ARTS
Friday, November 16, 1990

The Michigan Daily
Public may not be
suitable for minors

Page 5

by Michael Jay Leizerman
Censorship of the arts is certainly
not a phenomenon unique to the
1990s. In the past, artists were often
faced with more restrictions and
harsher consequences for the creation
and distribution of questionable ma-
terials than today's artists are. Take,
for instance, the Spanish playwright
Federico Garcia Lorca who was
killed by a fascist death squad during
his country's civil war in 1936 due
in large part to his creation of con-
troversial plays.
Lorca's surrealistic piece The
Public, the second play in a series of
three at the Performance Network
that explore freedom of expression,
will open tonight. Although written
in the '30s, this play so challenged
the audience's beliefs at the time that
it remained unpublished until1976.
One of the main characters in the
play is a director who stages an
avant-garde version of Romeo and
Juliet. This play-within-a-play is
ill-received by "the public" due to
the raising of uncomfortable subjects
often centering around sexuality.
The topics that may have shocked
people in the '30s don't always have
the same effect today. To compen-
sate for this, director Peter Knox's
rendition of this play includes many
elements designed to challenge the
modern audience. From potential
shockers such as cross-dressing and
full nudity to the exploration of ho-
mosexual themes, The Public will

most likely cause all in attendance to
examine some of their beliefs. Knox
calls this piece "theater of truth."
He also states that this is as much a
play about a "director standing up for
who he is in light of negative public
reaction" as it is a play about the au-
dience shedding layers of precon-
ceived beliefs only to confront more
layers.
Lorca's work also challenges tra-
ditional theater structure. Although
not officially a part of the Surrealist
movement, Lorca was a contempo-
rary of Salvador Dali and Luis
Bufluel, among others. This associa-
tion is obvious throughout this
piece because of its temporal and
spatial disorientation. All the charac-
ters interact in what is basically a
"distilled tragic love story," says
Knox. The scenes jump from the in-
side of a theater during the '30s to
Roman ruins to the grave of Shake-
speare's Juliet (not the Juliet you
might expect) back to the director in
his theater. The characters are also
other-than-real and include a red
Christ figure, Helen of Troy, bells,
vine leaves, Juliet, the Emperor of
Rome and talking horses.
In Lorca's words, this is a play of
"poetic logic." It promises to ex-
plore themes of repression of homo-
sexual feelings, censorship, shock
art and one person's search for truth.
It also promises to make the audi-
ence feel uncomfortable in a poten-
tially rewarding manner.

What can one say about this picture? It's wild, it's the Performance
Network and it's happening through December 2nd.

10. "l Shot the Sheriff" - Bob Marley & the Wailers
9. "Out Ta' Get Me" - Guns n' Roses
8. "Hate the Police'.- Mudhoney (Dicks cover)
7. "The Guns of Brixton"-The Clash
6. "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution" -Tracey Chppman
5. "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now" - Dead Kennedy4
4. "Fuck tha' Police" - N.W.A.
3. "Fight the Power" - Public Enemy
2. "Here's to the School of James Dude rstadt"
-Corey Dolgon
1. "Free to Be You and Me" - Marlo Thomas &
Friends
There's a land that I see where the children are free...
-t
Ii Reach 40,000 ren~ders otter class.
advertise in
.} L \'\IA_ eekend

THE PUBLIC will be performed this
weekend through Dec. 2 (not on
Thanksgiving) on Thursdays, Fri-
days and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and

Sundays at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $9,
general admission and $7, students
and seniors. You must be at least 18
to enter.

Buddy Guy plays the real blues

by Peter Shapiro
Perhaps the only worthwhile thing
that Eric Clapton has ever said was
"Buddy Guy is the greatest guitar
player alive." This sentiment has
been echoed by most of the other
members of the pantheon of guitar
heroes- Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff

Beck, Keith Richard- who have ap-
propriated his stirring blend of
Texas, Louisiana swamp and West
Side Chicago blues to become the
objects of effusive idolatry by a cul-
ture that refuses to acknowledge the
breadth of invention and beauty of
its African-American artists. Having
your music played by white boys

who see the blues as a booze-filled
way to get laid and to show off their
chops is a testament to the music's
power, not a tribute to the artist who
created it.
The blues marauders who have
copied Guy's music since the mid-
'60s use his technique as a vehicle
for virtuosity. Of course, this

"wizardry" becomes a metaphor for
sexual potency, allowing these hacks
to tap into the Black stud myth that
has pervaded the western world since
colonialism and become the wank
fantasies of adolescent guitar slinger
wannabes and teeny boppers alike.
In its pristine form, the blues
See BUDDY, Page 9

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209 N.4thAve, _fBv Krrown) Mon-Sat 10-6

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Sunday, Nov. 25 8pm
Power Center

with special guest ISIS
a U-M Major Events presentation
with Kuumba
TK
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