Check out the local flavor on MTV's "12 Angry Viewers" tonight.
Witness the unleashing of U2's video for "If God Will Send His
Angels," which was shot in Detroit in October, as it is judged by
Jurors 1 and 11, who happen to be 'U' students. The show pre-
mieres at 5:30 a.m. and repeats at 12:30 a.m.
UI1~z icigm tij~
Don't miss previews of the Take 6 concert at Hill
Auditorium and "Romeo and Juliet" at the Michigan Theater,
both happening this weekend.
Thursday
March 12, 1998
A
Mechanicals make
'Cuckoo' fly
By Anna Kovalszki
Daily Arts Writer
A work farm, a mental ward, a nurse, a half-Indian,
a convict ... an unseemly combination of places and
people. Really, it is their apparent incongruence which
lends them a certain mysterious aura, and in Ken
Kesey's imagination creates a bizarre world. In "One
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the author's rebellious
spirit allowed his work to take on an anti-authoritarian
tone during its creation in the early '60s. The work still
captivates audiences through video, with Milos
Forman's film interpretation, and through theater,
with Dale Wasserman's adaptation.
Rude Mechanicals, a University Activities Center
committee, has decided to rise to the challenge of por-
traying this diverse group of characters in its produc-
tion of "One Flew Over the
., Cuckoo's Nest" Leslie Soranno,
' .'producer of the play and Rude
Mechanicals committee chair,
One Flew Over said the group is focused on
the Cuckoo's recruiting a cast representative
Nest of the University community,
Mendelsson Theater and has had success with the
Tonight at 8 caliber of talent it has drawn to
its auditions. While approxi-
mately half of the cast comes
from performance art majors.
the other consists of students
with varied backgrounds.
____________ Director Francine Liebling, a
third-year Music student, says
she chose to do this play for several reasons. She saw
.a production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" a
few years ago, and she wished to experiment with
doing it in a different way, with a larger cast. She also
wanted to make it more similar to Kesey's book, and
therefore altered Wasserman's script at times.
And although she admits that Jack Nicholson did a
superb Academy Award winning performance as the
protagonist in Forman's 1975 film version, Liebling
contends that he only offers a typically Nicholson
interpretation, a character dissimilar with Kesey's
description.
Nurse Ratched, the vicious, exacting health profes-
sional who torments and subdues the patients, also is
treated in a lighter tone. Liebling said her character does
not warrant such treatment without background infor-
mation.
Liebling practices a rehearsal technique in which
she allows the cast to experience the "complete biog-
raphy of the character." In order to portray a character
properly, knowledge of the character's lifetime is
needed, as opposed to just using a script with few
DANA LINNANE/Daily
Kevin Stahl, Thomas Tate, Garth Heutel and Jeff Fazzola star in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" this weekend.
lines, she said.
The stage set, designed by Mina Kinukawa, is that
of an austere mental ward, precisely the environment
that Kesey's characters inhabit.
Liebling contends there will be a
surprise element in the effects,
perhaps in the electric shock
therapy room.
The pattern of the floors lend a
certain force, a perspective.
Liebling argues they, along with >
the stark white of the set, allow a
certain mix of "realism and sur-
realism" to emanate from the :.:.
the patients are forced to submit to their keepers. It is
a paradoxical world. Rude Mechanicals strives to
achieve accurate presentation of this world through
hard work, as planning started in
October 1997.
From the technical staff, to the
producers and directors, to the
cast, the entire endeavor is stu-
dent organized and executed.
What better way to attest to the
power of the young than through
a successful production of this
critique of "the system."
Ken Kesey uses the mental
ward to allude to the oppressive-
ness of American society in the
Beat and Hippie cultures of the
'50s and '60s. Liebling asks,
"whether his conclusions still
hold true in our 'modern age,"'
DANA UNNANE/Daily and we may perhaps do the
hief Bromden In same, with a view toward the
Cuckoo's Nest." optimism of our own times.
stage.
The play will be set within the
physically strong and emotional-
ly weak Indian Chief Bromden's
recollections and narration.
Through his observances, we
glimpse the authoritarian world
of the mental institution, where
instead of therapeutic healing,
Ben Green portrays C
Rude Mechanicals'"T
Primus thrashes hard-core at Swatch's Sno-Core
da d4 's 9~aw r &*act S~racc
By Cohn Bartos
Daily Arts Writer
When you think of Detroit, snowboarding probably
isn't the first thing that comes to mind. But during the
University's spring break, the first annual Swatch Sno-
Core tour rolled through the State Theater in Detroit,
joining snowboard culture and music together to make
for an interesting night.
The audience was as diverse as the lineup, starring
the unknown Van Allen Belt,
hip-hop heroes Tha Alkaholiks,
° punk wannabes Blink 182, and
the always enjoyable, enigmatic
Sno-Core Primus. The night started out
Tour with a very noisy, ugly set by
State Theater Canadian newcomer the Van
March 1, 1998 Allen Belt. Featuring Jerry
Garcia on drums and some
freakish Les Claypool clone on
guitar and vocals, the band's
brand of spacey, prog rock and
very lame Primus imitation
threw the audience for a loop.
The night became immediate-
ly more entertaining, though. As
the band thankfully left the stage, a projector dis-
played the "South Park" episode where Cartman is
contacted by the "visitors." After everyone in the
crowd got their laughs in, it was time to laugh some
more. Hip-hop drunks Tha Alkaholiks members took
the stage and made complete asses of themselves.
They proceeded to get wasted and flow uninspiredly
through tracks from their three albums as the crowd
booed and laughed at their moronic inflatable 40-
ounce bottle on stage and two idiots holding
Alkaholiks posters on sticks as they rhymed.
When the farce ended, another "South Park"
episode was shown as everyone's favorite jokesters
Blink 182 prepared for their set. As the bassist and
guitarist exchanged jokes and insults back and forth,
Blink played what sounded like the same song over
and over again for about 45 minutes. The trendy 14-
year olds with the pierced eyebrows in the crowd
seemed to like it, but I was highly unimpressed with
the band's effortless, generic set.
After a short break and some snowboarding videos,
headliners and "South Park" theme-creators Primus
took the stage to a roar, as Les Claypool brought out his
stand-up bass and played "Sailing The Seas Of Cheese"
before the band, including new drummer Brain,
launched into "Nature Boy" from 1993's "Pork Soda"
Les Claypool, despite a broken foot injured on the first
day of the tour, was his masterful self as always on bass,
showing his talents on songs like "Those Damned Blue
Collar Tweakers," "My Name Is Mud" and
"Southbound Pachyderm." Guitarist Larry "Lar"
LaLonde was rather subdued on stage, as usual, but he
was playing far more intricately than his simple fill-in
techniques of the past. Brain was both punchy and ani-
mated on drums during a drum solo and while making
Courtesy of Interscope
Primus headlines the SnoCore Tour of punk and hiphop.
the older songs take on new life and the newer songs
from "The Brown Album" sound better than ever.
New tracks like "Bob's Party Time Lounge,
"Golden Boy" and "Kalamazoo" went over just as
well with the crowd as the older songs, although the
crowd was somewhat disappointed that Primus some-
how neglected its 1990 debut "Frizzle Fry" altogether.
This disappointment soon faded, though, as the good
ol' boys brought their set to a close with a ten-minute
version of the classic "Tommy The Cat" and the
thrashing encore, "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver."
The 13-song, 75-minute set seemed a little short,
but it alone, along with the South Park episodes, wab
worth the price of admission. They made up for the
other laughable performances and the fact that there
was absolutely no snow anywhere to be found, making
this first annual Sno-Core show a success overall.
I
MICHIGAN
ORCHESTRA
Steven Bizub, Music Director
UM'C> y ' NhAy
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