ARTS
Friday, December 4, 1981
-I
I
The University Choral Union
and The University Orchestra
Donald Bryant, conductor
Susan Belling, soprano Joseph Evans, tenor
Melanie Sonnenberg, contralto Michael Burt, bass
Bejun Mehta, boy soprano
Dec. 4,5,6
Fri., Satat8:30,
Sun ate 2:30
-Hl Audltorium
Gift Certificates for concerts available.
Tickets: Main floor: $7 and $6; First balcony: $4;
Second balcony: $3 and $2
Tickets at Burton Tower. Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Weekdays 9-4:30, Sat. 9-12 (313) 665-3717
Tickets also available at Hill Auditorium
1, hours before performance time.
'''IVEkSITY 57vIUSICAL %OCIETY
Page 6
Records
Our Daughter's
Cowboy' EP
Capital)
Wedding-'Digital
(EMI America-
THIS IS a fine record, but it still doesn't
go far enough to prove that Our
Daughter's Wedding are much more than
one-hit wonders.
Their one hit, "Lawn Chairs," is a
marvelous novelty dance song. It's a
bitingly snide criticism made all the
more lovable by the fact that it is every
bit as simple-minded and plastic as the
object of its criticism.
It is only when ODW try to spread
that formula over the remaining four
tracks that we discover how thin the
material was originally. The major
disappointments are the electronic
beat, which is adequate but not much to
work with, and Keith Silva's smug
vocals, which alienate as much as they
engage.
In short, this stuff is cute and clever,
but lacks the meat to stay cemented in
the memory. It's more like TV com-
mercial music no doubt you'll find
yourself humming it often but not be
able to remember what it is.
It's clear that these boys have the
ideas of superstars but the songs of
"also-rans." They're going to need a
lot of beefing up in the penmanship
category before they can hope to com-
pete with the likes of Orchestral
Manoevres in the Dark or Duran
Duran. But I hope they keep trying;
they're in the right race, but (for now)
just in the wrong league.
-Mark Dighton
The Michigan Doily 0
'The Time'-(Warner
Brothers)
RINCE'S touring band are basking
in their leader's shadow on this
release. You. can't really blame them;
he's cutting a pretty monstrous figure
these days, leaving plenty of room for
others to capitalize on his ventures.
And who is better to do it than his own
band? Indeed, if you listened to this
album for the first time blindfolded
(Doesn't everyone listen to music that
way, anyway) you'd probably swear this
was Prince. It's got Prince's sound
signature-the porta-funk bass lines,
the funky sting to the keyboards, the
sweetly sensual vocals.
You could even go blindfolded to The
Time's show at Joe Louis Arena this
Saturday (where they will be warming
up for Prince, quite appropriately) and
test out my claim in that fashion, but
you're sure to miss one hell of a show
that way.
I SURE HOPE The Time take it as a
compliment that they can so effectively
mimic Prince. We certainly can't ex-
pect the same adventureousness from
them (indeed, Prince's new album may
have already made this record sound
old hat), but we can be grateful that
someone (anyone) else can do material
as aesthetically and commercially
daring as Prince. I suppose that since
Prince's crusade to fashion a unique
pop-funk, synthesis for our age has
plowed up so much ground, that we
really can't blame The Time for staying
back to clean up (so to speak) on
territory Prince has already forsaken
for something even newer yet.
-Mark Dighton
0
* :NN R BOi,.50 WED. SAT. SUN.
INDIVIDUAL THEATRES $ I
5th Ave. at Liberty 761-9700 (Except "REDS")
Betty Hancock (standing) and Donna Marie LaVere: 'The House of Bernarda
Alba.'r
'Bern arda' tragedy
presen ted unsu btly
40
STARTS TONIGHT!
r
The Department of Theatre and Drama Presents
ETHE HOUSE OF
BERNARDA ALBA
Dec. 2-5 & 10-12
Trueblood Theatre
Tickets: PTP Of f=ice
(Michigan League) 764-045()
\; ' /
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i
Working on The Daily
Is a Great Experience!
By Carol Poneman
LET US ALL be glad that we are
not living in Spain. That is the sen-
timent most powerfully conveyed by
last night's performance of "The House
of Bernarda Alba." The tragedy cen-
ters on five sisters who are trapped by
their mother in their tomb-like house, in
mourning for the death of their father.
While the tone of the play is meant to be
serious and heavy, a little more sub-
tlety in the acting and staging would
have made the production more suc-
cessful.
"Bernarda Alba" is the first play to
be produced in the newly renovated
Trueblood Theater. Set up as a theater
in the round, this enclosed theatrical
space helps to create the feeling of en-
trapment that the play communicates.
The arrangement of the stage, the dark
costumes and the heavy furniture of the
set all help to produce an appropriately
claustrophobic feeling.
Unfortunately, this constrained
feeling overflows into the actions of
almost all of the actresses. None of
them move comfortably and naturally
through the space. Almost all are tense,
keeping their limbs closely pressed
against their bodies, except where
specific actions are needed. They enter
and exit as though pulled by strings
from off stage.
Whenever a scene calls for an action
of violence or passion, it is done heavily
or stiffly. Gestures, such as those of
Donna LaVere, who played the
youngest sister Adela, are too obviously
staged. An example of this is when
Adela dances around the stage, in the
beginning of the play. LaVere's
movements are affected, rather than
happy and natural, as they are meant to
be.
This same lack of subtlety is found in
the acting of Betty Hancock, who plays
the mafriarch Bernarda Alba,' atid
Virginia Dudley Eveland, who plays
Bernarda's crazy mother. The role of
Bernarda is difficult to play, because of
its unceasing hatefulness. But Hancock
speaks in the same menacing voice
throughout the performance, with little
exception. It is as though Oz's Wicked
Witch of the West is transported to
Spain.
Hancock's threatening tone quickly
becomes monotonous and loses its ef-
fectiveness as the play wears on. It
would have been more convincing if she
could have varied the role by finding
some quality besides menace to put into
her character. As it is, Hancock resem-
bles a robot. However, at the end of the
play she unloosens somewhat aed
becomes more convincing in her
passion.
See HOUSE, Page 7
i
WARREN BEATTY
DIANE KEATON
EDWARD HERRMANN
JERZY KOSINSKI
JACK NICHOLSON
PAUL SORVINO
MAUREEN STAPLETON
FRI-8:30
SAT. SUN-1:00, 4:45, 8:30
(Adults $2.50-1:00 p.m. show only)
(PG)
LAST 14DAYS!
1981's MOST CRITICALLY
ACCLAIMED ACTRESS ...
MERYL STREEP
firuIenafl
FRI-7:00, 9:25
SAT. SUN-1:00, 3:25, 7:00, 9:25
(R)
ANN aQdQD CMEAD ELIWC