ARTS The Michigan Daily Monday, April 17, 1989 Page 9 Production of Dragons not fiery en BY MARK SHAIMAN IT'S "Late Afternoon - In the Middle Ages." Lancelot, our hero, wanders into a small village and meets a large cat that tells him of the town's woes: the town dragon takes away one girl a year as payment for his services (specific- ally, making sure a worse dragon doesn't wreak havoc on the town), and tomorrow he is coming to take away the cat's master, Elsa. It's a cute idea, but entirely predictable. The only things that could have saved Dragons are some fine performances, which there were, and a strong subtext, which also existed, but unfortunate- ly came across as subtly as a drag- on's roar. This musical is a project of Sheldon Harnick, who is best known for writing the eternal lyrics to Fiddler on the Roof. In Drag- ons, he has written not only the lyrics, but the music and book as well, and while each of the three parts have their merits, none of them are strong enough to carry the work, nor is the combination. The theme of the play is the dragon in all of us - how easily power corrupts. The refrain to the opening number states "Thank the Lord there are no dragons left today," which is obviously paradox- ough ical since the audience knows that they are about to encounter some in the following acts, and have probably met some in their own lives. Point well-made and well- taken, but beaten into us through- out the rest of the play. After Lancelot kills the dragon in the beginning of the second act and then disappears, the mayor of the town takes over, going from a meek individual to a psuedo-dragon himself. Lancelot returns to save the day, falls into the same power- hungry trap as the mayor, and resigns his minute-old position as the new mayor. So the town decides to form a democracy and starts to spontaneously produce lines from our country's historic documents turning the performance into more of a reenactment of the First Con- stitutional Congress than a music- al. As for the music, there's enough of it to consider the work a music- al, but nothing very memorable or that one would walk out of the theater humming. Much of it foll- ows the same strain of classic Broadway tunes, but that's a little passe now. One number, a comical piece performed by the mayor called "I Love Power," stands above the rest, and owes its success as much to the song as to Christopher Murray, who played the mayor. With lines like "They say that Although Giles Chiasson as Henry (left), and Christopher Murray as the Mayor (right) turned in excellent performances, they couldn't save Dragons from a script and score that lacked originality. power corrupts/ But if a man is rotten to begin with, what harm can it do," and a performance remini- scent of Zero Mostel at his zaniest, this was the highpoint of the show. Most of the other performances deserve credos, too. Our friend the cat, Elizabeth Richmond, is terrific- ally playful and melodic. The only detraction to her character is that her costume looks like it is straight from the Broadway smash Cats. The cat's other cohabitant is Elsa's father, Charlemagne, who also suffers from a bit of strange costuming. He wears a cap that is closely cropped to his head and it is not discernable as to whether this is a hat or a device meant to make him look bald. Either way, Drew Frady brings life to to a character who is probably the world's first statistician. The two lead roles of Lancelot and Elsa are both played with warmth and charm, by Ian Knauer and Rebecca Daniels respectively. While they both have fine voices, they just aren't given material strong enough to match their talents. And Gilles Chiasson as Henry, the mayor's son and former fiance of Elsa, adds a comic touch that makes the comedy more touch- ing. The dragon, which has the abil- ity to. take three human forms, is played by Kipp Koenig, and he is gifted with the ability to create a different personality for each. He is only upstaged by the wonderful Dragon's heads that appear on stage after being severed from their joint body. They are so unique and engaging that when they were first revealed, they garnered a round of applause. The other stage decora- tions are nearly as good, capturing the medieval setting, complete with castles in the background. As a production, Dragons - produced by the Musical Theater Program under the three-headed authority of director Brent Wagner, choreographer Tim Millet, and musical director Jerry Depuit - was a success. But as a musical, it simply ran out of steam. Marguerite Duras' India Song hot Earn over BY GUS TESCHKE THE back cover of Marguerite Duras' novel The Lover describes her as "one of the most important literary figures in France." Publishers will write anything to sell books, but in this case I'm sympathetic to the claim. She wrote the script for Hiroshima Mon Amour, a stunning film that regularly returns to Ann Arbor, and The Lover too is a fine work, economical and emotionally intense. So I jumped at the chance to review the Performance Network's production of India Song, her 1972 play. Duras is very specific about how her play is to be treated. In general remarks for the play, she states "As far as I know, no 'India Song' (the I song) yet exists. When it has been written, the author will make it available and it should be used for all performances of India Song in France and elsewhere." She provides a summary that "is the only one which should accompany productions of India Song": This is the story of a love affair which takes place in India in the thirties, in an overpopulated city on the banks of the Ganges. Two days in this love story are presented. It is the season of the summer monsoon. Four voices-faceless-speak of the story. Tow of the voices are those of young women, two are men's. The voices are totally independent. They speak among themselves, and do not know they are being heard. The voices have known or read of this love story long ago. Some of them remember it completely. And none of them has completely forgotten it, We never know who the voices are. But just h by the way each of them has forgotten or remembers, we get to know them more deeply than through their identity. The story is a love story immobilized in the culmination of passion. Around it is another story, a story of horror-famine and leprosy mingled in the pestilential humidity of the monsoon-which is also immobilized, in a daily paroxysm. Director Linda Kendall chose the play because Duras knows the stage's language. "There aren't that many playwrights who are that clear about what the elements of theater are. Theater is palpable, it is lights and sound and it is immediate. Most playwrights focus on the story," she said. The woman, Anne-Marie Stretter, wife of a French Ambassador to India and now dead- her grave is in the English cemetery in Calcuta might be said to be born of this horror. She stands in the midst of it with a grace which engulfs everything, in unfailing silence a grace which is porous and dangerous, dangerous also for some of them. Besides the woman, in the sarne city, there is a man, the French Vice-consul in Lahore, in Calcutta in disgrace. It is by anger and murder that he is connected to the horror of India. There is a reception at the French Embassy, in the course of which the outcast Vice consul cries out his love to Anne Marie Stretter, as white India looks on. After the reception she drives along the straight roads of the Delta to the islands in the estuary. Director Linda Kendall chose the play because Duras knows the stage's language. "There aren't that many playwrights who are that clear about what the elements of theater are. Theater is palpable, it is lights and sound and it is immediate. Most playwrights focus on the story," she said. Instead, India Song focuses on the entire experience of theater. Kendall said the play was a challenge to stage, so much so that its U.S. premiere was only few months ago. "What we do is try things that are relatively impossible to accomplish," she said. Since play's agent did not know if the title song "India Song" existed, Kendall intended to commission it. "One day we got a phone call and this woman on the other end of the line said, 'hello my name is Francesca and I am from Paris and I have studied Duras and I am interested in your production of India Song and I know "India Song" doesn't exist but I have a tape of it if you'd like it,"' Kendall laughed. She liked it. The play is well-suited to the Performance Network's small stage. The observer must pay close attention to decide which details are important, and which are not, and this is possible in the intimate space. On the whole, I found production effective. In a subdued hght, the actors moved deliberately to communicate the detail Duras intends, creating an atmosphere somewhat like a memory. The theater was warm, and full of incense. The dialogue is rthymic, hypnotic. Kendall, Johanna Broghton (sets), William Doelle (lighting), and Everett Armstrong (sound), and crew have produced all the elements Duras intended. It is a play like few others, very much in the style of Hiroshima and The Lover. See it. $10,000 this summer Join the Michigan Daily spring/summer Arts staff and play the instant lottery regularly. For further information, contact your Michigan State Lottery agent and come to the Michigan Daily spring/summer mass meeting Fri., Apr. 21, at 5 p.m. at the Student Publications Building, 420 Maynard. l Golf Club/Memorabilia Show Buy, sell, trade, and/or look Ypsilanti High School 2095 Packard Road Sat. April 22 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Adm. $2.00 or old golf club Call 485-3855 Congratulations to rhe Michigan Daily Classified Department 4 .9( CREDIT ANALYST We are Manufacturers National Corporation, a major Detroit based regional bank holding company with assets over $9 billion. Our corporation provides a wide variety of financial services to customers worldwide through its ownership of 13 banks and other banking related subsidiaries. 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