Page 8 -The Michigan Daily-Monday, March 14, 1988 Intrigue By Lynn Gettleman in= succeeds in 'Right You Do truth and reality actually ex- ist? So asks Luigi Pirandello in his 1917 drama, Right You Are If You Think You Are, performed last weekend at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. In this enjoyable production by the University Players, the Nobel Prize winning playwright searches for truth in a intriguing and comical manner. Slow moving at first, the play takes place in the home of Coun- selor Agazzi (Mail Willett), where his wife (Nina Bradlin) and daughter (Lisa Mintz) gossip with friends about the mysterious old woman (Rebecca Rand) who moved in next door but has refused to receive her neighbors' visits. Supposedly the old woman's daughter lives in a ten- ement across town, kept by her hus- band "under lock and key." Appar- ently her son-in-law (Chris Carter) forbids the old woman to see her daughter. These mysterious relations soon become the obsession of the gossips (Amy Forman, Dana Tas- son, Joanna Daly, and Alexa Eldred), and before the audience realizes it, they too are caught up in the mys- tery. The gossips are often chided by the counselor's brother-in-law, Lamberto Laudisi (Bill Downey). As a symbolic representative of Piran- dello, Laudisi points out Pirandello's main message - what one person sees as real is quite different from another's perception of reality. As the gossips scurry about, Laudisi quietly observes their absurdity from the sidelines, never doubting his knowledge of what lies beneath the mystery. Pirandello structures his play around the idea that the entire con- cept of reality is a mystery. While the mystery unfolds, the author re- veals the concept that reality differs for each individual. Thus, Pirandello uses his play to state that objective reality fails to exist. The University Players' produc- tion of Right You Are If You Think You Are effectively expressed Pi- randello's somewhat confusing, in- tellectual message. Because the play itself is often quite wordy, a poor production could be quite deadly. However, especially good perfor- mances by Bill Downey, Nina Bradlin, and Rebecca Rand captivated the audience, plunging them into the world of gossip and their mysterious new neighbors. Downey in particular approached each situation with great Are' cleverness and insight. While the town gossips offer much comic relief to some very tense situations, they would have been even more effective if director Hilary Cohen had them play off each other instead of posturing to them- selves. Otherwise, Cohen created an interesting stage, upon which the gossips struggled to reveal reality and truth. The physical stage and the early 20th century costumes are also well worth mentioning. Set designer Eric Renschler of the University's theatre design program, leaves out abso- lutely no details. The set was effec- tively economical - using no set changes - despite the fact the original play called for multiple sets. The costumes designed by Jessica Hahn clearly demonstrate why her earlier designs won a Joseph Jeffet son Award. Taken together, the set- ting and costumes were spectacular. Pirandello uses his play as a ve- hicle to get across his intellectual message, and the actors were able to do in a well performed, very intrigu- ing manner. Right You Are If You Think You Are is meant to produce future thought rather than immediate reaction. And the University Players suc- ceeded in doing so. Signora Cini (Joanna Daly) and Signora Sirelli ( Amy Forman) are skeptical when they hear Signor Ponza's (Christopher Carter) version of the true story. Union Arts presents poetry in a pub By Jennifer Kohn "Crazy Jane Talks With the Bishop," 1933. "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come t o Nothing," 1914. "Leda and the Swan,"1924. If you're familiar with these titles, or you're craving some corned beef and cabbage, your time has come. Tonight English Professor Bert Hornback will read from Yeats' poetry, accompanied by Fran Norton who will play guitar and sing Irish folk songs. The reading will be presented in three sets beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the University Club. Hornback choos- es both his favorite Yeats poems and the greats of Yeats. He favors Yeats' poetry for the lyrical, mu- sical quality it possesses. Yeats is a logical choice with which to celebrate St. Patrick's Day since he was the premier literary figure during the Irish Revolution and in the Easter Rising of 1916 in particular. Eight years ago the University held a "Yeatsfest," complete with an opera, a play, and a poetry reading, which is echoed in Horn- back's reading. Shirley Smith, Coordinator of Cultural Pro- graming for the Union, explains that Ireland is filled with pubs: "All the different kinds of pubs in Ireland reflect the different interests of the diverse people. We want to create the atmosphere of a poetry pub at these readings." Hornback will give a second reading this week in the Rare Books room of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library at 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, St. Patrick's Day. This reading will be preceded by an exhibit of the University's col- lection of Yeats' poetry, man- uscripts, and assorted artwork. The reading will be followed by soda bread and sherry and is sponsored by Ann Arbor's Irish American Society. Also Thursday evening, The Michigan League will offer an authentic Irish dinner, in as- sociation with its International Night series. So wear celebrate! your green and I I Special Student and Youth Fares to EUROP from New York on Scheduled Airlines! DESTINATIONS OW RT LONDON $185 $370 PARIS 206 412 FRANKFURT 220 440 ROME/MILAN 238 476 VIENNA 245 490 ZURICH/GENEVA 225 450 COPENHAGEN 255 475 OSLO 225 450 STOCKHOLM 230 460 HELSINKI 238 476 Above fares also apply from Washington, D.C. to London, Paris and Frankfurt on non-stop service. Add-on fares from Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and many other U.S. cities are also available. CALL OR WRITE FOR OUR SPECIAL FARES TO THE SO. PACIFIC, AUSTRALIA, SO. AMERICA Applications available for Eurail Youth Pass and International Student I.D. Card. For Reservations and Information Call: WHOLE WORLD TRAVEL Part of the worldwide STA Travel Network 17 E. 45th St., Suite 805, New York, NY 10017 (212) 986-9470 Film Continued from Page 7 cates that of the book, chronicling the lives of four young people around the time of the Soviet inva- sion of Czechoslovakia in 1968: Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), a Prague neurosurgeon; Tereza (Juliette Binoche), his provincial, frustrated wife; Sabina (Lena Olin), a moody artist and Tomas' sometimes lover; and Franz (Derek de Lint), a married professor who is also having an af- fair with Sabina. Unbearable Lightness traces the misunderstandings and infidelities among the three sets of couples set against the backdrop of totalitarian imperialism; during the film's cli- max, a jealous Tereza, fed up with Tomas' continued adultery, storms out of their flat, only to discover Soviet tanks rolling through the darkened streets of Prague. Aided by the editor Walter Murch and the vir- tuoso cinematographer Sven Nykvist (Ingmar Bergman's.longtime collab- orator), Kaufman crosscuts actual footage from the '68 riots with black and white stock of Tomas and Tereza reacting to the violence; it's a seam- less and compelling montage. But the novel is bound together not by such a dramatic scenario, nor by the overt eroticism for which Kaufman's film has been so widely praised. Rather, Kundera depends on an anonymous, literate, intrusive narrator, whose omniscience allows '3 -u '-. MEDICAL SCHOOL & DENTAL SCHOOL NIGHT him to make frequent chronological jumps between chapters. This face- less male (in the movie, the point of view is at times almost childishly sexist) voice, who nods to Nietzsche and then begins to reminisce about Tomas, guides the reader through the deepest thoughts of the four charac- ters, occasionally interrupting to of- fer .an aphorism or an explanatory aside. Most important, his narration builds a structure of opposites cru- cial to the novel's meaning: heavi- ness/lightness, darkness/light, free- dom/captivity, and so on. "The heavier the burden," the writer glosses, "the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truth- ful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence.of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and be- come only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?" The entire novel wa- vers between the insignificant light- ness of total freedom and the mean- ingful weight of a heavy burden, whether political or personal or psy- chological. For Tomas and Tereza, some of the weight of that heavy burden comes from the Soviet inva- sion, a political analogue for what is ugly and false and profane in life., The narrator is absent from the film, at least as an overt presence, and he took most of the story's power and lyricism with him. Kaufman vacuumed the precious marrow out of the novel and is left with a curiously centerless mass. The implicit third person filmic nar- rator (i.e. a selective camera) offers none of the ideas or form that made the novel so moving, and the film's best moments derive from Kauf- man's deft improvisations - the extended riot sequences, the lovers' foreplay, and so on. The worst crime is that Kaufman and Carriere have abbreviated what is already a marvelously economical parataxis and in so doing eliminated the the story's chief justification. The amazing thing is-that there may yet be some glory in their failure. UM, WAYNE, & MSU MEDICAL SCHOOL; MSU OSTEOPATHIC MEDICAL SCHOOL; UM & U of DETROIT DENTAL SCHOOL ADMISSIONS DEANS & STUDENTS HERE... INFO ON ADMISSIONS, PREPARATION, CAREERS AND MORE... WEDNESDA Y, MARCH 16 7PM - 9PM MODERN LANGUAGE BUILDING - CAREER PLANNING AND PLACEMENT A UNIT OF STUDENT SERVICES Re a~6id5 "GREAT SONGS, GREAT DANCING, GREAT FUN!" -Joel Siegel, GOOD MORNING AMERICA "TWO THUMBS UP!" -SISKEL & EBERT & THE MOVIES - - - nomom "HILARIOUS ANDHEARTFELT!" -David Ansen, NEWSWEEK A FINE SPRITZ OF 60s FUN!" .1* c'rnon... thursday's LAUG presents comedian OAR With T WI PE s classes aren't all that important ScandUp Comedy Y KEF "'HAIRSPRAY' IS A TRIUMPH!" -Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES "HAIR-RAISING FUN!" -Janet Maslin, NEW YORK TIMES "AN AMAZINGLY RICH, AUDACIOUS COMEDY! It's a family movie both the Bradys and the Mansons could adore: affectionate, liberal and deeply subversive." -David Edelstein, ROLLING STONE A new comedy by John Waters SIt 1r %ff% r %AN/ Student Comedians OM VAN BRAGT FRED CLARKE MATT SCHLEIN EDNESDAY MARCH 16 And Your Host TER BERMAN IN The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts Twelfth Distinguished Senior Faculty Lecture Series David Noel Freedman Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Biblical Studies in a three-part series, will discuss The Unity of the Hebrew Bible March 14 The Primary History i