2 - - The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 5, 1997
Bizarre, moder twist on Henry V' proves tragically hip

By Stephanie Love
Daily Arts Writer
A group of London punks meet for drinks.
Meatloaf is playing in the background, and Henry V
is clad in leather.
Halloween? Not quite. It's
Shakespeare with a new twist, R
and "Henry V" as you know it R
will never be the same.
The opening percussion,
played from a maze of scaffold-
ing, set the scene for what was to Dec 4.,
be an unpredictable evening. But
while the audience may have expected guns and
gore, what they got was a visual onslaught.
From the costumes to the props to the set itself, the
sights and sounds of the production were both enter-
taining and disturbing.
Mark Gmazel (Pistol) stole the show with his
drunken antics, never appearing on stage without
drink in hand. From his escapades with his rag-tag
cronies Nym and Bardoff to his rendition of Bruce
Springsteen's "War" while the downtrodden British
Army looked on, Gmazel took Shakespeare and
made it his own.
What was difficult for the audience was the story.
With such a large cast, the plot was sometimes lost in
the spectacle. Each scene incorporated so many visu-
al details that it was sometimes hard to know what to
look at and listen to. The audience member without
much knowledge of "Henry V" was sometimes left
in the dark when the story became more complicat-
ed, but the overall plot was apparent and at times
enhanced by the staging.
The scene after the death of Falstaff was particu-

larly good, showeasing the modern interpretation's
strengths. Pistol's wife (Heather Weiner) was both
comical and promiscuous. Her performance was
reminiscent of Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls," bring-
ing new life to what could have been a mundane role.

E V IE W
Henry V
Power Center
, 1997 ;Through Sunday
Henry gets the

Michael Rubenstone (Henry
V) also gave a commendable
performance.
After starting the play with
scenes from "Henry IV Parts I &
1I" which show Henry as the
whoring
d r ii n k ,I
throne and ay

the background.
But despite the w ar theme, Henry V was the only
one who used a gun. Soldiers hattled each other with
hooks and f'ists. And there was only one decapitation.
What kept this production going was the comic
relief. French soldiers watched "Scooby Doo" while
planning their attack, the Brits chowed down on
Burger King and Henry whipped out his Fren
phrase book in order to woo Katherine.
The set was also effcctive, consisting mainly of
sparse cinderblock w alls which provided the back-
drop for scenes at the French
. Court by the pool to the bloodied
battlefield where the blood-

haircut, a drastic change. But it
was easy to miss Henry's trans-
formation from loser to vision-
ary leader. Because there was
no distinction between the
plays, it appeared as if there
were two different characters
rather than the evolution of a
king as was intended.
Kelly Rector (Katherine)
pulled of the role of snotty
French princess with ease, rat-
tling off a primarily French
scene in a bathtub. Other
scenes, such as the war
sequences, dragged on like a
bad Kung-Fu movie. The scenes
did have a "West Side Story"
appeal despite their length, as
soldiers clambered up walls
while the drummers played in

stained walls were a constant
reminder of the underlying vio-
lence.
While characters wore any-
thing from leather to lingerie, p
leeks to use as microphones at
generally clambored around the
stage chasing one anther, the
audience was given ample oppor-
tunity to identify with the people
in the play.
Though Shakespeare didn't
intend "H enry V" to translate
into a modern society, he could-
n't help but approve of this pro-
duction and the way it worked
involved the audience with tI.
performers, even if the modern-
ization caused some confusion.
Audience connection is exactly
what this production is about.

A drunken Pistol (Mark Gmazel)
proved the highlight of U Prod's mod-
emized "Henry V."

, chael Rubenstone gets in your face as a '90s kind of Hal in "Henry V."


'Deja s cor
Deja Dead
Kathy Reichs
Scribner
When you're reading a book that is
impossible to put down not only
because it is incredibly compelling but
it has you scared to turn off the lights
and go to bed, then you know you're
reading one hell of a book. Kathy
Reichs' "Deja Dead" is exactly one of
these. Filled with dark shadows and
endless horrors, this tale of terror will
have you constantly checking over your
shoulder as you unfold it's wicked tale.
Can it be possible that this is only a
debut novel? "Deja Dead" marks
Reichs' first venture into fiction writing,
but it is a more formidable piece of writ-
ing than the works of most seasoned and
acclaimed veterans. The book is so real
and powerful that it sucks you into its
world of corpses, psychosis and serial
killers from the first syllable.
Reichs' daytime job as a forensic
anthropologist allows her to weave an
accurate story about a heroine of the

pses, killers, shadows make it a dead-on thriller

same-profession. Having worked in the
province of Quebec, her knowledge of
the craft, as well as the area, make the
tale almost too real for comfort.
With the air of a natural-born story-
teller, Reichs shows us her dungeon of
horrors through Dr. Temperance
Brennan, a forensic
anthropologist ,,,
working in the -
culture-rich
area of.
Quebec.
N oth i ng
prepares
Brennan for a
body discovered on the
grounds of an abandoned Catholic sem-
inary in Montreal. The body of a female
that has been brutally butchered beyond
recognition greatly disturbs Brennan,
who has been able to withhold emotion-
al involvement for so many years.
Soon other mutilated bodies begin
turning up, and Brennan goes on a cru-
sade to prove that these are all the work
of a dangerously psychotic serial killer.
The killer turns his eyes on Brennan,
and her ignored attempts to convince
the police soon take on a more personal
and desperate spin.
Forced to hunt the killer herself as the

killer simultaneously hunts for her,
"Deja Dead" becomes a harrowing race
as to who will find the other first.
Reichs has already been compared to
Patricia Cornwell, and it is possible that
her talent exceeds that of the phenome-
nal and established thrills expert.
Reichs' "Deja Dead" not
only has the eerie
feel of "Silence
of the
Lambs' but
her vivid
details and
her skilled
manipulation of
words create similarly
haunting images that return to the read-
er for weeks whenever the lights go off.
The characters, including the fatalis-
tic Brennan and the variety of law
enforcement officials with whom she
deals, as well as the prostitutes and
social lowlifes, seem more like living
people rather than mere concoctions of
Reichs' superior imagination.
Every single character is well-devel-
oped and rich. Every single aspect of the
novel is carefully crafted and put into place
with the eye of a perfectionist. The intense
and unpredictable story is seamless with
no flaws that can be seen with the
naked eye. Could this be the per-
fect horror/crime novel? Very
possibly.
How often is it that a novel
has you afraid to turn off the
light, afraid to close your
eyes and wishing you still
lived with your parents so
you could crawl into their
bed for protection against the '
horrors of the night? As diffi-
cult as those tasks are, "Deja
Dead" is fully capable of them.
A masterpiece in manipu-
lating a reader through an
unbelievably graphic and horri-
fying tale, "Deja Dead" is
one of the best thrillers of
the year. An amazing read-
ing experience, "Deja

Dead" will have you sleeping with the
light on for weeks and raving about it
for years.
-Julia Shih
Beavis and Butthead:
The Butt-Files;
Beavis and Butthead
Travel Log
By Gre Grabianski and
Almee Keillor; by Kristofor
Brown
MTV Books
Uh-huh-huh-huh. So, like, see, there.
are these books. And, uhhh, they're
about Beavis and Butthead. Actually,
they're not really about Beavis and
Butthead. It's more like they're about
everything else. But they're really cool,
see, 'cause it's Beavis and Butthead
who are talking about everything else.
Uhhh, yeah, like, those guys really
know how it is.
You should check out "Beavis and
Butthead Travel Log" because
they say "log" No, really, in
this book, Beavis and
Butthead go to
every state,;
including
Mexico and :::
Canada, and say '
exactly why it's
cool (or why it
s u c k s.)
"Mishigan," for
example, is cool
because it's the place
where cars are made.
Prison is the place
where license plates are
made. So if you get
bored on vacation, you
can drive around and

see if any license plates are really me4
sages from prisoners. You can also visit
Dr. Death, "like a pro wrestler or some-
thing ... He's got a killer sleeper hold.
Heh heh heh." Another reason why
"Mishigan" is a good place to go is
because of the cool town names, like
Nirvana, Bad Axe, Peck and Needmore.
Along with information about each
state, "Beavis and Butthead Travel Log"
is also full of vacation tips, such as
where to find the hottest chicks a*
where to go so the weather doesn't suck;
There is also a list of what to look for in
a hotel: places that say "adult motel;'
hourly rates and vibrating beds.
"Beavis and Butthead:. The- Butt
Files" is their guide to "the suppernat-
ural" and "science friction," so you
can understand the unknown better
"in case you're, like, slow or' some-
thing." The unknown includes Easter
Island, voodoo dolls, mental telep*
thy, "Baywatch Nights" and The
Giant Floating Butt of H ighland
High. The Giant Floating Butt haunts
the school and sometimes cuts the
cheese, then disappears - -"Some
people think it comes from this kid
who, like, years and years ago cut off
his butt in wood shop. Huh-huh-huh!
The kid lived and stuff, but his butt
died. And now the ghost of his butt
haunts Highland forever, or som*
thing."
Other mysteries include
"Why Butthead
Sucks" and "Why
Beavis Can't Score"
(just look at him. Huh-
huh-huh-huh!) Like,
maybe these aren't as
big of mysteries as the
Twilight Zone or Elvis,
but they're still kind
scary.
These books are both real-
ly cool. Beavis and Butthead
know how the world really is,
and stuff. Huh-huh-huh.
Yeah.
-Jessica Eaton

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