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A league of their own
The University's Program in Film and Video Studies is presenting a free
screening of a series of short films by women directors from the early
days of the silver sdreen. The silent movies consist of a study of
female stereotyping and marriage. What will certainly prove to be an
interesting and educational program begins at 4:10 p.m. at the
Michigan Theater.
Tuesday
September 17, 1996
Roth's 'Goodnight Irene'
takes Ann Arbor by storm
By Tyler Patterson
Daily Theater Editor
n $ an opening night that seemed
ddy with its own potential, the world-
premiere production of University fac-
ulty member Ari Roth's "Goodnight
Irene" began its run at the Performance
Network. With two equity actors and an
accomplished director what transpired
proved to be powerful, though not flaw-
less.
The story begins with Ethan (Peter
Birkenhead), editor of a fledgling
*nthly urban-oriented newspaper,
interested in patching up the Crown
Heights tensions between Jews and
African Americans that erupted the pre-
vious year. Putting him in severe debt,
the idea of a monthly publication,
appropriately enough called "Repair,"
inspires in Ethan much self-incrimina-
tion as he questions his ability to con-
tribute to an issue that consumes him.
Played passionately and effectively
Birkenhead, Ethan does much to
dear us to him. This is quite an
accomplishment considering there are
times when Ethan in enthusiastic but
somewhat neurotic style could come
across as annoying with his tendency to
ramble - defending and questioning
himself simultaneously. Yet,
Birkenhead shows plenty of heart that
gives Ethan a sense of realism, so that
his insecurity, in fact, works for him.
The power of the play comes from
many angles, not just the acting. Gilbert
McCauley did a superb job directing
the production, employing a dynamic
synthesis of lighting (Johanna
Broughton) that at times was positively
eerie, and sound (Ed Special and Tom
Bray) that with its thunderous rain and
:r RE VIEW
oodnight Irene
Performance Network
Sept. 12, 1996
various voices made the most of many
moments.
Tim Rhoze, who played Ethan's best
friend Keith, was absolutely, wonderful
and Rhoze's self-reliant demeanor
offered a refreshing contrast to Ethan's
tendency to victimize himself. One
problem with the play was that Keith
was not on stage enough. The real ten-
sion of the play began when Keith, an
African American, revealed to Ethan,
who is Jewish, that he was sleeping
with Ethan's sister, Cammy (Zehra
Berkman). The race issue truly started
hitting home for Ethan and for the audi-
ence when Ethan's closet racism began
to emerge.
Although for the rest of the play most
of the tension revolves around the rela-
tionship of Keith, Cammy and Ethan,
the play spends much of its beginning
establishing the relationship between
Ethan and his wife Andi (Michelle
Mountain). Although Mountain lacked
the acting presence of Rhoze and
Birkenhead, her performance only
offered up a microscope to what
became the glaring shortcoming of the
play.
The opening sequence, where
African Americans and Jews paint on
the Crown Heights Unity Wall in turn,
was an engaging and hypnotic hook that
kept the audience going far into the
Anna Deveare Smith (Jennifer Jones)
interview. The play lost most of its
steam during Ethan and Andi's some-
what uninspired argument about what
to do with their future. Considering a
baby was on the way, they were in debt
and had private motives on whether
they should continue to live in the city,
you would think Ethan and Andi could
find a passionate chord from which to
disagree.
However, Andi's presence seems only
to provide colorization for plot, not to
provide tension. The one scene where
there was any potential to create a seri-
ous rift between Andi and Ethan (in the
second act where Andi decides to go for
a walk) never fully develops its tension
on stage. We learn that behind-the-
scenes Andi decides to move away. We
learn that behind-the-scenes Andi and
Ethan have made up. Instead Ethan's
tension with Andi gets transferred to
Cammy -"What did you say to her?"
In the end, this is not a story about a
troubled marriage. It is about a friend-
ship that tries to cross two significant
boundaries, that of race and the idea of
sharing a friend with someone in your
family. It's about the difference between
truth and fact, and how we come to
grips with -the past. When Ari Roth
focuses on these issues, the play reach-
es its expected levels and the effect is
powerful. When Roth strays away from
these lines, the story just seems to plod
along without a focused sense of direc-
tion.
Zehra Berkman as Cammy deserves
special recognition. Described as a
"Performance Network regular" in the
program, Berkman more than held her
own against the two more accomplished
actors, Rhoze and Birkenhead. Giving
Cammy a sense vulnerability while
continuing to be engaging and feisty,
Berkman provided the play with some
of its most powerful moments.
All in all, the production was a good
one. McCauley succeeded in rendering
the strong moments of the play with
passion. The set (Daniel C. Walker) was
simple but creative. Anything more
elaborate might have been distracting.
When this play gets to New York City,
hopefully it will be in a more focused
and concise form. It could be the differ-
ence between a very good play and a
great one.
"Nikolai, if you steal my towel I'll kick your derriere."
A speedy Van Damme vehicle
By Neal C. Carruth
Daily Arts Writer
"Maximum Risk," a humorless but
nicely filmed action movie, is probably
the high point of Jean-Claude Van
Damme's career thus far. As expected,
the film fails to achieve the level of
depth and relevance that it clearly
intends to reach, but it does make for an
exciting vehicle for Van Damme.
The story details the quest of Alain
Moreau (Van Damme), a former French
soldier who finds his double dead on
the streets of his small hometown in
Southern France. Afterward, Moreau's
mother reveals that he was born with a
twin who was put up for adoption short-
ly after birth.
Director Ringo Lam tries to hit the
audience over the head with the film's
thematic content. He wants us to see his
bare-fisted. bare-breasted, shoot-em-up
as a subtle exploration of notions of
identity, separation and loss. Nice try.
Moreau's unauthorized investigation
of his brother's death takes him to New
York's Little Odessa where it turns out
his twin, Mikhail, grew up in a family
of Russian immigrants and became
ensconced in the Russian mob.
Apparently, Mikhail's conscience got
the best of him, and he was attempt-.
ing to extricate himself from the
mob and return to the mother and1
brother he had never met.
Of course, when
Moreau arrives in Little f
Odessa, he is mistaken
for Mikhail and is
embedded in all off
Mikhail's personal
problems and strained
relationships. These
relationships include
a romantic one with
the lovely Alex,
REVIEW
Maximum Risk
At Briarwood and Showcase
played by Natasha Henstridge. (No, she
doesn't pierce her tongue through the
back of anyone's neck in this one.)
Together, Moreau and Alex move
toward the fateful denouement where
they're both alive, the bad guys have
all died painful deaths and there are
millions of dollars just waiting to be
spent.
Van Damme's acting has shown
remarkably little improvement over the
course of his nine or 10 films. He sports
this dull, catatonic stare that I guess he
thinks passes for depth. Otherwise, he
only strikes one as a conscious, animate
being when he is fighting.
As for Natasha Henstridge, the jury
is still out. While you can detect a
glimmer of talent, if Henstridge does-I
n't get offered better roles, the alien bit
may start to look pretty good by com-
parison.
Another problem, apart from the act-
ing, is the film's ridiculous length.
Clocking in at around two hours,
the breakneck pace of the action
sequences is interrupted so
3;. that we can feel Moreau's
pain. Judging from the
snickers in the audience,
this is not what people
pay $6.50 to see.
Nonetheless, this is
a discernible pattern
in Van Damme's
work. The filmmak-
ers are motivated by
the need to present
Van Damme as more than a brutal
killing machine. He is a sensitive,
post-feminist man. He kills because he
has a "job to do" or a "score to settle,"
not out of some pathological proclivi-
ty,
Probably the greatest virtue of
"Maximum Risk" is the fine photogra-
phy of Alexander Gruszynski. He gives
the urban visuals a rich, layered look
and even makes Van Damme's physiog-
nomy a worn, battered and interesting
surface. It's possible, though, that I'm
giving Gruszynski too much credit, as
there are obviously built-in advantages
to filming in such photogenic locations
as the south of France and New York
City.
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Paris 299
Rome 349
Cancun 149
Mexico City 159
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Peter Birkenhead and Tim Rhoze star in Ari Roth's "Goodnight Irene."
Run On takes off with debut LP
*un On
Start Packing
Matador
One of the more interesting and
eclectic indie-rock albums released
recently, "Start Packing" by New York's
Run On mixes horns, vibes, and elec-
tronics with the standard bass / drums /
guitar rock fare.
Add multiple vocalists in the band
d an uncanny knack for arresting
arrangements and you get hypnotic,
nearly unclassifiable music like the
mercurial opener "Tried," the jittery
bop of"Baap," and the soulful nastiness
of "Go There." Quiet ballads like "A to
Z" rest alongside noise-fests like
"Miscalculation," and "Xmas Trip"
even starts out like Jerry Lee Lewis'
"Breathless."
While it is challenging, Run On's
sound is by no means unlistenable; for
all its experimentation, the taut arrange-
ments and songwriting under the noise
make it both accessible and inventive.
"Start Packing" is an accomplished,
worthwhile debut album from an excit-
ing band.
- Heather Phares
Read
Weekend,
etc.
Magazine
every
Thrdy
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