Oro, try So, what's next? "Things to Come" Is a classic film that takes a strange and horrific look at life after WWII. Made in 1936, this movie features bleak scenes of plague, rebellion and technology gone awry. It is showing tonight at the Michigan Theater at 7 o'clock., Student admission is $5. . Wednesday February 28, 1996 gyp. Mamet's 'GIygoes for the jugular f' MftN)! IiXlf? +" + ^NwiKeNMU iNMIMtMtrtrrW++xieWri+tNtitNYMW1e +tNt Wr tHlNiWMfNiNlr l. ww t.rv :t!.+ u t..4;.frv.t+t'*4 T+f t!ur n . By Melissa Rose Bemardo Daily Theater Editor David Mamet's plays are not for the immature actor. His language is deceptively complex, his char- acters intricately layered, and his text rigidly crafted. Yet young actors crave Mamet. Witness this year's Basement Arts season, which includes last term's "American Buffalo," the forthcoming "Sexual Per- versity in Chicago," and last weekend's "Glengarry Glen Ross." Rarely if ever do young actors have the stamina and RE E depth of ex- EV EW perience to Glengarry back up their desire Glen Ross to produce Arena Theater Mame t; rarely is a Feb. 23, 1996 Mamet play so master- fully performed and directed as was "Glengarry Glen Ross." What actors love about Mamet are the elements that made this "Glengarry" so brilliant. Mamet represents all of our primal instincts: He's physical, he's rough, he's dog-eat-dog; he's unexpectedly sexual, disarm- ingly verbal, and simultaneously overt and mysteri- ous. Director Brandon Epland and his ensemble dug into this piece with teeth and nails; they emerged bloodied yet with heads unbowed. Mamet's battle scars should be proudly worn, how- ever. He is unrelentingly tough on his actors-as well as his audience. Friday evening's crowd was alto- gether shocked, amused, aroused, upset, aghast, dis- enchanted and energized. Such emotions are not nec- essarily indicative of good Mamet, but' neverthe- less always ascribed to superior Mamet. Epland and his cast grabbed our attention with the first light cue, summoned with a snap by the slick- haired man named Blake (Matt Clifford). This was Mamet's own inspired addition to the film version, an emissary from the big bosses who gives the characters (or the audience, in this case) a pep-talk. "Reach into your pants and find your balls," he snarls. Epland incorporated some clever slide-show visuals into this scene to punctuate Blake's lengthy diatribe, peppered with colorful expletives though it was. A generic gray office serves as home base for "Glengarry"'s men, a group of real estate salesmen with the collective morality ofa vulture. Shelly Levene (Matt Schicker) has been around the longest: In his glory days he earned the title "The Machine"; now he's barely earning a living. Ricky Roma (Greg Zola) is the up-and-comer, the high-hitter of the moment. Dave Moss (Epland) is the prodigal salesman, whose plan for advancement runs on the wrong side of the law; George Aaronow (Jonathan Berry) is his weak- willed accessory. John Williamson (Adam Greenfield) presides over this brood, taking orders from above and trying to pass them along without getting his hand bitten. We see these men talk, backbite, antagonize, scream, and talk some more in their quest to be "on the board." First prize is a Cadillac; second prize is a set of steak knives; third prize - you're fired. Blake's presence establishes the scenario; a neighborhood Chinese restaurant is the setting for the first act, where we see these men engaging in various underhanded tactics. They're involved in bribery, conspiracy, attempted robbery, lying and a few other despicable techniques. Yet we are totally entranced by them. Mamet's characters are built entirely on their lan- guage; it is both their foundation and their structure. Many a theater historian has drawn the link between Mamet and modern drama forefather Anton Chekhov, whose characters are, similarly, creatures ofdialogue. The speech patterns - the pauses, sentence frag- ments, interrupted words, profanity - are positively true-to-life; that makes Mamet's characters so star- tling and so bewitching. Three straight scenes of two men sitting in a booth talking have never been so riveting - in particular, the final scene between Roma and James Lingk, a prospective buyer (subtly rendered by Mark Alhadeff). We get to see Roma's sales pitch; in the hands of Epland and a smooth-as-silk Greg Zola, however, we are witnessing something of a seduction scene: Roma is wining and dining Lingk, ordering him drinks, getting him to loosen up by talking grandiose philoso- phy and not-so-memorable orgasms. Calculatedly, he inches closer and closer, leaning in, pulling back so as not to come on too strong; he lowers his voice to a whisper, leaning back in, and eventually closes his arm around Lingk's shoulder as he unfurls the real estate brochure. Zola's portrayal transformed this scene into a work of art. Roma is the guy you take to bed; Shelly, by con- trast, is the guy you take to dinner. In Act 2, Shelly recounts a great sale he made; he brims with pride and valor like a soldier recounting a heroic act or an actor recalling his career-making turn as Hamlet. Played to perfection by the consistently on-target Matt Schicker, Shelly is the older, wiser, more secure foil to Zola's dark and dangerous Roma. He's the kind of guy who eats your store-bought crumb cake and chokes it down as if it were homemade. And shell of a man though he may be, Schicker endows him with enough compassion to make us mourn his final-scene fall. The multi-talented Brandon Epland, whose previ- ous memorable acting turns at the University have been in high comic roles ("Three Sisters," "The Merry Wives of Windsor"), made an impression as the manipulative Moss; Jonathan Berry was a fine match as the on-the-edge Aaronow. Adam Greenfield, who also assistant directed, rounded out the fine ensemble as the haggard Williamson. Epland and his cast also maintained a terrific steady pace throughout the evening. Uneven timing or poorly measured dialogue can deliver a fatal blow to a Mamet play, and it is easily the biggest mistake of overeager young actors attempting Mamet. Fortu- nately, no mistakes were made by this mature en- semble. The salesmen of Basement Arts' production of Mamet's "Glengarry Glen"Ross." 1.1 U 1 A bit of Oz in Ann Arbor A perfect 'Marriage: . By Dean Bakopoulos Daily Books Editor Jennifer Egan is unique in the sense that often when you come across fiction by ayoungauthorwho lives in New York City, it's a good idea to drop it and run. Not so with the latest offering from Jen- nifer Egan, who reads tonight at Borders. Egan will read from her latest collec- tion, "Emerald City" (Doubleday, 1996, $23), a series of stories bolstered by rich the prose, run undercurrents of fierce emotion and rich meaning. From a fash- ion photo shoot in thejungle, to China, to San Francisco, and yes, to New York City, Egan, whose first published work was a novel called "The Invisible Circus" (Doubleday, 1995), presents very vivid worlds. They are inhabited by very real characters who are subtly consumed by very real feelings. The diversity of the worlds that Egan writes about underscore the common thread that runs through the stories in "Emerald City." The characters in the collection are all longing for some- thing, some kind ofreplacement to their reality, whether it's fame or religion or friendship or a new environment. She described her characters as "people who for any reason, reach for that possibility and promise despite strange circum- stances and against all odds." As to why she utilizes such a wide array of settings in the collection, Egan .said she's fascinated by the "very real, very human idea, that people are on a quest, a journey, forthis glittering place that often turns out to be, guess what, kind of a sham once you get there." Yes, and that's why the title of this work comes from the mythical place in the movie "The Wizard of Oz." Egan said she's amazed at how archetypal that film can be. It's rich with a sense of andinviting worlds. Perhaps Egan's abil- ity to create such true and marvelous worlds in her work stems from her visits to a number of "different worlds" in her own life. Born in the Midwest, raised in San Francisco, off to college in Pennsyl- vania and finally overseas to study at Cambridge, Egan also spent time in the Soviet Union and in China. So to call her a "New York writer" would be wrong; she's an "outsider" there, she said, "New York is full of outsiders like me." But readers of "Emerald City" won't feel like strangers as they are drawn into Egan's work. Stylistically, her prose is sharp, fine-tuned, restrained; underneath By Tyler Patterson For the Daily In the realm of playwriting, the Uni- versity has had its share of notable alums, Arthur Miller being the most famous. With the Basement Arts prp- gram, the University not only has the capacity to foster aspiring actors and directors, but budding playwrights as well. "The Marriage Dance," written by Toby Leah Bochan, in its first full production, gets its chance to join the ranks of previous University originals that gained national recognition. Bochan, who spent all last semester working with Roxy Font, an LSA se- nior making her directorial debut, is finally getting the chance to see her play in a full production. Font and Bochan worked through several drafts and staged readings to get to this point. Font, who admires the language and dialogue in Bochan's writing, said that the play is about the ramifications of a woman's desire in a relationship. "It's the story of a woman who really wants a baby. The play is about how this want affects her present relationship." Thrown into this mix is the relationship of another couple that parallels the main couple. Ingenuity of the plot is apparent through certain twists created by Bochan. The main character, Isabel, is a psychiatrist and some of the scenes take place in a psychiatric ward during seemingly humorous situations. One of the talents displayed by Bochan, though, is making a serious moment through humor. One of the characters, Gerald, is a lawyer, though interestingly enough, he aspires to be a cab driver. Obviously not your everyday dramatic situation. "It's a trial for him," Font explained. "It's really hard, but if you were to tell someone that, they'd laugh.". "It's funny," Font went on. "But I think the way it gets across, its dramatic impact is through the humor, because Toby has a great flair for language. first time I read it through, I was laut- ing. But then, that's why it hits you so hard." On a deeper level, the play explores the search forthe love and the prospects of finding someone. A dominant image the play uses to express its pint is the circle. The circle is used to show.how relationships can overlap and how your position in a circle can determine some- one else's effect on you. Appropriately, the play will be I formed in the round, meaning that the audience will sit on all sides of the actors. Another challenge of the pro- duction is that live musicians will be performing to enhance the show.- The heart of this production is that it is entirely original. For the first time in See MARRIAGE 'Page 9 I at Jennifer Egan shares the magic of the "Emerald City" in Ann Arbor tonight. U I "openness and possibility," and indeed the stories in "Emerald City" run deep with those emotions. Whether it's a young girl on her first acid trip in San Francisco or a failing model in New York City or a dispossessed American businessman traveling with his family through China, Egan's characters re- sound with a pleading hope that just around the corner, over the next hill and past the next wall, things will get better. "Basically, Iguess there are two halves of experience, the chaos that surrounds us, and the world we imagine," she said. "And though they seem to have very little in common, there's a lot that we do to try and bridge the gap between them." Egan's stories capture the confusion that can accompany the attempt to try to bridge that gap, and she manages to capture the deep emotional chaos that is inherent in that attempt. Most impres- sive, is that in doing this, she rarely fails to maintain a clear and poetic voice. _ - - ! IJ Enroll in1,2.4 and 8-week, beeinning to advanced courses Chicago's Studio: INTENSIVE STUDIO INSTITUTES AND SEMINARS Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, Michigan: CREDIT & NON-CREDIT STUDIO COURSES Master of Arts in Art Education Degree Courses for Students-at-Large Hawaiian Islands Study Trip Professional Artists, Educators, Therapists, and Administrators Workshops N, N W. wat ch the world' ti The TISSOT "Titanium". It's incredibly lightweight yet tougher than stainless steel. Made from titanium. Swiss quartz precision and water resistant to 200 meters. In 142 countries around the world,y WE'LL GIVE YOU 10 WEEKS.