The Michigan Daily- Friday, April 17,1992-Page 9
Rouan
outdoes
*Chekhov
Overseas
dir. rig itte R ousn
by Aaron Hamburger
The latest trend in movies these
* days seems to be female actor-direc-
tors. Jodie Foster got the ball rolling
vith Little Man Tate last fall. Then
Bh rbra Streisand followed with The
Prince of Tides. Now Brigitte Rouan
directs and stars in the French film
Overseas. In her first film, a com-
lex, wistful tale of three women
from French colonial Algeria, Rouan
outacts and outdirects both Foster
and Streisand.
- In Overseas, Rouan traces the
lives of three sisters by focusing on
them one at a time. The film begins
with the story of Zon (Nicole
Garcia), the moralizing, intensely
obsessive sister who gets married so
Was Eve really a party animal?
Zon (Nicole Garcia) and Gritte (Marianne Basler) bask in the Algerian sun.
she can depend on her husband her
entire life, and then go insane when
he dies.
At this point, the film backtracks
and shows the same scenario from
the perspective of Malrne, played by
Rouan with fierce energy. A born
manager a la Scarlett O'Hara,
Malrne throws herself into her hus-
band's business, while he stays at
home and reads books.
Finally, Rouan tells the pitiful
story of Gritte (Marianne Basler),
the youngest sister who has a
predilection for long engagements
and a forbidden Arab man.
In the hands of a lesser director,
the narrative device of showing the
three different points of view of the
sisters would simply exist to show
the differences between the three
main characters. The strength of
Overseas lies in the fact that Rouan
cleverly reveals the nature of French
colonial rule in Algeria and the op-
pression of the native Arab popula-
tion.
In the first segment, the Arabs
never appear, but are referred to with
distaste. In the second, the film
shows the Arabs who are lucky
enough to get underpaid jobs for
See OVERSEAS, Page 10
America, America
dir. Annemarie Stoll
Performance Network
April 12, 1992
My country 'tis of thee, sweet
land of liberty ... or maybe not. Is
the country we call home really a
melting pot or are we only con-
cerned with ourselves? Do we really
practice what we preach or do we
just preach? Does "Pizza Tom"
Monaghan really believe in God or
does he just think he's God himself?
This month the Performance
Network raises these questions with
America, America, a satire of today's
capitalistic society. Playwright Jay
Steilstra has created a musical that
deals both with the complex and the
mundane, although distinguishing
between the two can sometimes be
difficult.
Steilstra, who also wrote North
Country Opera and Tittabawasee
Jane, takes good old Midwestern-
style music and combines it with
modern slams on conservative
America. From the talk show to the
corner bar to Cloud Nine, Steilstra
pokes fun at the Yanks of today.
The Company (Peter Ferguson,
Sally Horvath, Anne Jackson, Robert
Starko and Matt Watroba) seemed at
first to be an amateur cast who was
rough around the edges, but it turned
out to be a surprisingly well-
matched, synchronized group. Each
player's talents eventually came
shining through, cohesively thread-
ing together Stielstra's sketches.
Ferguson, who sang under the
alias of "Pontiac Pete," was the shin-
ing star of the show. A local country
singer, Ferguson made his acting de-
but in top form. He convincingly
played many characters, and his
great voice was showcased in many
songs such as "I Know I'm Home."
Ferguson's wildly energetic por-
trayal of an NDA (National Dy-
namite Association) representative
was hysterically funny, as he pro-
claimed the benefits of high explo-
sives and nuclear warfare for the
general public. The obviously
scathing attack on the NRA made
Ferguson's parody all the more bit-
ing.
Also giving a stellar performance
was Jackson. Her "party animal"
portrayal of Eve, who became
bummed out when she was kicked
out of the party in the garden of
Eden, demonstrated her comic abil-
ity to lampoon women. She contin-
ued the effort playing a lusty
Christian bookstore proprietor who
continually came on to customers
while preaching faulty logic in de-
fense of her actions.
The best part of Mishka Dudash's
simplistic set was the large-scale
map of the United States. Iden-
tifiable objects were attached to the
map, indicating well-known areas of
the country such as a record for
Motown, poker chips for Vegas, and
a dancing Statue of Liberty for New
York City.
The Hawaiian-shirt clad band
consisted of five musicians led by
Kelly Schmidt. Right on cue and
perfectly casually, the band added
that familiar Midwestern flavor to
the show with variations on folk
See AMERICA, Page 10
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