresome tone of frenzy.
Peterson appears more disgusted than
frightened by her affliction.
Whether these attitudes are the fault
of the director or the actress is hard to-
say, but they obstruct the sense of pity
one should feel for Emily. The strong
core of the former aviatrix is missing.
Ann Crumb as Amy, Emily's
therapist, is appropriately com-
passionate, while Joyce Feurring and
Nancy Heusel add tiny flashes of life to
See WINGS, Page 7
"Tohours of
noanstop thrills,"
-Rex Reed
OF THE
A PARAMOUNT
DAILY WILLIAM HURT
1:1 KATHLEEN TURNER
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Looker
By Richard Campbell
LOOKER IS AS slick as any movie
can be, and is as poorly written
as many movies are: Writer-director
Michael Crichton, while one of the
ablest writers of science-fiction and ex-
position, is not a good writer or director
for film.
To make a bad movie look good, have
expensive production values. If you
can't dazzle them with brilliance, add
sgme flashing lights and disco music.
At, least these are the guiding ideas
bphind Looker.
In all honesty, it almost works. We
live in an electronic age, wearing com-
puters on our wrists. In Looker we are
given a glimpse of this technology at
the very' edge of the state of the art.
Only when the plot lapses into the ob-
viously science-fiction area of hyp-
notizing ray guns does the difference
between real science and special effec-
ts-become clear.
The combination of all the computer
generated graphics, and technical talk
is just about enough to keep the movie
afloat. But the silly. intrusion, of a little
thing called plot keeps reminding you
that you are watching a really stupid
movie.
Albert Finney portrays a respectable
plastic surgeon who has been ap-
proached by four actresses to do very
specific cosmetic surgery. These ac-
tresses have received computer-
processed lists, accurate down 'to the
millimeter, of the changes they require
to appear as perfect women.
Finney proves his acting genius when
he walks on the screen and is im-
mediately accepted by the audience as
's' scrip
a Doctor. The acting of the other cast
members, however, leaves much to be
desired.
Susan Dey-we all remember her
from "The Partridge Family"-shows
by her empty performance as a
struggling commercial actress, why we
have seen little of her work. Dey is an
inept actress, and she manages to look
awkward whenever she is in front of the
camera. Crichton is partly at fault,
giving her not even the barest charac-
ter sketch to work from.
James Coburn plays the president of
the corporation that is using these ac-
tresses' measurements to create com-
puter-generated movies that don't need
humans. For some unexplained reason,
Coburn decides to kill the actresses af-
ter obtaining the necessary infor-
mation. This is just the beginning of
many plot inconsistencies in the film.
The point of the movie is unoriginal
and oft-repeated. Anericans watch too
I-
PUTEIA
IUSTFO
A AWAY
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day you might find you
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LATINOAMERICA CANTA
RA DAY.
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PENAATARK
<S,
104.1 FM GRAND RAPIDS
ANN ARBOR 917FM
WUOM/WVGR
MUSICA DE AMERICA LATINA-A SERIES OF CONCERTS OF LATIN AMERICAN
MUSIC "PENA" in Latin America is a reunion of musicians in an informal atmosphere
sharing their music and art. Empanadas, punch, and the pursuit of Solidarity are part of the
meaning of "pelfa." We invite you to join us.
November 8, Sunday 7:30 p.m.
$4.00
BERMNDO PRLOMBO
(Argentinian) has performed internationally and is now living in New York. A recording artist
who has sung before at the Ark, he has worked with Amer'icanto Records and was responsible
for the music in the new film-EL SALVADOR: ANOTHER VITENAM with
WENDY BLACKSTONE
THE ARK
1421 Hill Street, Ann Arbor
761-1451
FREE PERFORMANCE FOR CHILDREN
Juancito Caminador
"BILINGUAL CHILDREN'S WORKSHOP/TALLER BILINGUE
SLIDES-LIVE MUSIC
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