's TeMihgnDily.riay. .rar, * 194Pae. A 'Major' sensation U Players overcome difficulties of "Major Barbara" By MELISSA ROSE BERNARDO The biggest obstacle to a masterful performance of George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara" is the language. Invariably, it will stop any less-than-amazing acting troupe dead in its tracks, and send them plummeting into a sea of misunderstanding and blubbering. Fortunately, the Uni- versity Players overcame that po- Major Barbara tentially fatal ob- stacle, resulting in Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre an intellectually February 10, 1994 stimulating and emotionally en- gaging performance. While the basic premise of the "Major Barbara" is poverty, numerous plot lines run throughout. Lady Britomart (Cecilia T. Grinwald) wants more money from Andrew Undershaft (John Neville-Andrews), her hus- band and father of her children. Barbara (Erin Dilly) and her sister Sarah (Julie Suzanne Miller) both have special fellows, so they're going to need money to get started. But when Barbara discovers that her father is making his money in a munitions factory, how can she accept any of his money? Things get even more complicated when Adolphus Cusins (Clinton Bond, Jr.), her fiance, becomes interested in her father's munitions business. Since the conflicts which fuel the drama are created, illustrated and eventually solved through Shaw's lan- guage, the virtuosity with which the actors conveyed that language made this production a stellar one. From the opening scene with Lady Brit and her son Steven's (Matthew Bower) banter, the cast shows a con- fident mastery of the language. Dilly and Grinwald are especially adept with keeping their characterizations from interfering with the dialogue. The conflict between Barbara and her father is the most intriguing, and is played with vigor and intensity by Dilly and Neville-Andrews. Undershaft's 5000-pound donation to the Salvation Army is merely a tactic to "buy Barbara." Just as it is Barbara's quest to save her father's soul, it is his quest to make her preach his religion. "I am a millionaire. That is my religion," he unashamedly pro- claims. And the two things upon which that religion is based are money and gunpowder. Barbara is unrelenting in her pursuit to save souls, and so is Dilly playing Barbara. Just when it appears that she seemingly out of nowhere. Her Barbara is especially, poignant in the end of Act Two, when she pleads to her coworkers to recognize the filthy money the Army is so willingly accepting. Her direct opposition with Undershaft is the theme of the show. That conflict culminates in Act Three, when Barbara sees the munitions factory, and must face that which is trying to buy her soul. For every impassioned plea Barbara makes to her father, Undershaft matches it with his equally driven rationale. She may abhor his money, yet it was his money that fed her and clothed her as a child. "I saved your soul from the crime of poverty!" he counters. And Dilly is glorious at the end of the show, with her eyes and her spirit lit up by Barbara's revelation, and the concurrent rebirth of her courage. As Cusins, Bond gets his chance to shine in Act Three When he is offered the Undershaft business, he gives in- but not without retaining his balance of Dionysian passion suppressed by Euripidean sensibility, and not without the realization of the moral of the play. "You cannot have power for good without having power for evil." Many noteworthy performances drove the show. As the wonderfully over-the-top Lady Brit, Cecilia Grinwald was perfectly hilarious. Eric Black has a disturbing, but touching, scene as the outwardly violent but inwardly miserable soul-to-be-saved Bill Walker. Jennifer Snoeynik's sets are wonderful recreations of- the ornate craftsmanship and the excess of turn-of-the- century England. The library of Lady Britomart Undershaft's house was especially impressive with its carved wooden shelves, lush draperies, fringed table- cloths and rich fabrics. The breakfast room was equally well-crafted. Snoeyik paid impeccable attention to detail, as did the bourgeoisie who enjoyed such living quarters. As is always a danger in performing Shaw, the mood of the audience is a critical factor. People have to be in the mood to listen and to listen closely. Shaw may have been criticized for using characters as mouthpieces for his political rhetoric, but when his characters are so well- crafted, it's no wonder an audience wants to listen to them. And when those words are as well-delivered as they are here, an audience - this critic in particular - welcomes Shaw's ideas, and holds them in the light of the present. MAJOR BARBARA plays tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. Tickets are $14, $10 ($6 students). Call 764- 0450 for information. 0 0 Erin Dilly, Clinton Bond, Jr. and John Neville Andrews give captivating performances in "Major Barbara." has nothing more to give, she pulls a breath of energy McGuane takes Montana over '80s Sy RONA KOBELL Welcome to the world of the Wild, Wild West, where men were men, women left mer and men drowned their sorrows in a trout stream. Well, it's not exactly that simple. At least, not in Thomas McGuane's "Nothing But Blue Skies," a novel which synthesizes the narcissism and greed of the '80s with the fresh air images of the western terrain. It is a novel about what happens when ev- rything fails and the only lingering hope is the hope itself. McGuane's main character, Frank :openhaver, was a once successful, happily married entrepreneur. Then his wife Gracie leaves him, his father banishes him from the family busi- ness, his college-age daughter begins dating a 54-year-old attorney, and his wife's best friend Lucy thinks he's aer sexual automaton. He bounces from bed to bed, getting close enough for physical contact but holding his female partners at arm's length emo- 'ionally. If all Montana boys end up fol- lowing the labyrinth of poor choices Frank pursues, then maybe mammas should take heed not to let their babies grow up to be cowboys. McGuane explained that Frank's poor judgment is a sign of the times rather than a stereotype of western life. "In the '80s, a lot of people were encouraged to hurl themselves into greed culture with the implicit prom- ise that, if they did, they would be happy," he said. "(Frank) can't un- derstand why he can't get anything right and why the promises his cul- ture has made to him now seem hol- low." Frank entangles himself in one mess after another as he runs with a mixed-bag crowd of devoted friends, aristocratic doctors, promiscuous women and hard-core cowboys. He even spent a night in jail after a bar- room brawl and received a citation for inciting to riot. But through it all, Frank is a family man, devoted to his daughter and jilting wife. McGuane, who is married with three daughters and a son, is also very much a family man. However, he claims that Frank's character is not autobiographical. "One of the plea- sures of writing novels is that you try to give voice to all these characters and let them not be you," McGuane commented. One trait McGuane and his char- acter do share is their love for the great outdoors. On a fishing outing, Frank confesses to his friend Phil, "I really stop thinking about everything else when I fish. I think about how to catch a fish, period." As an avid con- servationist and director of American Rivers and the Craighead Wildlife- Wildlands Institute, McGuane con- siders the outdoors a "religion" to which he is forever faithful. He claims that both human beings and his fictional characters can find respite from daily pressures in the serenity of outdoor scenery. "People are entitled to some harmless and even mindless peace in their lives; they don't have to have their shit detectors dialed up to 19 day and night," McGuane stated. "They look to the natural world for some kind of spiritual solace that they might not be able to find at K-Mart." McGuane, who often goes fishing with actor Michael Keaton, is a native of Michigan and attended both the University and Michigan State. After receiving a fellowship at Stanford, the young author drifted West and "woke up one day to find (himself) living in Montana." Like the first wave of frontiers- men, McGuane harbored romantic dreams of an existence rife with simple pleasures and breathtaking scenery. And unlike most of Frank's romances, McGuane's love affair with the Mon- tana and the open-air west has proved resilient throughout his 25 years there. He believes that young people, no longer burdened with the greed cul- ture of the '80s, should follow their hearts. "I think that when you're young, you should be driven by ro- mantic notions. If you don't you're missing out on something and you can't get it back." THOMAS McGUANE will be reading from "Nothing But Blue Skies" tonight at 7:30 at Borders. 'Gunmen' shoots plenty of empty duds By CHRIS LEPLEY "Gunmen" tries so hard to be cool. It fails so miserably that it's difficult to watch. The essential elements of a good action film are there -cool bad guys, stubble-sporting anti-hero good guys, lots of guns, a few explosions - but they don't add up to much more than a bad "Lethal Weapon" imitation. Gunmen As if the rain forest weren't being Written by Stephen Sommers; depleted quickly enough, South directed by Deran Sarafian; starring American drug lords and their grizzled Christopher Lambert, Mario Van mercenary lackeys are blowing huge Peebles, Denis Leary and Patrick chunks of it up in search of a boat.Note Stewart just any boat, but a boat upon which- one of the aforementioned drug lords (Patrick Stewart) has hidden all of his money. Not just some of his money, but all $400 million of it. What ever happened to Swiss bank accounts? That much money ain't easy to pass up, so one of those henchmen gets an itch and scratches it by killing his friends and stealing the boat. Enter Denis Leary as Auburn, the perfect kick-ass ranting mercenary leader, sent to find the boat. Along with the requisite sexy woman with a gun, Auburn has hordes of bazooka-toting thugs to back up his threats. But even they can't stand against the might of the dreaded buddy team-up. Y'see, the guy who stole the boat had a brother named Danny (Christopher Lambert) who knows where the boat is. Danny gets rescued from a South American prison by a bounty-hunter from New York City named Cole (Mario Van Peebles). Cole knows the name of the boat, but not where it is. And Danny knows where it is, but not the name. This ludicrous situation keeps the pair together long enough to develop a true comic rapport,'and a deep-seated, heterosexual affection for each other (in fact in one truly touching moment, the pair almost shares a lip-lock). Auburn chases Cole and Danny from South America to Puerto Vallerta, after stopping off to kill dear Patrick Stewart and take over the drug empire. Now sporting even more underlings, Auburn is set for the end of the film, which includes all the necessary boat chases, shootings and explosions, and a spectacular death for all the villains. The End. In case you're wondering where all the other names from the advertise- ments for this film went (among those actors billed are Big Daddy Kane, Kadeem Hardison, Eric Band Rakim, Dr. Dre and Ed Lover), they're all sitting- in a South American bar rapping their little hearts out. And that's it (with the exception of Hardison who plays Izzy, a loud-mouthed pilot) for those people. Leary is the true star of the film (as usual), proving that just because he did little more than duplicate his MTV commercials and "No Cure For Cancer" schtick in some other films this year doesn't mean that he isn't a great actor. Judging by the past year's films, in fact, Leary could be one of the best true action hero villains to come along since Alan Rickman. One warning: "Gunmen" is not for the faint of heart. Patrick Stewart says the word 'fuck' twice, and the word 'shit' once, in addition to forgetting all the words to "The Lord's Prayer." Leave your plastic Spock ears at home. GUNMEN is now playing at Showcase. f -- Aloha Entertainment's On State at Liberty S ateTheatre Adults $5.00; Students w $3.00 24 hr INFO UNE -994-4024 I 01 * L- CICANO HISTOR WEK 1994 kana KOREAN CUISNE Dedicated to the Memory of C Viva La Causa ! A good atmosphere ~- C'siarChsi'veZ perfect for dates (313) 662-9303 113 E. Huron Ann Arbor FOX VI G EATRE JACKSON MAPLEYlVL ECENTER ALLS $ ALLSHO 1350! NO $O NC: