ARTS


* The Michigan Daily

Friday, November 20, 1981

Page 7

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'Tartuffe': lively
r; Moliere comedy

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in the
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Individuals must come to 1500 S.A.B. to update application
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day, December 1, 1981.
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Daily Photo by BRIAN M
Mangione in action at Hill Auditorium
Manione makes the

By Lisa Crumrine
D ECEIT MAY BE Tartuffe's svec-
ialty, but fortunately there is
nothing deceptive about the quality of
University of Michigan's Department
of Theater and Drama's production of
Tartuffe. Directed by Richard
Burgwin, Tartuffe opened Wednesday
evening at Power Center, offering a
sincerely sound performance of
Moliere's comedy to a highly receptive
audience.
Moliere's Tartuffe, written in 1664, is
a lively, consistently entertaining
comedy which treats such subjects as
religious hypocrisy, adultery, and
greed in a purposely humorous man-
ner. h
When the play opens, frenzy charac-
terizes the entire household of Orgon,
a wealthy bourgeois. The consternation
arises out of the family's concern over
Tartuffe, an enduring houseguest and
friend of OrgonOrgon's family harbors
blatant scepticism about Tartuffe's
scruples, or lack thereof. In contrast,
Orgon dotes on Tartuffe's "piety"; he
can do no wrong in Orgon's eyes, as
Tartuffe, whose very name means
cheat, or deceit, elicits Orgon's utmost
repect and confidence.
The conflict between Orgon and his
family manifests itself immediately
from the first scene of the play, in
which Madame Pernelle, Orgon's
mother (Dominique Lowell), declares
her utmost belief in Tartuffe. Lowell's
Pernelle makes it easy for the audien-
ce' to despise her, as she portrays the
woman in an abrasive, shrill way. Yet
Lowell works almost too hard to make
her character unpopular, in the process
distorting the lines with her
vociferousness and creating a stiff,
somewhat overdramatic opening
scene.
The tension is broken, however,
when Dorine (Terryl Hallquist),, enters.
Moliere's Dorine is one of the highlights
of the comedy because she has some of
the funniest lines in the play. Hallquist
shines in this role as she personifies the
spunky and charming maid. Her
character livens up the entire play with
spicy humor. Once Dorine appears, the
audience remembers that the play is a
comedy, and relaxes, watching her
perpetrates her schemes for Tartuffe's
undoing.
Elmire, Orgon's wife (Catrine
Ganey), Cleante, Orgon's brother-in-
law (Van Dirk Fisher), and Damis,
Orgon's son (William Freimuth), all

work with Dorine in planning to awaken
Orgon to Tartuffe's insincerity. Each of
the actors provides a convincing
characterization of his or her role.
Ganey's Elmire combines the right
amount of sympathy for Organ with an
appropriate disdain for his blindness,
and Fisher's Cleante succeeds as the
rational "good guy" who wants to help
Orgon see his situation before it vic-
timizes him.
The wealthy bourgeois Orgon (Jon
Hallquist) is just what we would ask for
in a bumbling, affected gentleman
whose superficiality allows him to be
taken in by Tartuffe's charms.
Played by Harvey Vernon, the
University's Guest Artist in Residence,
Tartuffe lives up to our expectations in
that he is cunning and deceptive, yet
Vernon offers us more. His Tartuffe is
so subtle that his seeming simplicity
disguises his conniving ways so that he
comes across as being even more
devious than we might expect.
Like any good 17th century comedy,
Moliere's Tartuffe is complicated by
the confused antics of Mariane, Orgon's
daughter (Ruth Waalkers),and Valere,
her lover (Daniel Chace). Waalkers'
Mariane proves to be innocent and per-
fectly gullible. When Orgon disrupts
Mariane and Valere's marriage plans,
the comedy becomes even more
humorous, leaning toward slapstick.
Robin Ver Hage's costuming deser-
ves mention; the costumes are all
elaborate, and entirely suitablefor the
nature of the play. Tartuffe's "in-
nocent" white outfit is particularly ap-
propriate in that it provides a direct
contrast to his real personality, and
makes him seem even r more
hypocritical.
Judging by the fond reaction of the
audience, Tartuffe succeeds. One won-
ders whether Moliere enjoyed writing
the play as much as the audience en-
joyed watching it, for Tartuffe is cer-
tainly a delightful comedy. If one word
could be used to describe the play, it
would be class, for U.M.'s production of
Tartuffe is definitely worth seeing. It
runs through Sunday, November 22 at
Power Center.


HANDMADELMS
TIME
BANDITS
...they didn't make history,
they stole it!

in MAPLE VI AGE SP CTR
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MON - FRI $2 til 6PM
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. crowd feel
By Jerry Brabenec
A T HILL Auditorium Wednesday
night, Chuck Mangione once again
showed his unique musical per-
sonality-nobody else writes the same
sort of simple, cloying, and instantly
recognizable melodies. This is a talent
that should not be underestimated. It's
just as important to recognize that
Mangione's music is not jazz; it's
popular music. As jazz, Mangione's
music would seem pretty insipid, but
"Feels So Good" and "Give It All
You've Got" still provide a welcome
change of pace in the playlists of top 40
radio stations. Although the similarity
of his tunes becomes tedious after a
while, his arrangements are effective
and pretty, and the performances on
the records are almost always tasteful
and professional.
The big exception, and number one
dud among Mangione's recorded out
put, is the soundtrack album Children
of Sanchez. Mangione explains in the
liner notes that he wrote and recorded
something like eleven hours of music ir
a single two week marathon session of
sixteen-hour days, and the music bears
him out. The arrangements are ab-
solutely minimal, and Mangione's
playing displays all the missed notes
and pinched sounds one would expect in
the circumstances. This album's music
is so skeletal that a high school studen-
t could figure out virtually everything
that happens on it. Like most of
Mangione's records, Sanchez can be
very educational to a beginning jazz
musician, and this is probably its main

so good
value.
Before the sudden boom in popularity
occasioned by the popular success of
the tune "Feels So Good" and an atten-
ding marketing blitz (remember the
Memorex commercial, or Mangione,
sitting around chatting on the Mike
Douglas show, giggling and cradling his
flugelhorn in his arms?), Mangione was
a cult figure of sort, mainly appreciated
by high school band directors and their
fledgling sax and trumpet players.
His earliest albums ' were
arrangements for orchestra and jazz
quartet, recorded with the Rochester
Philharmonic, but there were also a
couple of good solid quartet albums, a
lot more jazzy than anything he has
done since. One record jacket proudly
lists the college degrees earned by the
e four quartet members. Mangione him-
self has a Master's, and taught jazz at
I the Eastman School of Music in
Rochester before striking out into the
commercial realm. It's even possible to
- call Mangione the progenitor of a whole
See MANGIONE, Page 8

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MEN'S GLEE CLUBS
Patrick Gardner. Director. Michigan - James Gallagher. Director. Ohio State
IN JOINT CONCE
Saturday, November 21, 1981 " 8:00 p.m. " Hill Auditorium
Tickets: $4.50, $3.50, $2.50. Student Tickets at $1.50.
Available Novembe 16-21 at Hill Auditorium Box Office.
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