The Michigan Daily -Saturday, May 8, 1982 Page 7 Strange people search for treats someone else takes the initiative, one naive, engaging character - dimly offering forth his embarrassing By Elliot Jackson can't get much of a feel for him as a aware that he is a mouse, and trying, to or ludicrous comments and opini character. the lengths that his mousiness will let See'TREATS', Page8 him to find his voice. . ly trite ons. -Uk X TOTES. FROM the Cautious Exul- tation Dept.: There is a very in- teresting - albeit very puzzling - lit- tle play being put on by the Stage Com- pany. Treats, which is playing at the Can- terbury Loft, is an account of what hap- pens when Dave, an erratically char- ming, feckless reporter, comes back from Cyprus to find that Ann, the women he's been living with for two and a half years, has tossed him out and taken up with Patrick, an indescribably dull fellow, but stable - almost to the point of complete Stasis, After a rousingly farcical begin- ning, wherein the domestic peace of Ann and Patrick's evening at home is shattered by Dave's arrival, the play quickly turns rather realistic - and almost, at times, grim. The reporter strives to break up the new relation- ship; the girlfriend wonders what she's looking for in a man, if she should be looking for - or at least living with - a man at all; and the dull one remains bewildered, but doggedly true. If all this sounds confusing, it is. I'm still not sure what the play is supposed to mean. An overheard comment, lar- ded with the kind of off-the-cuff insight we all strive for, summed up exactly my feelings about the thing, namely, that "parts of it were very well-written, but one wondered sometimes why it had been written at all." Towards the end of the play, the situation is exactly the same as at the beginning, except that Ann (Melissa Berger) has switched men. At the very end, however, she and Dave (Phil Murphy) are separated by the length of the sofa, the spirit of the wronged Patrick (David Kitto) hovering in harshly-wounded reproach in the space between them. The play did not end, therefore, so much as just stop in the midst of all the machinations. Was the play then meant as a slice of life portrait, indicating tous that this business between all parties concerned was going to drag on in- definitely? Was the Patrick episode supposed to provoke a crisis in the relationship of Dave and Ann, or was it just a blip, one more event? The characters themselves were puz- zling, in that, as they were played, if not as they were written, only Ann seems to have a clearly defined intention. She wants the best possible situation for herself, and when the arrangements she has made don't lead to that, she dissolves the arrangements - whether it means getting rid of Dave, getting rid of Patrick, or getting rid of both. Ann is, more or less the straight man of the piece, the balance between the respec- tive absurdities of the two men - and Berger's performance, if not flashy, was very solid and readily believable. Dave is an interesting character, fun to play and fun to watch, for who does not in his heart delight in the charming, unpredictable, casually manipulative cad? However, if his only readily ac- cessible trait is a desire to control every situation he is privy to, if his only moments of discomposure come when ,V.&- i-.V1 V F Suffice it to say that Murphy was charming as Dave, terribly British, and possessed of a stage presence the likes ,of which this weary critic has not seen in quite a while, which goes far towards assauging any disappointments one may feel in regard-to Dave's develop- ment asa character. One was reminded irresistably of the Monty Python caricature of the Char- tered Accountant, whose deliberation (which he would call "caution") about the slightest of decisions would be maddening if its absurdity didn't make it so hilarious. Patrick is a harder case to deal with. It might have been interesting to see Although hopelessly stupid, lacking in more of that Chartered Accountant's insight, timid, dull, and unimaginative, blithe spirits, the blissful ignorance of he is nonetheless an undeniably sweet, his density making him fearless about INDIVIDUAL TEATRE WEDSATSUN 6.00 p~m GENE SISKEL M DROGER EBERTWIT NRE SAY LANGUAGE!" GENE SISKEL "T'S NEW & DIFFERENT AND ABSOL.UTELY INNOVATIVE" ROGER EBERT WITH ANDREI FRI-7:15, 9:20 SAT, SUN- 12:30,2:55.,5:10,7:15. 9:20 FOOLED TA! HELD OVER 'TIL THURS! IT'S WICKEDLY FUNNY! MICHAEL CAINE CHRISTOPHER REEVE DYAN CANNON FRI-7:30, 9:40 SAT, SUN 1:00.. 3:10, 5:20. 7:30, 9:40 y ., V y h',,wM1 .", . ,. r. xxx AT MIDNIGHT (PG) ALL SEATS $4.00 V DEATHTRAP lo'i