The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts & Sports
Tuesday, March 31, 2015 — 7

‘Iphigenia at Aulis’ 
comes to Walgreen

By COSMO PAPPAS

Daily Arts Writer

“One of the great anti-war 

plays, ‘Iphigenia,’ exemplifies 
how the momentum of war can 
propel 
indi-

viduals and a 
nation toward 
the 
unspeak-

able.” 
This 

is 
how 
the 

website 
for 

the School of 
Music, Theater 
and Dance bills 
its 
upcoming 

performance of 
the last surviv-
ing play of the 
ancient Greek 
tragedian 
Euripides, written at the end of 
the fifth century B.C.

“Iphigenia” 
examines 
the 

story of the ethical conflict 
over the sacrifice of Agamem-
non’s daughter, Iphigenia, in 
the prelude to the Trojan War. 
Agamemnon, the commander of 
the Greek forces, faces this deci-
sion because Athena is barring 
their travel to Troy and decides 
that a sacrifice of a family mem-
ber will appease her. But he has 
to grapple with doubt and hesi-
tation over this decision, and 
deals with a back-and-forth 
game of persuasion with his 
brother, Menelaus.

Euripides, writing against the 

backdrop of the Peloponnesian 
War, had war at the front of his 
mind. “Iphigenia at Aulis” was 
performed at the state-sanc-
tioned annual dramatic festival, 
the Dionysia, where it took first 
prize a year after the author’s 
death and a year before the end 

of the Peloponnesian War – the 
conflict that supplanted Ath-
ens as a major economic and 
political power, giving way to 
Spartan hegemony. Lysander, 
a Spartan commander, estab-
lished the oligarchic rule of the 
Thirty Tyrants in 404 B.C., dur-
ing which time Athenians faced 
land expropriations, state-legit-
imated murder and forced exile.

“I think (war) is something I 

constantly react to, and I think 
our students do, too. I just think 
it’s important for art, and the-
ater as one of the arts, to keep on 
reminding people that maybe we 
should be doing more to stop it,” 
said SMTD Professor Michael 
Tulip, director of the produc-
tion.

If literature is written in the 

confluence of historical, politi-
cal and social forces, then “Iphi-
genia” is no exception. Just 
because it was written 2421 
years ago does not mean that it 
was written in an indetermi-
nate 
then-and-not-now. 
And 

it is significant that Euripides 
was writing amid – or against 
– the Peloponnesian War, since 
Thucydides’s canonical account 
of the military conflict is one 
that influences military strat-
egy and historiography to this 
day. Victor Davis Hanson, a 
classicist and military historian 
who introduced “The Landmark 
Thucydides” is also someone 
who praised President George 
W. Bush’s decision to invade 
Iraq and advocated for strong 
responses to Iran.

Tulip and students of SMTD 

set their production of “Iphi-
genia” in the 21st century, 
foregrounding the resonances 
between Euripides’s anti-war 

play and the immediacy of anti-
war politics to our geopolitical 
situation.

“In terms of costumes, we 

are in 21st century Greece and 
the soldiers look like they could 
be in Desert Storm or Afghani-
stan, but without any emblems 
or anything to say that these are 
Americans or Greeks,” Tulip 
said. “We’re not doing any old 
robes or anything.”

Tulip said that he and the cast 

have 
emphasized 
movement 

and physicality in their produc-
tion as a means for enacting the 
internal ethical and affective 
conflict in and between each 
character.

“For me, I would say that the 

way we’re looking at this work, 
it’s almost like a cross between a 
wrestler, a dancer and a human 
being who has got a lot at stake,” 
Tulip said.

For Tulip and the SMTD cast, 

their production of Iphigenia 
always plays out at multiple levels. 
On the one hand, theirs is a theat-
rical project that emphasizes the 
duality between character and 
that character’s allegory in an 
ethical conflict in the context of 
war. On the other hand, there is 
the way that “Iphigenia” empha-
sized Euripides as an anti-war 
writer, and de-historicized and re-
historicized the piece all at once. It 
pulls Euripides’s play out of history 
to make comment on a time – ours 
– that is entirely not his. But read-
ing his work as an anti-war play 
also puts Euripides into context as 
someone who was responding to 
his contemporaneous geopolitics.

The Friday performances (April 

3 and April 10) will be followed 
by a talk-back session with the 
director, dramaturge and cast.

Iphigenia 
at Aulis

April 2-12

Arthur Miller 

Theater

7:30 p.m.

General 

Admission: 

$28.00

Students: $10.00

EVENT PREVIEW

‘Big Time’ letdown

By MATT BARNAUSKAS

Daily Arts Writer

Two police officers stand over 

a suspect. Dark blues and greens 
contrast with the shining fluores-
cent light over 
their 
heads. 

The first offi-
cer 
(Lenny 

Jacobson, 
“Nurse Jack-
ie”) fails to get 
the criminal 
to talk. His 
partner (Alex 
Anfanger, 
“Secret 
Life of Wal-
ter 
Mitty”) 

holds up his 
lit cigar and 
says in Spanish, “You like to smoke 
cigars?”

“No,” the criminal glowers. “I 

like to smoke pigs.”

The cop laughs before respond-

ing, “I like Cubans. I love the way 
they burn.” He jams the cigar into 
the Cuban’s eye.

The man releases a tortured 

scream the wall behind him slowly 
rises, and bright light fills the room 
as the cops cry out, “Mom, we’re 
right in the middle of shooting!”

The tough-as-nails cops intro-

duced in the opening of “Big Time 
in Hollywood, FL” are revealed to 
be 30-something slacker brothers, 
Jack and Ben, played by Anfanger 
and Jacobson, respectively. The 
pair still live with their parents, 
the assertive Diana (Kathy Baker, 
“Medium”) and the submissive 
Alan (Stephen Tobolowsky, “Cali-

fornication”). The cinematic inter-
rogation is reduced by the show to 
a poorly done home movie that the 
siblings are convinced will help 
them make it big, in spite of the 
shaky camera works, jumpy editing 
and bad acting.

Jack and Ben live in a brightly 

lit world of ignorance. They have 
no skills, but their arrogant con-
fidence in their “abilities” knows 
no bounds. So, it’s understandable 
that Diana and Alan ask the two to 
move out. When confronted with 
this, the brothers’ first solution is 
to suggest to their mother, “There’d 
be more space if you divorce Dad.” 
When this doesn’t work, the next 
obvious course of action is to fulfill 
the episode’s title “Severance” by 
pretending Ben has a drug problem.

It would be easy for these two 

to fall into utterly despicable and 
unlikable territory, but series cre-
ators Anfanger and Dan Schimpf 
(“Next Time on Lonny”) imbue the 
characters with enough naiveté 
and arrested development that 
their schemes are more amusing 
than sinister. However, Jack is the 
more manipulative of the two, com-
fortably convincing Ben that he has 
to have the drug problem.

Amusing is the best way to 

describe “Big Time” ’s humor. The 
situations that the brothers find 
themselves can be ridiculous and 
most of the characters have a goofy 
charm to them. Tobolowsky’s door-
mat of a father, Alan, stands out as 
he only gets through disciplining 
his sons through Diana’s prodding. 
The antics seen in “Severance” are 
mostly worth an eyebrow raise or 
slight chuckle, and keep the view-

er interested, but the show never 
breaks into absolute hilarity for the 
majority of its first episode, skating 
by on well established man-child 
humor. Only in the show’s final act, 
where it goes into unexpected ter-
ritory, does the series begin to real-
ize its full comedic potential.

The pilot is boosted by the 

presence of guest star Ben Stiller 
(“Tropic Thunder”) as Jimmy Sta-
ats, a failed actor, that Jack and Ben 
enlist to play a drug dealer shaking 
Ben down for money. Staats’s own 
illusions of stardom trump even the 
central pair’s as he puts on his best 
C-grade version of Scarface – white 
suit, bad accent and all. Stiller owns 
the screen anytime he’s present in 
the episode, especially in the sur-
prising and hilarious final moments 
when the brothers’ light reality of 
self-delusion slips into a dark world 
of violence with Staats as the idi-
otic, ultimate victim. The shift in 
lighting back to the color scheme 
in the opening fantasy helps trig-
ger this change creating a contrast 
between the brothers’ fantasy and 
the real-world (albeit ridiculous) 
consequences they have to face in 
the upcoming episodes.

“Big Time in Hollywood, FL” 

finds itself within the well-known 
territory of Comedy Central slacker 
comedies with the likes of “Broad 
City” and “Workaholics,” but it has 
yet to reach the comedic heights its 
predecessors have displayed over 
the years. However, the amusing 
atmosphere of the show prevents 
it from ever being boring, and the 
off-the-rails ending to its first 
episode displays promise for Jack 
and Ben.

B-

Big Time in 
Hollywood, 
FL

Series Premiere

Comedy Central

Wednesdays at 

10:30 p.m.

COMEDY CENTRAL

The Three Stooges 2k15

TV REVIEW

Michigan to face two 
MAC foes this week

Toledo, Central 
Michigan visit 
Wilpon Complex 

Tuesday, Wednesday 

By NATHANIEL CLARK

Daily Sports Writer

Winning two out of three 

games against No. 20 Maryland 
was 
undoubtedly 
a 
major 

achievement for the Michigan 
baseball team.

The Wolverines (14-12, 2-4 

Big Ten) will not be able to 
bask in their glory for long, 
though. 
Two 
Mid-American 

Conference 
teams 
stand 
in 

their way this week: Toledo on 
Tuesday and Central Michigan 
on Wednesday.

“I’m just focused on our next 

training session,” said Michigan 
coach Erik Bakich. “Before we 
can even get to the next game, 
we have to focus on getting 
better.”

On the surface, the Rockets 

(9-18, 3-3 MAC), don’t appear 
to be a credible threat. The 
Wolverines defeated Toledo, 
19-5, back on March 7 at the 
Coastal Carolina Invitational, 
and the Rockets are coming off 
losing two out of three to Akron.

Alex 
Wagner, 
who 
has 

posted a 1-2 record with a 6.88 
earned-run average in seven 
appearances, 
will 
start 
for 

Toledo. The Wolverines will 
counter with redshirt junior 
right-handed 
pitcher 
Matt 

Ogden, who is 1-1 with a 4.91 
ERA.

But in order to prevent 

Michigan from coming down 
to Earth, Ogden will have to 
contend with the Rockets’ A.J. 
Montoya, who sports a .313 
batting average with five home 
runs.

Central Michigan (18-10, 5-1 

MAC), on the other hand, will 

likely be a more formidable foe. 
The Chippewas swept Miami 
(Ohio) last weekend, led by 
Logan Regnier, who is hitting 
.353 with 23 RBI. He went 4-for-
5 with three runs and four RBI 
in Central Michigan’s victory 
Friday. 

Not to be outdone, offense 

has been plentiful for the 
Wolverines thus far this season. 
Michigan leads the Big Ten with 
a .293 batting average and is 
second in the conference in hits 
(259), doubles (54) and on-base 
percentage (.374).

Senior centerfielder Jackson 

Glines is leading the way for the 
Wolverines, 
hitting 
.425 
with 

an 
on-base 

percentage of 
.519. He rests 
atop the Big 
Ten in both 
categories.

“I think we 

have a lot of 
really 
good 

hitters on this team,” said senior 
infielder Kyle Jusick. “When we 
put a lot of good at-bats together, 
we put up a lot of big numbers.”

But the hero of the series 

with the Terrapins was junior 
right-handed pitcher and third 
baseman Jacob Cronenworth. 
Normally 
Michigan’s 
closer, 

he started the first game of 
Saturday’s 
doubleheader, 

throwing 64 pitches in five 
innings, giving up two runs on 
three hits while striking out 
nine. The Wolverines’ offense 
came up short, though, and lost 
the contest, 3-1.

But it was Cronenworth’s 

bat that made the difference 
in Michigan’s 10-1 victory in 
Saturday’s second contest. He 
blasted a two-run home run in 
the second inning and belted 
a three-run triple in the fifth. 
Cronenworth’s success boosted 
his batting average to .305.

With Cronenworth expected 

to take on more starts going 
forward, 
expect 
to 
see 

freshman righty Bryan Pall 
take over the closer role. Pall 
boasts an 0.59 ERA with 14 
strikeouts this season, and 
earned his first career save in 
the Wolverines’ 5-2 triumph 
Sunday.

As for Michigan’s success 

against 
Maryland, 
it 
came 

despite some key contributors 
still sidelined with injuries. 
On the pitching staff, junior 
southpaw Evan Hill has yet to 
start this season, but should 
return soon.

“We’ll work 

(Hill) 
back 

in 
slowly,” 

Bakich 
said. 

“We’re 
not 

going to just 
run him out 
there in his 
first 
outing 

and 
expect 

him to pitch 
a 
complete 

game. But we’re really looking 
forward to getting him back. 
He’s a great teammate.”

At the plate, junior shortstop 

Travis Maezes — who hit .302 in 
2014 — has not been able to play 
since March 7.

“We thought we were going 

to have (Maezes) back this 
weekend (against Maryland),” 
Bakich said. “He’ll be ready any 
day now. He may not get to 100 
percent, but he needs to get to a 
point where he can compete and 
help the team win.”

So while it may be tempting 

for the Wolverines — with their 
ongoing goal of competing for a 
Big Ten championship — to look 
ahead to the upcoming three-
game series with conference foe 
Indiana next weekend, Toledo 
and Central Michigan cannot 
be ignored if Michigan wants 
to vie for a spot in the NCAA 
Tournament.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Redshirt junior right-hander Matt Ogden, who is 1-1 with a 4.91 ERA, will start for Michigan on Tuesday against Toledo.

“We’re really 

looking forward 
to getting (Hill) 

back.”

