ARTS The Michigan Daily. Sunday, March 21, 1982 Page 5 The Acting Company does Shakespeare proud B Elliott Jackson W HAT A PITY that John Houseman's Acting Company could not have remained a few days longer in Ann Arbor! Whether the Company, New York based and consisting to a great degree of graduates from the Juillard School of Acting, continued with the same play or in repertory would have made no difference: either prospect is delightful. Certainly nowhere in Ann Arbor is one going to find the incredibly smooth and polished technique, coupled with the thoughtful and sen- sitive appreciation of a play's subtleties, that were shown in the Acting Company's March 19th production of Twelfth Night. For those few-certainly it can be no more than a few-who are unfamiliar with Shakespeares' Twelfth Night, a brief run-down of the plot may be in order. The Duke Orsino of Illyria is languishing for the love of the Lady Olivia, who has sworn that she will have none of him, or any other man, at least until she has completed her mourning for her brother. At this point, a girl named Viola, who has been shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, and believing her twin brother to be drowned, en- ters the service of the Duke, disguised as a boy. The Duke employs her to woo Olivia, in the process of which Viola falls in love with her master, and Olivia with Viola. Of course, the twin brother eventually appears on the scene, and confusion reigns over the latter part of the play until brother and sister are reunited. In addition there is a rich sub-plot, wherein the steward of Olivia's household, one Malvolio, is punished for his presumption and general humorlessness by Olivia's uncle, Sir Toby Belch, and several of Olivia's retainers. Well and good, but Shakespearean comedy is difficult to pull off under the best of circum- stances, and seems well-nigh impossible to do under any other. Given this understanding, the Acting Company's production was remarkable in that not only did the actors seem to know and appreciate what their characters were saying, but they managed to put their knowledge to good use-for they pulled off that most difficult of occurrences, the performance of a Shakespearean comedy at which people laughed, long, heartily, and consistently. This is not to say that they always allowed the text to get the laughs on its own, for the Company knows its audience not wisely, but too well. They seemed to think that in our narrow 20th century literal-mindedness, we would fail to laugh at any of the more obscure or subtle jokes unless they provided visual or aural aids to our appreciation. Case in point: When Maria, Olivia's maid-in-waiting, is introduced to Sir Toby's dupe, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and embroils him in a game of suggestive entendre which Andrew can't begin to understara, she makes a fool of him without his being at all aware of it. Instead of allowing, or making, the audience appreciate the humor of the situation itself, the Company chose to have the actress playing Maria turn back and laugh in Andrew's face, thereby relieving the audience's tension and causing us to laugh as well-but for the wrong reasons. We laughed because Maria is telling us Aguecheek is a fool, not because we see it for ourselves. Whether or not the Company is to be blamed for pandering to its audience all depen- ds on whether )r not one believes as they do that it's better to get any laugh than not get the right one. When it comes, however, to the subject of the right kind of laughs, one must come to the sub- ject of the handling of two of the principal laugh-makers of the piece: namely, Sir Toby Belch, and Feste the Clown. Unfortunately, both seemed to suffer tremendously from melancholia: one felt almost guilty seeing these obviously suffering people called "oon to mouth their respective hilarious lines.' Sir Toby, who is Twelfth Night's Lord of, Misrule, must be the very spirit of feckless riotiousness and unabashed deviltry. TO have a Toby so stricken with qualms about his debauches and schemings is to have a play that is stripped of much of its fun and high spirits. Likewise, the Clown, Feste, should be en- joying himself immensely as Olivia's "corrup- ter of words." He is the only character who never reveals his motives and desires to the audience; who seer i , in fact, to have no reason to enter the action save that he takes great amusement from it. If he is not vastly and visibly enjoying himself, then the audience cannot enjoy themselves to the fullest extent possible. The Cellar scene, during which Feste comes to visit "Malvolio the Lunatic", is the funniest scene in the play if handled correctly. Unfortunately, Feste seemed so reluctant to poke fun at madness in the properly Elizabethan style that the audience spent most of the time chuckling uncomfortably. The Feste seemed much more of a victim, more of a pathetic sort, than he should have; the Com- pany seemed to forget that they had Malvolio to act as the melancholic, victimized clown. These are the sorts of problems that none but the concerned critic and lover of Shakespeare will catch, and if I note them here it is not to knock the production or deny its good points, but only to bewail mildly the fact that the Com- pany did a good enough job for us to catch glimpses of how extraordinarily entertaining a well-thought-out production of a Shakespearean comedy can really be. _________7 9130 PBARGAIN MATINEES DAILY $2.50 Dancers radiate excitement at Concert By Tan ia Blan ich POWER CENTER came alive Friday night, jolted into action by an electric mix of dancing, choreography and music. The Univer- sity of Michigan Dance Company's Spring Concert was greeted with ap- preciation by a disappointingly small, but enthusiastic, crowd. Each of the four premier dances radiated ex- citement and more crazy fun than Ann Arbor audiences have seen for a while. The Concert opened with Elizabeth Weil Bergmann's Short Stuff. The music, composed by Gregory Ballard and performed by The Current And Modern Consort, set pigtails and bodies bouncing across the stage. Bergmann perfectly captured the exuberant play of children with this work. Running about the stage, hopping, skipping, leaping and swirling, the dan- cers never once lost their childish ap- peal. Nor did their perpetual and plen- tiful play hide the fact that the dancing was top-rate. The costumes, designed by Nancy Jo Smith, were ideal. Their playful yellows and oranges, as well as the billowing fabric reflected the movement and theme of the piece. Guest artist Manuel Alum's piece, Fresh Fruits in Foreign Places, sizzled with a Latin flavor. Music by Kid Creole and the Coconuts combined with Alum's choreography to make this pieceexciting and crazy. With hips wriggling and shoulders shimmying, the seven dancers, clad in bright, outlandish costumes, created a mar- velously energetic world. Alum's choreography was wonder- fully chaotic, propelling the dancers about the stage to the wild salsa beat. The dancers constantly interact, only occasionally breaking away into a wild solo. The dance is physically deman- ding but the group held their own. The dancers, technically capable, never- rHEl 4. theless lacked that certain maturity of professionals. If the piece was this good now, I'd love to see them perform it in a few years: at that point, both the work and the dancers should have attained the ripeness needed. The 88's was Vera L. Embree's tribute to some of the giants of the keyboard, such as Chick Corea and Oscar Peterson. The series of mostly amusing dance vignettes included a tongue-in-cheek look at ballet, a spoof of Fred and Ginger as well as an emotional blues set. The dancers moved nimbly, as did the fingers of the pianists. In simple black and white costumes, the dancers effectively ex- pressed the thrills of the music to which they moved. The last piece of the evening, Rage and Ruin, choreographed by Susan Matheke, carried a powerful punch. It was in many ways as "light" as the preceeding works, however, with the Current and Modern Consort blasting another original score by Ballard and given Matheke's forceful choreography, the audience was mer- merized. Relying heavily on leaps and runs, the piece pulsated with vigor. The movements were harsh yet oddly fluid as the dancers careened haphazardly about the stage. The dancers moved almost brutally at times, only to glide on stage in slow-motion moments later. The open stage effect was im- pressive, the minimal set reinforcing the punk flavor of the dance. The music was every bit as excellent as the dan- cing. While "Cateyes and Acid," the piece accompanying Short Stuff was fun and light, Rockit bombarded the audience with stark power. As the dan- ce ended, the audience sat silently, not quite sure what had hit them. But en- thusiastic applause soon followed. The dance Company's Spring Concert was a great success. The dancing was strong, the choreography excellent. Costumes were more innovative than ever. And the use of live music for two of the pieces was a wonderful change of pace. One can only hope that the -com- bined talent of Ballard and the Currant and Modern Consort will again be merged with the Dance Company. The Dance Company deserves your support. Their concert is special and exciting, and full of good dancing. Don't ignore the talent which will shine at Power Center:today at 3 p.m. . Riveting...I Enthralling... 1:15 .y' CHARIOTS 4:00 OF FIRE 7:00 No $1 j :3 TUESPG 93 I c1'"A great love story... 1:15 WARREN BEATTY DIANE KEATON 8:30 Rt A PARAMOUNT ®PICTURE;, By Don Rubin We've used the alphabet at the bottom of this week's puzzle to construct several linguini- shaped words at the right (linguini, of course, from the Latin lingua, meaning tongue). Anyway, we'd like you to figure them out. The letters are arranges contiguously, in proper sequence, like the links of a chain. You may fork over your solutions on the lines below. UZZLE Figures of Speech 5. S6. 7. 8. 9. toV J WeP C 'i 0I 12. I 3 4 1. 2.- 3.. 13.. 13.. 14.. 15.. 5 ii 61 LAST WEEK'S SOLUTION: I found five more possible solutions before I lost my zip. Here they are: C A K l L~L. Li E]IJ* [TJLIJf~ 10 71 d9 1~= -c .rns. U. o 14 15a i wU lwl~1 LII [:J. 12 13 a-) el 0. ru lvmsnt m 0 d 1981 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. _ ...... rf, _ Y---l - ...:aL fL--- r . tt 119910( ?