ARTS The Michigan Daily Landscape plays to mature audience Thursday, March 29, 1990 by Ami Mehta JUST as there are magazines and there are adult magazines, there are plays and there are adult plays. Although its title doesn't allude to a higher level, In A Northern Land- scape can be classified as an emo- tionally-charged adult drama of love and destruction. The actors in this University e st HIamnand simple. For close to one hundred years, the Michigan Daily has been consistently rated the top daily campus newspaper in Ann Arbor. Join a winning team. Meetings for News, Arts, Sports, and Opinion staff every Sunday at 1 p.m. Gooit Players production, however, are barely adults themselves. The cast of nine is composed of students por- traying the brilliant yet brutal story of a 1920s rural Minnesota family that has been destroyed by a taboo love affair between two of the sib- lings. This liaison causes the de- struction of the rest of the family as well as the community. This unique plot is only one of the several dimensions of the play. The story line is somewhat intricate. The several complex layers are re- vealed on a set which is contrast- ingly stark and simple. Playwright Timothy Mason's original script in- corporates a series of flashbacks as well as poetic language to re-enact the illicit passion and shocking re- sponse to the forbidden love affair. "This manner in which it is told is very strong. It shows not only flashbacks but relived memories making the play very theatrical," says director Barry Goldman. As an assistant professor of the- ater and drama, Goldman proposed that the Players perform this particu- lar production because it would ex- pose the student body to a different subject matter and it would tie in re- gionally to Michigan. He says he feels In A Northern Landscape and the theater in which it is to be per- formed is an appropriate choice. With its small capacity, the True- blood Theatre creates the intimate environment that is vital to the plot. Another dimension that broadens the depth of the play is the lighting, sculpted by Tony award-winning de- signer Richard Nelson. Also a Uni- versity professor, Nelson worked with his students to produce the proper setting for the play. "This is an evocative play including the past and present, reality and memory. The lighting helps to establish all of Pa e 5 Gilbert and Sullivan revived in pastiche by Sherrill L. Bennett WVILLIAM S. Gilbert and Arthur S. Sullivan were an unlikely pair. "Temperamentally, they were very different men," says tenor Geoffrey Shovelton, once a member of the now-extinct D'Oyly Carte opera company. Shovelton will be joined by five others from the old company for a grab bag performance, The Bestof Gilbert and Sullivan, at the r Michigan Theater tonight. "Gilbert was slightly aloof, had an acerbic t it and made enemies quite easily," Shovelton says. "Sullivan was much mpore easygoing and much more popular and likeable." After their first collaborative effort, the long-forgotten opera Thespjs, neither artist imagined their relationship to be a lasting one. But the performer Richard D'Oyly Carte had other plans. "D'Oyly Carte brought Gilbert and Sullivan together and gave them an opportunity to work together," Shovelton says. After their first successful effort with Trial by Jury, D'Oyly Carte saw potential in the duo. "He realized that this wawa gold mine," Shovelton says. "These two chaps had a unique talent , together." That unique talent, the combination of dry British humor perfectly set to delightful tunes, still keeps audiences hungry for G&S comic operetta. That is why members from the old troupe, including Shovelton, baritones Kenneth Sanford and Alistair Donkin, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Daniels; soprano Sandra Dugdale and accompanist David Mackie are back by * "popular demandry," as Shovelton puts it. The six performers in evening dress will perform signature tunes from the G&S operas Princess Ida,,; Trial by Jury, lolanthe, The Mikado, IIMS Pinafore, Gondoliers and. The Pirates of Penzance. "For G&S enthusiasts, this is an opportunity to taste a little of 12 operas," Shovelton says. This format provides a broatler sampling and, at the same time, a more intimate look at the composers. "One of the things that has kept this group together is an agreement, about the philosophy of performing Gilbert and Sullivan," Shovelton # says. "We are traditionally oriented." The group's aim is to accurately reproduce the original intentions of the composer and lyricist. "Gilbert was very, very precise in his attention to detail. We are trying to carry that n. Other directors sometimes bring non-Gilbertian humor to their productions, but one of the libretto's main objectives is to create definite characters and let them tell a definite story. Anything that obscures characters or a story is an incidental that shouldn't be there," Shovelton"{ says. One aspect of Gilbert and Sullivan that Shovelton says he particularly enjoys, audience reaction, continues to reunite him with the work of the two operatic icons: "If I can justify my privileged existence as a performer, it is by way of the enjoyment it seems to give audiences," he says. The Gilbert and Sullivan production fills Shovelton's schedule for the next two weeks, but he is a well-rounded performer who assumes many different. roles from the operatic repertoire: "From Puccini to Verdi to Rossini to Gilbert and Sullivan; it all fills the diary and so it goes." , .., 't Looking somewhat like a scene from A Clockwork Orange, members of the University Players perform In A Northern Landscape, a play for adults only. ,. V .. J these situations," says Nelson. Hav- ing designed lighting all over the world, he claims there is no real difference between working in ballet, opera or theater. Although different styles may be used, lighting has one purpose - to add intangible aspects to a production that the actors cannot create. "It not only illuminates people but illuminates the text," said Nelson regarding the play. In A Northern Landscape, a tale of lust, forbidden relations and mys- tery, paints a picture of a situation not so common to modern theater. Its various dimensions come to- gether to create a balanced theatrical piece for mature audiences only. IN A NORTHERN LANDSCAPE is being performed tonight through Saturday and April 5-7 at 8 p.m. and April ] and 8 at 2 p.m. Shows are in the Trueblood Theatre in the Frieze Buildin; tickets are $7, $5 for stu- dents. MOM9 Read Lincoln's Minutes in the Michigan Daily TH E BEST OF GILBERT AND SULLIVAN will be performed at 8 p.m. tonight at the Michigan Theater. 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