7, ARTS

The Michigan Daily

Friday, October 3, 1986

Page 7

. ............ . ... . .... ...

Far freakin out;

'Doonesbury 'on stage

By Brian McCann

When Otis L. Guernsey put
together his annual collection of
Best Plays for the 1983-84 theater
season, he noted that the short-
lived Doonesbury would have
another life on some other stage.
This weekend Doonsebury re -
turns from the comics to the
theater as predicted: this time to
the Trueblood Theater for the
University Of Michigan's Mu-
sical Theater Program's first
performance of the season.
Doonesbury is a musical
comedy depicting Garry
Trudeau's sometime
controversial, yet always
politically relevent characters.
The Pulitzer Prize winning
cartoonist wrote the book and
lyrics himself, with music by
Elizabeth Swardos (of Runaways
fame). Their initial effort ran on
the New York stage for more than
100 performances.
The play follows the
adventures of the comic strip
characters brought to life on the
eve of their college graduation. It
first and foremost centers on
Trudeau's characters on the
verge of the "real world."
Beginning with a courtroom
drama which gives the character
of Uncle Duke back his freedom,
the musical progresses through
the establishment of a drug
rehabilitation center. The play
continues through the last days of
the Walden commune where the
quintessential Doonesbury
characters like Mike
Doonesbury, Mark, B.D., Boopsie
and Zonker are waiting for their

impending graduation. Along
the way each character sings
about one of their life's
complications, in musical styles
ranging from rap and samba to a
Gladys Knight and the Pips
parody.
The eleven person ensemble is
directed and choreographed by
Tim Millett, a faculty member of
the School of Music, with musical
direction by Eileen Condon.
Milett said that after looking at
many different musicals, he
chose Doonsebury because of the
large cast, and the director saw
possibilities for the growth for the
actors, plus an opportunity to do
modern political humor. In add -
ition to being an ensemble, almost
all of the cast members are
highlighted at one time during the
performance.
Milett said the transition from
print cartoon to the stage is
successful for Doonesbury. "The
interesing characters are in-
creased threefold," Millett said.
"It's always more fun to watch
them (in person)." Millett added
that the show develops all of the
characters from the beginning, so
no prior knowledge of the
Doonesbury world is required for
the production.
Best of all, University upper -
classmen facing the same
problems and concerns with
graduation can learn that there is
hope from Doonesbury. "We see
what they (the characters) can do
with their life," Millett said.
"Life goes on" after graduation
for the characters of Doonsbury's
world. "It's mostly just fun."
The musical comedy runs

tonight through Monday at the
Trueblood Theater. Performan-
ces are at 8 p.m., with a 2 p.m.

matinee on Sunday.
$5 general admission
students with LD.

FRESH DONUTS
(Apple, Blueberry, Plain)
FRESH APPLE CIDER
U-Pick Apples
U-Pick Pumpkins
WASEM FRUIT FARMS
6580 JUDD RD. " 422-2342
15 miles southeast of Ann Arbor, or at stall 60, Farmers' Market

Tickets are
and $3 for

Rock Poster Sale'
10am-5pm
LAST DAY
Michigan Union Ground Floor
Blues Brothers-Echo and the Bunnymen-Clash-Cramps-Sade-Kate Bush'Springsteen-Z
Style Council-New Order-Joy Division-U2-Dire Straits-Sting-Pouges-Jesus and '*
Mary Ch. -Cult-Smiths-Rush-Mad Max-Manhatten-Taxi Driver'Apocalypse Now'Bowle S
'he Hunger)-James Dean-Sex Pistols-Banshees-Pink Floyd-Talking Heads KEM'Yes-
race ;ones-Peter Gabriel-Bob Dylan-Lloyd Cole-Stranglers-Girl-Bob Marley"Sade
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llina'Madonna-Doors-Iron Maiden-EurythmiceNew Model Army'Dead or Alive-Joni
Mitchell-Crian Ferry-Marlon Brando-Paul Newman-Burt Lancaster-Stones'Deep'Echo
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ash-Cramps-Sade-Kate Bush-Springsteen;Style Council+New Order-Joy Division'B
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_river-Manhatten Apocalypse Now'Bowie (The Hunger) -James Dean-Sex Pistols'Sade
Banshees-Pink Floyd-Talking Heads-REM Yes-Grace Jones-Peter Cabriel'Bob Dylan*
loyd Cole-Stranglers'Girl-Bob Marley-Tears for Fears+ZZ Top-Depeche Mode-Door
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curythmics 'New Model Army-'Dead or Alive-'Joni Mitchell-'Brian Ferry-'Marlon Brand
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SPONSORED BY MICHIGAN UNION ARTS & PROGRAMMING


Photo by DOUG MCMAHON
Ty Hreben plays Duke, one of Doonesbury's notorious characters in the
> undergraduate production of the same name.


Books

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'Recollections of the
_Golden Triangle
BY ALAIN ROBBE-GRILLET
Grove Press
x6.95
Alain Robbe-Grillet, one of
France's finest literary intel-
lects, has produced yet another
bizarre novel. His latest work,
Recollections of the Golden
"Triangle, is available in trans-
lation by J. A. Underwood.
Especially reminiscent of Djinn
and The Voyeur, Robbe-Grillet's
, Mnost recent novel adheres
undauntingly to the fascinating
style of his former works. In car-
rying on his own tradition of the
nouveau roman, this novel
contains no objective reality.
'The reader must make all the
Michigan Daily
ARTS
763-0379

interpretations and associations.
The plot of Recollections of the
Golden Triangle is difficult to
follow. A few coherent threads
and the brevity of the text make
completion of the novel possible.
Robbe-Grillet sets his novel in a
contemporary South American
city struggling in a frightening
state of destruction. An integral
part of the plot is the shifting
setting, which varies between an
enigmatic private club, a lab-
yrinthine jail, and a peculiar old
opera house.
A secret cult manipulates all
three locations while viloently
dismembering young women.
These women are subsequently
rearranged into cans of savory
salmon. The few male characters
that Robbe-Grillet portrays are
intriguing perversions of
common stereotypes. In the style
of the nouveau roman, character
development is sacrificed in
order to liberate the reader from
any preconceptions.
Fortunately, the novel is not so

simple. Robbe-Grillet's brilli-
ance lies in his ability to create
content through form. Readers
must intuit plot from recurring
themes, such as women's shoes,
triangles, and the word "sal-
mon." All of the standard con-
ventions of a novel are deli -
berately confused. The perpet-
ually shifting setting is rarely
defined. Time progression is
never what is seems, so that
events do not occur chron-
ologically. People and objects do
not absolutely exist. Eventhe
voyeuristic narrator shifts per-
petually from the first to the third
person. Murders and muti-
lations only seem to occur, and
people rarely die permanently.
Victims as well as murderers
change in a nightmare-like
fashion.
A revolting misogyny absorbs
this darkly nebulous story.
Female characters are human
only in their sexuality. Women
appear solely as the recipients of
explicit and sadistic violence.

Even young girls are degraded
and defiled by the author's
deprivation. Therefore, many
readers may be reviled by Robbe-
Grillet's explicitly violent
misogyny.
However, Recollections of the
Golden Triangle exerts a great
innovation of style. The adven-
turous reader should certainly
investigate this fine example of
the nouveau roman. Robbe-
Grillet's expert literary crafts -
manship is undeniable.
By Kaywin Feldman


6'

The Center for Japanese Studies Presents
YASUJIRO OZU'S
THE END OF SUMMER
a series of vignettes centering around a patriarch's battle
to keep his mistress in spite of family disapproval.

October 3
Admission:
FREE
7 -9 p.m.
Japanese with
English Subtitles

.pr t . 1-

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