The Michigan Daily-Friday, December 5, 1980-Page 9 - PTP's R&J sinks at christening (Continued from Page Eight) position. There is certainly ample room for levity in the first Montague-Capulet scrap, but there is an overabundance of it here. Stratford, Ontario import Jef- frey Guyton has done beautiful work with the dueling, but the players' smiles and sneers, combined with overly sun- ny lighting, give the proceedings the air of gentle horseplay, rather than deadly earnest feuding. Indeed, when someone finally is wounded (Mercutio in the first scene of the production's second act) and cries "I am hurt," he wths a solid laugh-from the audience. He shouldn't and wouldn't have if the drama's dark side had been given equal time. As it stands, the initial act of violence seems to start a new and different play-one with a pur- pose and focus at odds with the farcical early scenes. MERCUTIO AND Tybalt both end. up dead of course, but in this production they have another attribute in com- .mon: Both Jon Hallquist and Charles Jackson attack their lines with an tef- feminate bravado that is neither amusing nor justified by the script. Jackson, as Tybalt, is particularly strident, bitchy and unpleasant. Though weak spots are everywhere, ,the production does manage to totter through the first two acts without * eeting utter digaster. There is always 4the female Hallquist to warm up a igid moment, or a bit of cheeky Adalogue between Baird and Edward ,Stasheff as Peter, or a, particularly °splendid Jan Chambers costume. But the three scenes that conclude the play are, quite simply, vile. Earlier in the play, Chace gets by on looks, vigor, and humor. Here all is anguish, and the undergraduate just ain't got the stuff. y His misery breaks down into two 'variations, -scrunching his brow and pouting-which creep toward comedy upon the fifth or sixth rendering. James Reynolds' Friar Lawrence sputters out a barely comprehensible explanation of ,what has occurred previously. The whole ensemble stumbles in, and the ;grief that is supposed to be suffusing the stage looks' instead like murky, misdirected chaos. The hair-tearing and wailigg is sheer frippery, and the . prince seems especially majestic for putting an end to it. Sad to say, the strongest element of this Romeo and Juliet is the richly in- formative program, replete with chronology,.synopsis, notes on the play and on its central' relationship. The rest, in sum, is a sorry display of much of the department's dirty linen. The star-cross'd lovers deserve better. Performance Guide - MUSIC Same Band/The State/'Thwartedi-Ann Arbor's most adventurous and satisfying rock band rememerges after a conspicuous ansence and rumors of a break-up. Second-billed, The State will undoubtedly provide an ear- shattering dose of pure punk, though in the past their anger hasn't been ar- ticulated well enough to be listenable. Thwarted are an unheard of com- modity, preceded by rumors of being "interesting," which this evening of local rock and roll will undoubtedly be. Friday, December 5,8:00 p.m. at the Half-Way Inn, East Quad. The Cult Heroes/Ragnar Kvaran Group/The "New" Cubes-Another tough local triple header. The Heroes play aggressive rock and roll-equal parts heavy metal and punk-and play it very well, besides featuring the inimitable Hiawatha Bailey, one of those singers everyone should see at least once. Ragnar is an eccentric, and sometimes arresting pop-rocker with good songs and a mediocre band. The "old" cubes were nothing but a motorhead punk version of Blondie, and the new band still contains clone Carolyn on vocals and Farfisa, but they deserve the benefit of the doubt, at least. Monday, December 8,9:00 p.m. Second Chance, 516 E. Liberty. Jimmy Johnson-A rare chance to hear this blues singer/guitarist outside his sweet home Chicago. Witty lyrics and strains of soul and jazz spice his sound up considerably. Wednesday, December 10 9:30 p.m. Rick's, 611 Chur- ch. Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band-The old fart is finally getting some of the attention he's always deserved and riding the wicked intensity of his new album. This show should be nothing less than miraculous. Open your ears and your mind will follow. Thursday, December 11, 8:00 p.m Harpo's, Harpers and Chalmers, Detroit FILMS Beat the Devil-John Huston's 1953 international-intrigue sendup bombed with and baffled audiences at the time, and didn't amuse Humphrey Bogart much either-he had sunk a lot of his own money in it, and didn't get the joke. Flippant, quirky satire a decade or two ahead of its time, it's sublime comedy now. Friday, December 5, and 7:00 and 9:00, Lorch Hall.' All That Jazz-Bob Fosse's maddening, self-indulgenit, pretentious, inter- mittantly brilliant Las Vegas update of 81/2 is a gaudy autobiographical yowl of angst with symbolism, cynicism, lofty platitudes and song and dance galore. The message is: life, creativity and love are all bullshit, and yet they aren't. The movie, likewise, is dazzingly glib-a lot of crap and some great- ness wrapped in enough glitter to make some viewers believe that it's all great. Enough of it is to make this definitely worth enduring once, even the interminable final half hour. Roy Scheider, as Bob Fosse, manages to create more of a character than would seem possible under the circumstances. Saturday, December 6,7:00 and 9:30, MLB 4. Tabu-Documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North) teamed with poetic fiction director F. W. Murnau (Nosferatu) for this curiosity, a conventional romantic tale filmed on location in the South Seas with native non-ators. It's been labelled a fascinating but fatally imbalan- ced oil-and-water combination of talents for years, with Flaherty's straight- forward observation finally winning for control of the muddle; but in recent years there's been general critical re-appraisal that brands Tabu, for all its faults, one of Muranu's most sweetly lyrical works. Sunday, December 7, 7:00 and 9:00, Lorch Hall. Under the Roofs of Paris and Entr' acte-Two films by Rene Clair, one of the most charming and sophisticated of major early French directors.Roofs of Paris is a sunstruck early-talkie musical,' Entr'acte a 1924 silent Dadist exercise in surrealism. Both are being screened at 7:00 and 9:00; Sunday, December 7, Aud. A. Why We Fight-Frank Capra, the undisputed king of effortlessly manipulative Americana in the '30s and '40s, did his bit tbr the war effort, as did most of his Hollywood contemporaries. Three sections from his seven part documentary series will be screened, and for those of you who think unabashed propaganda during WW2 was limited to the Other Side, it should be intriguing experience., These are wildly dated in their voracious patriotism, of course, but that's what's fascinating about them, and Capra's filmmaking skill was far from lost in the effor'The two-and-three-fourths- hours show will be at 7:00 only, Wednesday, December 10, MLB 3. The Three Cabelleros-A Fantasia without the top-heavy pretentiousness, this musical blend of live action and animation with a Latin American slant bewildered audienced in 1943 with its breathless experimentation and crack visual humor. A wild rush of puns, surrealism and gaudy Technicolor, it's a lot closer to the frenzied wit of Allegro Non Troppo and modern experimen- tal cartooning than anything the Disney studio has done before or since, and though Disney has not seen fit to re-release it in any major way, it's gecome a sort of cult classic. Thursday, December 11, 8:45, Aud. A. THEATRE No More Masks-For every person who ever questioned their attractiveness or relationships. Lots of well-done shtick and dynamite singing by Univer- sity theatre students Loren Hecht and Judy Milstein. At the Canterbury Loft, 332 S. State, December 5 and 6 at 3 p.m. Hello, Dolly! The Soph Show has chosen this warhorse of a musical for their twenty-fifth anniversary production. Don't go expecting Barbra Streisand, although rumor has it that this staging does manage to pump some life into 'this by-now achingly predictable, archtypical example of theBroadway Big Show. Lydia Mendelssohn, December Sand 6, 8 p.m. "Sheer vocal elegance, Music Week London. 'A clean, mellow style and a great feeling of togetherness," Evening Express, Aberdeen, Scotland. "Cooly urbane virtuosity, "Chicago Tribune. Artist hunts for treasure BOSTON (AP) - When he was asked to illustrate a book, British artist Kit Williams became so indignant he ended up writing a book himself - writing it backward, in fact - and creating a real-life treasure hunt to go with it. A school dropout at 15, Williams ser- ved a hitch in the British navy before becoming a successful painter.And when publisher Jonathan Cape asked him to illustrate a book, Williams said he replied, "Painters don't illustrate books." WILLIAMS WAS still reluctant when the publisher suggested he write a book instead, and illustrate that. "I think you could have done the kind of book that no one had ever done," Cape said. "Unless I'm excited all the time," Williams recalled, "I can't work." But he said he paused at Cape's suggestion. "My paintings were very complicated. They take a long time," he said in an in- terview. "I had to think of something that would keep my interest for four years. Would it be possible to write a book backward?" He answered his question with "Masquerade," published in England last year, and now available in the United States from Schocken Books. "THE NOVEL is in the pictures. The writing in it is bare bones, it's really the illustrations," he said. "What I wanted to do was make people look at the pic- tures a long time. I thought if there were puzzles in the pictures, maybe they would." Each of the 15 paintings reproduced in the slim volume includes a hare, the book's main character. Each also con- tains clues to where Williams buried a 5%-inch, 18-carat gold and bejeweled hare, which he designed and made. The finder gets to keep the treasure, which is valued at about $20,000 and is buried in a clay container somewhere in the BritishIsles. It has been sought since Williams' book came out in England. There are clues in the text as well as the pictures. -"You need the whole book," Williams said. "If I were to rip out one page, you couldn't solve it." Daily Class ifileds Get Results!t -rSHIRT Ann Arbor's fastest! From 10-800 T-slfirts screenprint- ed within 24 hours of order. Multi-color printing our specialty. You supply art or use our expert design staff. Hundreds of surplus T-shirts only $2. each. Located behind the Blind Pig Cafe. 208 s. First St. Phone 994-1367 :ti ,is A ' r^ s y Spage ti 1Specil Sundays you can get a spe- i cial spaghetti dinner ins ciuding a garden salad & garlic $2.95. bread for only .1- EP iqt0o ",IC7 1140 SOUTH UNIVERSITY 6681-411 Dec. ApONDE thru Dec.2la 0111AY B Save $2.79 ojABNU on two Re lar of ponderosa getiiates Sirloin Strip Dinners Gift Certi~a Dinners include " Baked Potato 4 o 5 " Warm Roll with Butter " All-You-Can-Eat Salad Bar. * U E E C U T O U T T H I S C O U P O N * E E C U T O U T T H I S C O U P O N.IS *Save-229 * Save 2.79 TWO REGULAR SIRLOIN : TWO REGULAR SIRLOIN STRIP DINNERS... $5.99 STRIP DINNERS... $5.99 Beverage and dessert not included. Limit one Beverage and dessert not included. Limit one coupon per couple per visit. Cannot be used doupon per couple per visit. Cannot be used with other discounts. Applicable taxes not with other discounts. Applicable taxes not 5 included At Participating Steakhouses included At Participating Steakhouses. D Offer good ,U Offergood * Dec. 5thru us U Dec. 5thru " Dec 21 U Dec. 21 &EEMCOUPON COUPON 3354 East Washtenaw Ave. Pondeosa serves (across from Arborland Shopping Center) On West Stadium Blvd. (Just North'of Intersection ofr- 01980 Ponderosa System In Stadium & Liberty)CocaCo anCoke aeegs e ae nakswhch iden fy the same produc 0fThe Coca-Colo Company ri f 1 The next time you pick up your car keys and - head for the door, ask yourself whether a phone call could save you the trip-and the wasted gasoline. For a free booklet with more easy tips on saving energy and money write "E'nergy," Box 62, Oak Ridge, TN 37830. ENERGY. We can't afford to waste it. I few SwinghleSingeU A Christmas program Traditional carols Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" Songs by Jerome Kern and Cole Porter Music of Scarlatti, Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov The New Swingle Singers' style of singing music by Johann Sebastian Bach Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" Fddayw c.2a , o F 1idAI!tD cJZ at r 8 00 11 11