Page 8-The Michigan Daily- Monday, October 19,1992 Erasure sometimes plays bingo by Jeff Rosenberg I challenge you to give a better party than Vince Clarke and Andy Bell. Naturally you've gotta define a "better party," but it doesn't mean you need two ambulances a night pulling bleeding people out of a mosh pit for it to be good. However, Bell dedicates "Somewhere Over the Rain- bow" to "all the homophobic, racist, gender-biased bastards" during the course of the show, so if you're folk who fit into that category you may want to stay Erasure Music Hall, Detroit October 17, 1992 home. Erasure's Phantasmagorical Entertainment is an explosion of sight and sound that must be seen and heard if you're an avid partygoer. The nutty revelers of synth-pop worked on a stage tilled with so much techno-wizardry and lighting it's hard to believe they actually pulled it off. The sound system was excellent, and hey, no singing along with a tape deck for these guys. Vince Clarke sat surrounded by gobs of music gear and cables in a slowly moving car that looked like a Jawa sandcrawler. The entire stage involved a 'backdrop that periodically metamorphosed into a ship, a rainy street, even a desert complete with cacti. Two backup vocalists and eight sensual dancers were also present. Bell's outfits included flapper/cabaret attire, complete with feather necklace, and a blue-sequined cowboy outfit. Although the dancers' costumes varied from vinyl and chiffon raincoats to glowing skeletal attire to huge fluorescent stars plastered all over their sleek bodies, Bell was still the center of the show. A girl behind me commented, "He has such great legs! He'd look better in pantyhose than I do!" Amongst Bell's usual sexual innuendo, the usually stone-faced Clarke got into costume after a while and even smiled. Clarke's reworkings of songs for their live show all went off effortlessly in the face of strategically placed smoke machines, hot air balloon apparatus, and the perpetually dancing crowd. These included all the songs from their recent Abba tribute "Abba-esque," many from their last full release "Chorus," unexpected tunes like "Love is a Loser" and "Stand By Your Man," and the usual Erasure standards. Bell's voice was clear and strong throughout the en- tire show, ranging from his bari lows to his unmistak- able falsetto. You wonder if he needs the backup vocal- ists at all during the rollicking 3 hour set. Well, minus the intermission (intermission?). During the break, Clarke and Bell came out dressed as carnival weirdos to play Bingo with the entire audience. I was only one number short of Bingo when Katie from Ypsi won the concert-tee-clad teddy bear. Kitsch, dignity and country by Andrew Cahn k.d. lang announced Saturday night that one of the objectives of her show was to explore the boundaries of country music. Lately, whenever someone brings up coun- try music, the Republican Conven- tion comes to mind. George Bush has embraced the genre because he feels it epitomizes his family values message. Right, as if we were sup- posed to forget that convention per- formers Wynonna Judd and Larry k.d. Lang Hill Auditorium October 17, 1992 I Jeffrey Max Nicholls tries his best to be Pinteresque in "Bithday Party." M 0 ter play perplexes by Jessie Halladay Greatly mystified by rumors of the guest director's adaptations, Harold Pinter's dark and brooding play, "The Birthday Party," was uniquely transformed into an intense piece of theater by Vladimir Mir- zoev. Set in a boarding house, Pinter's play is the twisted and compli- cated tale of its inhabitants and the transformations they undergo. The drama starts out with the owners of the boarding house having a conversation over breakfast while two members of the non-speaking The Birthday Party Trueblood Theatre October 15, 1992 "chorus" simultaneously go through a complex series of twisting and gy- rating motions in the foreground. It is then that it becomes apparent that this will not be an average production. Adding to this initial impression is the setting. The shocking design includes a large space towards the front of the stage covered in water. An ingenious system of gutter-like apparatuses guides the water. Throughout the play, characters nonchalantly toss liquid from cups and wallow around in it. Later, the back wall opens up to reveal yet another complete area of space. During the most crucial scene of the play, the chorus is lifted up by an immense structure rising from the ground. Even if the intense action of the performance leaves you confused to its deeper meaning, the emotions of the characters come through. The actors convincingly conveyed these emotions. Stanley (Jeffrey Max Nicholls) goes through so many emotional changes that by the end of the play it's hard to believe that he could have lasted as long as he did. Nicholls did an extraordinary job of manipulat- ing his body and voice in imitation of a man on the brink of insanity. Though the rest of the cast was strong, there were clearly a couple of standouts. Mason Haber was convincing as McCann, a nervous, eccen- tric guest. His facial expressions added much needed comic relief. Chris- tine Fenno also did a superb job in her portrayal of Meg, the often scat- terbrained owner of the boarding house who was obsessed with Stanley. The chorus, an adaptation of Mirzoev's, manipulated movement and space wonderfully. Their presence added to the intensity of the drama and often mirrored the emotions of the speaking characters. "The Birthday Party" was uncommonly interpreted but beautifully staged. Don't expect to come out understanding everything that went on, but if you love theater and want to see this director's version, you've still got one weekend left. It is a production that will leave you thoughtful, if not somewhat perplexed. Gatlin were not raised by a single mother and a one-time coke addict, respectively. However, lang represents the ex- treme left of country music. The au- dience at Hill was not a typical country music crowd, but rather the Ann Arbor, WDET/WAMX types. The good old boys want nothing to do with her, for she is not only a vegetarian, but as she proclaimed Saturday, "I am a L... L... Lawrence Welk Fan." Her openness has made her an icon for many young lesbians, and this was evident in the amount of flowers delivered to the stage. Thankfully, her politics were secondary to the music. This was a concert, after all, and not a rally. Her best known songs, "Trail of Broken Hearts" and "Constant Craving," were spaced nicely throughout. The entire show was so great that the re- action to these tunes was no different from anything else she played that night. Even the most pedestrian lang fans in the audience were overwhelmed by her stage presence and the rich sound of her band. Her mixture of kitsch, dignity, country, swing and the far east@ proved why she, is one of the most respected performers in the biz, re- gardless of what those "Stand By Your Man" devotees may think. fenseless. "Of Mice and Men" is a subtle masterpiece. We are never distracted by the periphery. The story is suc- cinct and bold. Emphasizing the de- velopment of character before the fabrication of synthetic emotion, the film downplays its final chase scene and climaxes without the slightest hint of fanfare. It is a story about friendship and the American dream in a realistic world where these con- cepts are silly and obsolete. Devoid of make-up and a loud soundtrack, "Of Mice and Men" is as gritty and distinctly American as any story ever told. The pain you will feel is so real that it might be hard to take. OF MICE AND MEN is playing at Showcase. *1 I "A/Ur, our powerful version of UMIr, is destined to be the multivendor operating system of choice. ...it's easy, powerful! Once it's working with the incredible RISC/Macintosh® architecture now on the drawing board, it'll be the answer to everyone's wish list... " "Our whole approach to human interface- object-oriented programming, open systems, internationalization- it's bridging the gap between users, computers, the whole ball of wax 'Macintosh was destined to become the desktop multimedia powerhouse. QuickTimeM seems to have cemented the position set up by our state-of-the-art imaging and knockout graphics. 'This represents incredible opportunity for people with a BS, MS PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering, or Management Information Systems. Sign up with your Career Planning and Placement Center for our on-campus informational presentationr" Tuesday October 20, 1992 6:30-8:30 pm. EECS, Room 1303 MICE Continued from page 5 loneliness with an almost pessimistic dignity. These are real human be- ings, so much a staple of their soci- ety that they only vaguely compre- hend how dehumanized they have become. What follows the film's initial tranquillity is the introduction of the no-named seductress, played with an eerie sexuality by Sherilyn Fenn. Her performance is hypnotizing as she teases the audience with her loose fitting skirt and clairvoyant stare. She is not a "character," as her namelessness indicates, but rather a symbol of desire and temptation. And while George lacks the fickle- ness to fall for her act, Lenny is de- F JOSTENS Stop by and see a Jostens representative October 19-23 " 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to select from a complete line of gold rings, rtr 1 Q Q . T"%"+ 6' i