The Fantasy Jungle ... Come to the Pierpoint Com- mons piano lounge tonight for the opening reception of a must-see art installation. 6 p.m. michigandaily.com /arts ARTS FRIDAY MARCH 30, 2001 5 U-Prod's 'Measure' * adds excitement to Shakespeare drear Awful 'Say' substitutes gross-outs for comedy By Robyn Melamed Daily Arts Editor Long, long ago, in a time before the scandal of MTV, Shakespeare was writing plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies and his- tories. Yet don't be fooled by his upstanding reputation - Shakespeare had a few scan- Measure for dalous tricks up his sleeve. Measure Lasf night, University Pro- rueblood theater ductions began its first set of Shakespeare's most contem- through April 8 porary play, "Measure for Measure." Red feathered boas, black patent leather pants, white stiletto heals and snake- skinned boots are not the usual attire seen in the pro- ductions of Shakespeare plays. However, these items were just the begin- ning of the unexpected, outrageousness that Uni- versity Productions brought to the stage. During the opening scene, it was difficult to tell whether the audience was witnessing the work of a genius or the work of the hottest club on cam- pus. Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible" was blasting into the theater while actors gyrated across the stage. Booze, drugs and sexual acts were happening all over the place. As this scene continued, some of the audience members looked as if they would have to physically keep their mouths from hitting the floor. Soon enough, the realization hits that this wild, crazy place is the corrupt city of Vienna. The Duke, a free-thinking, long-haired, leather jacket-wearing man, has lost control of his citizens. In despera- tion, he decides to take a short leave, appointing a strict man, Angelo, to take his place. U-Prod's "Measure Angelo plays "Let's make a d for Measure" uses a limited color palette of red, white and black. As a reflection on his name and not his nature, Angelo is dressed in white from head to toe. Angelo wastes no time using his new power when he dis- covers that one of the citizens, Claudio, has impregnated his fiancee, Juliet. He condemns Claudio to death, and does not want to negotiate this decision. At this point, Claudio's beautiful, chaste sister Isabella enters the picture. This is where the story gets even more interesting. Although Isabella is dressed in red, a color that symbolizes passion and seduction, she is in training to become a nun. After hearing the news of her brother's death sen- tence, she goes to Angelo to plead for mercy. Angelo, taken aback by Isabella's beauty and goodness, decides that he will release Claudio on one condition: Isabella must have sex with him. The excitement doesn't stop here. The rest of the play takes several twists and turns, pressing on moral issues and the themes of justice and mercy. During the entire production, there was an enor- mous amount of energy on the stage. From the main characters to the characters with smaller By Lesle Boxer Daily Arts Writer This is, hands down, the worst film I have seen in a long time and that is a pretty strong admonishment from someone who has to see a lot of bad movies. "Say It Isn't So" is the latest in the series of gross-out movies that began with the success of "There's Courtesy of University Productions deal" with Isabella in U-Prod's "Measure for Measure." roles, the gusto never subsided. All of the actors were completely absorbed in the play, never miss- ing a line or a stage direction. By using great facial expression and body language, they turned a difficult play into something that was easily acces- sible. One of the highlights of the show was the char- acter Lucio. Dressed in a patent leather get-up, hoop earrings and black hair striped with red streamers, Lucio was quite a sight to see. He was portrayed as a flamboyantly homosexual male - grabbing men's butts and thrusting his hips in front of them. He skipped around on stage, caus- ing havoc wherever possible, and even amused Isabella's nun friends. University Productions' "Measure for Measure" is a humorous, shocking and most importantly, fun look at Shakespeare. It will make you laugh, and perhaps if you're old-fashioned, it might make you cry. It will make you want to shake your booty and check your morals at the same time. Most of all, it will make you realize that even back in the day, when people were talking in a foreign speech they called "English," they were having a good time. Say It Isn't So Grade: F At Quality 16 Something About Mary." Many of the films in this genre are extremely funny - this film, however, is not funny and horri- bly offensive, at best. The movie is being marketed as the new come- dy from the Far- relly brothers. In funny moments was left devoid of humor and just gross. More disappointing and legitimately offensive were the many, many attenipts at humor involving Jo's father (Richird Jenkins), a stroke-victim. A film shoiild know that it is in trouble when it irty- ing to gain laughs by dropping a man confined to a wheelchair on his back. Even worse is that we are supposedto laugh at how poorly his wife treats him and the abuse he suffers. Where this is funny, I do not know. Furthermore, I hope to never find out. Another area of the film that requites ridicule is the acting. Chris Klein, who was great as the innocent quarterback in "Election," proved that he may just be a one-hit wonder. His portrayal-.of Gilly was too dumb-witted and lacking in comedic timing. Heather Grahim played her standard role of an unbeliev- ably attractive woman whom everyone loves. Sally Field plays Jo's mother Via- dine, an abusive wife who is consu ed with the search for illegitimate wealth. Field personifies white trash but she, is annoying, never funny, and takes her role much too seriously. Overall, I truly feel that this movie; is a waste of anyone's time. It is crass 4tid stupid and leaves the audience feeling cheated. reality the only connection to the comedic duo is that they produced it. The premise of the film is that Gilly Noble (Chris Klein), a dog-catcher in Indiana, meets the girl of his dreams, Jo Wingfield (Heather Graham) and they fall madly in love - that is until they find out that they are brother and sister. Based solely on that premise and the Farrelly name, you would think that the film had potential - this was clearly the ploy to get film-goers into the the- ater. The secret of Jo and Gilly's rela- tionship is revealed quite early in the film, leaving room for many antics and twists in the plot. The twists are pre- dictable and are totally uninspiring - and worse, they are not funny. The usual elements of gross-out comedy that have become endearing to audiences are taken to a different level in this film. One scene that should evoke the same kind of all-out riotous laughter of the famed hairdo in "There's Something about Mary" or the chicken up a man's butt in "Me, Myself, and Irene," was one in which Chris Klein gets his hand stuck in the butt of a cow. What could have developed into many 'Inside, Outside' juxtaposes the common with foreign landscapes By Laura Dnoau Daily Arts Writer The Warren Robbins Center gallery where the "Inside, Outside" exhibit waits quietly from nine until five every weekday and weekend for visitors is a silent where place, other, Inside, Outside Warren Robbins Center Gallery. Art & Architecture Building Through March 31st more exotic places hang on the walls for dis- play. Michael Underwood, a BFA senior, has been designing and curating the space for over three weeks, building frames, rearranging fur- niture and wood said. In the exhibit's main room a window faces the door and fills the space with light. To the door's right is a line of Canalettoesque shots of "foreign places" reminiscent of post cards and tourist mail: the Eiffel Tower's lonely underbelly, a Colloseum girdled by a line of tourists beneath umbrellas, A cemetery in Prague. To the door's left are two 4' by 3' landscapes of deserted Ann Arbor parking structures. At the left of the windows are three similar European views: A Venetian canal closed in by walls and shutters, the arches of the Pisa cathedral, and Liber- ty Island where the Lady looks out and the men look up with shaded eyes. At the right of the window are again, two huge, deserted parking structures where the oily concrete faces pitch blackness, where various points of light sear out- ward. Moving to the left, a small opening, between angled walls, points toward a large picture of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza's ceiling lined by angels that twist the eye inward and up. Guided by this picture, the room contracts to a small interior space where a couch, desk, phone, ther- mostat and shuttered window sit togeth- er quietly like hands folded. Out the window a projected image of the Grand Canal floats by. Above the couch two framed projections quietly give witness to traffic as it moves across Florence bridges. "I'd like people to look at these images as paintings," Underwood said. "I've tried to take video and slow it down to the pace of a painting." Backing out of this room there is another smaller space, tucked in the corner where an outdoor wall covered with siding, and an indoor wall with floral-print wall paper juxtapose. If you open a small heat vent on the outdoor wall you'll find an video image of a septic tank, as it surges and backs its water up. The tank is Underwood's par- ents' and the footage comes from Tren- ton County. These adjunct rooms give a contrast- ing perspective of border and limit to the larger room and places in Under- wood's photographs that loom and stretch beyond their framed borders. With the interplay of these rooms then, a visible interaction between our per- ception of foreign, imaginary places and the immediate world occurs and the beauty of both comes to the surface. "I want to provide a sense of mystery to the room, where it feels like some- thing isn't quite resolved. Or at least give the sense that the game is a foot," Underwood said. Underwood has been compiling the exhibited in "Inside, Outside" for over a year. His video footage and pho- tographs were taken last winter during a semester of study abroad in Florence, Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox If you make one more movie this vile, Klein, we'll cut off your other ear!' installing projectors, where pieces rep- resenting over a year of his work, will be displayed through March 31. In itself the room doesn't get much attention, but in conjunction with Underwood's artwork it begins to assert itself. The theme of the exhibit revolves around places caught between disparate worlds, which is highlighted by a blend- ing of perceptions. Photographed mon- uments, towers and ancient architecture, all nonfunctioning though heavily visit- ed, are paralleled by photographs of modern wastelands: Living rooms and parking structures people use and live in but cast off as commonplace. Despite their physical differences, Underwood approaches both worlds with equal sen- sitivity for their aesthetic, underpinned qualities. "If there were a narrative to this piece it would be about a person who sits down on his couch, looks at the wall and dreams of a foreign place," Under- A look at the underside of U of M www.universitysecrets.com :FAI1M [I ® M Courtesy orfiMicnael Underwood Lady Liberty through the lens of senior Michael Underwood. Italy. While traveling in Europe, Under- wood confronted the feeling that his room encapsulates, which is that of all tourists who try to uncover the authen- tic. "The genuine always eludes you when you travel, and the experience just gets more complicated by these monu- ments, which are real places when you look at them and yet they're not." At the Student Awards show earlier this year, Underwood's installation won the Robert D. Richards Memorial Award.