8A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 23, 2000 ARTS Gozzi and Serban's 'Stag' a surreal delight By Sarah Rubin For The Daily Brilliantly interpreted by the Ameri- can Repertory Theatre, Carl Gozzi's play "The'King Stag" is the embodiment of true surrealistic art. The King Stag Power Center October 21.22, 2000 is that the theatre's Combining colorful cos- tumes, a sensitive musical score, lively choreogra- phy, expressive lighting and phe- nomenal charac- terization, this play excels in every possible aspect. Director Andrei Serban believes that "What Gozzi wanted to affirm truth exists only reality; and that naturalism is a perver- sion of art." Serban holds to this attitude, keeping the tone balanced with an effec- tive combination of wit and melodrama. "The King Stag" takes place in the Oriental Kingdom of Serendippo. King Deramo (Jay Boyer) is in search of the perfect queen. He has auditioned 2,748 princesses but thus far, the search has proven futile. Deramo is not picky; he just possesses a magical statue that can detect bad intentions. Scheming to attain the throne, the evil Prime Minister Tartaglia (Dmetrius Conley-Williams) advises the king to choose a local girl. Tartaglia then plots to place his daughter Clarice (Kristine Goto) in the newly- open position, but all goes awry when Deramo's statue senses Clarice's love for another man. Enraged, Tartaglia embarks upon a heinous endeavor to depose the king and replace him. People die, love, laugh, mourn and are reborn within one act replete with what Serban refers to as "healthy laughter." Japanese "bunraku," Indonesian shad- Courts IgSf UMS Julie Taymor designed the costumes, masks and puppetry for "The King Stag." FORWARD Continued from Page 5A her leads ample time to develop their characters before having them interact with each other. The very recognizable cast (even the usually brash Jay Mohr) brings such nuance to their characters that they disap- pear inside them for the run of the film. Spacey, who has twice won Oscars for playing empty, soulless men, is here so full of torment and pain that he is about to come apart. Spacey's Eugene Simonet is the intrinsic opposite of his cynical Lester Berman from "American Beauty." While Lester cared about nothing, Eugene attempts to save the whole world through his stu- dents. While Lester slouched in the back of his mini van, Eugene forces his students to use language to gain a better grasp of life. Yet, at the same time, Eugene admits that emo- tionally, language is all he has. At one point, Hunt's character admits how much she cares for Simonet, and Simonet shudders. The shudder conveyed fear, elation and years of pent up aggression. If Spacey can do this with a simple shake, imag- ine what he can do with an entire movie. Hunt is a hard working single mom and she looks it. Her sitcom persona has vanished here. Her pretty face is haggard and her over- used eye shadow hardly covers the bags under her eyes. She could easi- ly have let this role slip into the stereotypical poor-but-determined mothers we've seen a thousand times before, but she brings a sense of true pain and fear to the role. Her work here is far superior to that of her Oscar winning performance in "As Good As It Gets." Osment not only holds his own in the scenes he shares with his sea- soned co-stars, but also uses his face as expertly as Spacey. He proves here that "The Sixth Sense" was no fluke, and that he is'one of the most gifted new actors in Holly- wood. When Leder focuses the camera on his young eyes, you can watch his entire character unfold. Like Spacey and Hunt, he takes a stock character (that of a young boy smarter than the adults around him)' and makes him live and breathe. Overall, the film is excellent. It just angers me that Hollywood refuses to entertain new story ideas, and continues to recycle even the most tried and true movie cliches. ow-puppetry, Balinese temple-dancing and Renaissance street-theatre are delightfully intertwined to diversify the play. All aspects of the production are exaggerated: Movements are delicately conspicuous, voices are laden with heavy inflection and costumes are flashy. This flamboyancy can be attributed to Julie Taymor, the phenomenal creator of ever-popular Broadway version of "The Lion King." The cast and crew are as seasoned as they come. Mainly comprised of Har- vard grads, they bubble with vigor and electricity. Members have graced televi- sion screens on PBS, MTV and Nick- 1 elodeon and have appeared in "Law and Order," "Sex in The City" and "Third1 Watch." The choreographer/costume 1 designer has a Tony under her belt. The play's translator is a Guggenheim fellow.; The amazing percussionist has per- a formed with such artists as "The Violent Femmes," NPR's Garrison Keilor and 1 Itzhak Perlman. "The King Stag" is a guaranteed win-s ner. Its appeal is evident on every level;1 audiences of all ages can appreciate the magnetism exuded by each facet.i Atmospheri( within the theatre; that the theatre's func- tion is not a copy or mimic of any sort of Skate or die with wicked 'Tony Hawk' sequel c new Basement Arts show nothing short of 'Freak'-ish By Jeff Dickerson For the Daily Until last year, skateboarding games never garnered much attention from video gamers. Sure, everyone loved "Skate or Die" for Nintendo, but that Grade: A- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 For Playstation Neversoft Entertainment was over a decade ago. In 1999, "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" was released for Playstation with little advertising. Word of mouth praise for the the new levels more engaging than before. The controls are a carbon copy of the original; if you've mastered the first "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater," you're halfway done with the second. Little has been done to improve the graphics of the first game, but then who cares? The graphics are not the focal point of the game. After a few hours you'll be so stressed on hitting the right combination of buttons that you won't notice the polygonal skaters. If having breathtaking visuals is what you need, wait until next month's Dreamcast ver- sion. If there was one complaint put on the inaugural "Tony Hawk" game, it was the lack of variety on the sound- track. If the loud punk sounds of artists like Goldfinger and Primus were not your cup of java, you were out of luck. From Rage Against the Machine to Naughty by Nature, the developers have broadened the scope of musical interest in the latest "Tony Hawk." Sadly, e\ven these new tracks become tiresome after a few hours. Turn off the volume on your TV and crank up your favorite Dan Fogelberg cd as you nosegrind the rails of Venice and New York. By Sarah Rubin For The Daily "Fucking tea time." Did that get your attention? Good. It was supposed to. In the one-act play "Control Freaks," writer Beth Henley relies on lines like this to captivate viewers. This show was adopted for performance by the Basement Arts board and directed by Becky Hibbs. Incestuous tendencies and deceit are the basis for this dark comedy. Four characters interact. Two of them are related. Two of them are married. Two have a pseudo- engagement. Four of them are having an affair. One is a schizophrenic and has three personalities. And the plot is even weirder than the math. Sister, the protagonist, is lovably crazy. Brilliantly por- trayed by Megan Maczko, Sister is vulnerable, lacking ambition and delightfully oblivious to her surroundings. Sister expresses all of the basic human emotions that humans are basically unable to express. She is jealous of her new sister-in-law. She lusts after her brother. She represses her childhood. Maczko's sensitive performance is consummated by her presentation of Sister's other sides: Pinky is the sweet Southern belle, Spaghetti is the sultry vixen and Sister is the happy combination of the two. Mazko does a laudable job of defining each persona. The supporting characters are a dazzling array of strange. As Sister's brother Carl, Dan Granke puts a bit too breakthrough title made the game a sur- prise hit. The infinite combinations of tricks made for a game that never got old.'Neversoft has just released a follow up that die-hard fans will salivate for and newbies will flock to get their hands on. Don't expect to coast through the game-as smoothly as you did in the first. The level objectives are more tax- ing and have doubled in number. Expanded levels and hidden areas make Simply put, "Tony Hawk 2" is one of the finest games made for the Playsta- tion. Every minor detail was done cor- rectly in making the sequel true to the game play of the original while adding a copious load of new features. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2" is the ideal benchmark in Playstation's triumphant life of exceptional titles. If you loved the first game, the sequel will more than satisfy you. For those who haven't, buy it anyway. much pep into the performance, causing his unrealistic role to verge on asinine. However, he has to do something to explain Henley's vague allusions to a flirtation with his sis- ter and a disturbing need for power. Betty (Anna Reby) is Carl's wife. This former prostitute has an obsessive-compulsive need for order within the chaos. She sedately mops while deliberating upon how to kill her husband. Her apathy is matched only by her absur- dity. Reby's body language is superb; it gives the audience a glimpse into the personality that her lines lack. The final wacko thrown into the bedlam of Carl's household is Paul- the-boss, played by Paul Greer. He pursues Sister for her money and Betty for her whorishness in a performance that is overwhelmingly passionate, and yet sterile in all the wrong places. Greer pulls it off, though. Hibbs felt that "whatever (character) interpretation I did was in my cast- ing." She interpreted well. The costumes scream for ... something. A silver wig, checkered tights and a maroon can-can are among the flashy pieces. The set is fine, but predictable. The lighting is the most solid component of the play.It alternates between red and mysterious and green and fore- boding. Overall, "Control Freaks" has a great atmosphere; it teems with discomfort and uncertainty. Misuse of absurd perversity and flagrant irony is a trite way to win an audience. 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