The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Thursday, March 16, 2017 — 5

‘Bitter Harvest’ overlooks 
genocide in new romance

Techno 
music, 
celebrity 

culture and a sheep: David 
Adjmi’s 
wildly 
extravagant 

and 
superbly 
funny 
play, 

“Marie Antoinette,” combines 
these 
elements 
and 
others 

to create an eccentric telling 
of the French Queen’s reign. 
This Friday and Saturday, the 
Residential College Players are 
performing the anomalous tale 
in East Quad’s Keene Theater.

Modernizing 
interactions 

and conversations of the 1700s, 
the play brings new insights to 
Antoinette’s lavish life.

“It is historical, but all of the 

dialogue is in contemporary 
vernacular. The author kind 
of picked some really unusual 
moments in her life to hone 
in on,” said RC Senior and 
director of the production, Sara 
Head. “I think it’s a much more 
psychological look at what 
happened to her and her life 
and her story.”

Original 
and 
grandiose, 

the 
tragicomedy 
leads 
up 

to 
Antoinette’s 
execution, 

following her throughout her 
reign as Queen of France.

“I think it’s super timely. 

One would expect it to not be 
super relevant considering it 
all happened 300 years ago, but 
it offers some really poignant 
commentary 
on 
celebrity 

culture 
and 
what 
happens 

when you put somebody up on 
a pedestal and give them all 
of this authority over culture 
without really holding them to 
any set standards,” Head said.

Pertinent to the current 

political climate, the show 
plays with the concept of power 
and the extent to which it can 
be interpreted and stretched. 
It deals with the lavishness 
that so often consumes society, 
crafting the character of Marie 
Antoinette out of the grand 
values of her setting. The play 
delves into this and takes the 
audience through the rise and 
fall of her royal 
tragedy.

“Marie 

Antoinette” 
combines 
its 

themes 
with 

diverse 
lighting 

and 
soundscapes 

to 
create 
an 

otherworldly 
experience. 
Drawing 
inspiration 
from 

both 
traditional 

and contemporary 
music, 
Head 
crafted 
a 

soundtrack that ranges from 
classical all the way to techno.

The effect: a show that’s 

grand enough to entice the 
audience, 
strange 
enough 

to keep them interested and 
impactful 
enough 
to 
leave 

them mulling over what just 
happened.

The nature of the production 

is 
“surrealist,” 
Head 
said. 

“There’s a sheep character that 
comes in and talks to Marie, 
and all of these kinds of weird 
things that you can’t really tell 
what’s real and what’s not.”

With a context that calls for 

an over-the-top set and time 
period costumes, the opulence 
of Marie Antoinette’s life is 
something that has necessitated 
extreme time and efforts to 

emulate. The play has been a 
true labor of love for Head and 
the rest of the RC Players.

“The RC players can only 

provide a small budget, and I’ve 
been fundraising like crazy and 
applying for grants, and I think 
we’ve managed to get enough to 
put together a really cool set,” 
Head added. “We also have the 
whole of the RC Players kind 

of backing us up 
and 
providing 

support 
wherever 
we 

need it. It has 
been 
a 
huge 

group 
effort. 

Our 
faculty 

advisor 
has 

been coming in 
and helping us 
get access to set 
pieces and props 
that 
we 
need, 

so I’ve gotten 

everybody on board with this 
project.”

Tirelessly 
working 
to 

embody the artifice of Marie 
Antoinette’s world, the RC 
Players have put together a 
show that journeys through 
the concepts of power and 
extravagance, 
giving 
the 

audience 
a 
spectacularly 

original experience.

“Just come in looking to 

experience a new take on a 
classic story,” Head said. “We’re 
mostly hoping that people are 
a little bit different when they 
walk out than when they first 
walked in, whether that just 
means they were entertained 
or they took something a little 
deeper from it. We just want to 
make some kind of impact on 
the audience.”

Roadside Attactions

People will always cycle 

in and out of your life. The 
“revolving” door metaphor that 
we so heavily rely on in order 
to understand our changing 
relationships 
has 
remained 

relevant 
because 
of 
our 

widespread 
acknowledgment 

of 
its 
truth. 
Relationships 

change and people come and 
go, and as one who enjoys 
analyzing the habits of the 
communities 
I 
live 
in, 
it 

seems only fitting I share the 
observations I have gathered.

Our 
world 
has 
become 

immune 
to 
relationships 

changing all the time. We go 
through “seasons” of being 
close with some people before 
eventually falling out of that 
community. This has led to 
the failure to commit; that 
is to really, truly commit 
to 
maintaining 
a 
level 
of 

knowledge about a person and 
his or her life. We should reject 
this passive, “that’s how things 
go” 
mindset, 
and 
instead, 

express an adamant and sincere 
effort to keep relationships 
strong. It’s impossible to do 
with everyone, and of course, 
that is to be expected.

But when we run into that 

old friend and say, “Wow, it 
has been so long! We should 
grab lunch soon!” Do we ever 
actually do that? If it has 
become 
a 
consistent 
habit 

to never follow through, is 
it because we are relying on 
the belief that we have lost 
touch with enough people in 
our past? And will it matter 
whether or not we make the 
effort now? When we say that 
we wish to see that person, are 
we also reminding ourselves 
that it likely won’t happen?

A few weeks may go by and 

you think to yourself: “I would 
have liked to see that person.” 
Maybe you could have cleared 
that window of time, but it 
didn’t happen. Those months 
become years, and soon you 
wonder what ever happened to 
the person you had seen so long 
ago on the sidewalk.

Maybe 
it’s 
just 
that 
a 

majority of our relationships 
lack substance, so it seems the 
shallow level of our friendships 
or relationships is just one 

more unavoidable fate and we 
lose touch simply because of 
that. I’m admittedly a victim 
of this mindset, and it has 
resulted in a consistent form of 
neglect.

Just a few days ago, my 

professor reminded me of the 
importance 
of 
maintaining 

these ties. He said: “We declare 
our priorities most in our use of 
our time.”

How we choose to use our 

time is among one of the few 
things we can actually control, 
and it reveals the quality of 
our 
relationships 
and 
our 

willingness 
to 
continually 

invest in them.

He went on to explain that 

if you walk around saying to 
people, “I care so much about 
you or I love you, but I am too 
busy,” than you’ve made your 
priorities abundantly clear.

Writing this as someone 

who was once told by a former 
boyfriend he was just too 
“busy” to date me, it seems 
appropriate to also address 
what 
implications 
these 

habits carry. Let’s get out of 
this ridiculous mindset that 
relationships should exist when 
it is convenient. The excuse 
you use today will change to 
something 
else 
tomorrow. 

By using the easy escape of 
claiming you’re “too busy,” 
you’re inexplicitly stating what 
matters most to you.

My point is that generally, 

people are always in and out of 
our lives — and many of those 
people we lose unwillingly. 
Sickness 
strikes 
and 
takes 

away a loved one. Friends move 
away. 
Family 
ties 
weaken. 

Relationships, platonic or not, 
fall apart.

In light of knowing people 

are going to leave, why not 
make more of an effort now 
to sustain the bonds with 
others when it is possible to 
do so? It takes tremendous 
effort and sacrifice, which I’m 
not convinced we are always 
willing to contribute to others.

Whether it is college, or 

wherever you go beyond this 
place, make sure you are aware 
of how you are investing in 
your 
relationships. 
If 
you 

prioritize such efforts, whether 
convenient or not, you’ll reap 
the benefits of relationships 
that 
are 
long 
lasting 
and 

persist even through the ever-
changing 
circumstances 
of 

your life. 

SINGLE REVIEW

In 2013, at age sixteen, 

Lorde, a then-unknown girl 
from New Zealand, became 

an international pop star. 
Like many before her, she 

gained stardom and quickly 
lost privacy. Tabloids body-
shamed her, plastering pho-
tos of her and her boyfriend 
across the internet. “Royals” 

— her break-out single — 

debuted in June of 2013, and 

by October it was number 

one on the Billboard Hot 100. 
In five short months, Lorde’s 

life was entirely public.

“Liability,” Lorde’s second 
single from her sophomore 
album Melodrama, details 

how fame tore apart her rela-

tionship. The fame-ruined-
my-life narrative is nothing 

new. In fact, it’s almost 

expected: Britney Spears 

had “Lucky,” depicting the 

never-ending labors of a 

pop star, while Taylor Swift 

penned “The Lucky One,” 

lamenting on the loneliness 
of fame. But Lorde’s single 

stands out from her peers in 

its specificity. Everything 

about the song is pointed, 
leaving room for listeners 
to process the heartbreak. 
The piano notes are repeti-

tive and simple, a drastic 
change from Lorde’s typi-

cally diverse and electronic 

production. Even Lorde’s 

cadences are acute, ending 
her phrases with succinct 

pronunciations, signaling 
listeners to really hear her 

story.

Aside from the stripped 

down production, the 

single’s true merit comes 

from Lorde’s lyrics, as she 
recalls a conversation with 

a past lover. In retelling 

an exact moment in time, 

Lorde invites listeners into 
this conversation. They can 

picture Lorde “crying in 

the taxi” while the ex tells 

her that “he made the big 

mistake of dancing in (her) 
storm.” After the breakup, 

Lorde goes home and returns 
to “the arms of the girl (she) 
loves,” an allusion to finding 
solace in one’s self after los-
ing a lover. Throughout the 

song, Lorde’s voice is so clear 

and exposed, it’s almost 

as if she’s singing directly 
into your ear. Her voice is 

intimate and burdened with 
emotion, dragging the word 

“poison” like it was too 

heavy to let go. 

For two minutes and 52 sec-

onds, listeners act like an 

omniscient entity, witness-

ing Lorde’s breakup and sub-
sequent recovery. “Liability” 

showcases an entirely new, 
raw and profoundly intro-
spective side of Lorde, sug-

gesting that Melodrama may 

not be Pure Heroine … and 

that’s okay.

— Danny Madion

“Liability”

Lorde 

Republic Records

REPUBLIC RECORDS

COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN

Life as the revolving door: 
Who is coming and going?

BAILEY 
KADIAN

As far as films about tragic 

historical events go, most of 
the lot manage to elicit any 
number of reactions from the 
audience. From “Saving Private 
Ryan” to “Schindler’s List” to 
“Inglourious Basterds,” tough 
subject matter can make us 
scream, cry or laugh. However, 
the only reaction viewers of 
“Bitter Harvest” will have is one 
of regret, regret for buying the 
ticket in the first place. “Bitter 
Harvest” is supposed to tell the 
story of romance within the 
frame of the genocidal impact of 
the Holodomor famine in 1933 
Soviet Ukraine. However, the 
romance is over-the-top and the 
tragic famine is disregarded for 
obviously staged fight scenes 
and desperately dramatic scores. 
The outcome of “Bitter Harvest” 
is a cliché war movie bathed 
in melodrama and ending in 
disappointment. 

“Bitter Harvest” follows Yuri 

(Max Irons, “Red Riding Hood”), 
a young artist who leaves his 
small Ukrainian village and his 
lover, Natalka (Samantha Barks, 
“Les Miserables”), to pursue 
art in the capital, Kiev. While 
Yuri is painting and attending 
boisterous Ukrainian nationalist 
rallies, Natalka and his family 
are being starved by Stalin and 
his army in one of the deadliest 
famines, later to become known 

as the Holodomor Famine. While 
Yuri gets into some trouble 
in an overly-bloodied, overly-
expected bar fight, Natalka finds 
herself starving and reluctantly 
pursuing a career as a “lovely 
lady” a la Barks’s previous role 
in “Les Miserables.” The lovers 
exchange 
terribly 
romantic 

letters in the sappiest language 
since 
“The 

Notebook.” 
The 

letters are of course 
narrated, because 
why not, with letter 
writing voiceovers 
reminiscent of a 
bad Jane Austen 
adaptation.

The 
small 

Ukrainian village that Yuri 
and Natalka call home is a 
fetishized version of a life-
size doll house for one of those 
Russian stacking dolls, filled 
with random festive dances and 
enough colorful embroidery to 
cover your grandmother’s doily 
collection. Like everything else 
in “Bitter Harvest,” the acting 
is 
melodramatic 
and 
over-

dramatic. Irons and Barks turn 
every interaction into the end of 
a Shakespearean tragedy with 
an overdose of crying and face-
touching. A lot of people die in 
this movie, but they all blend 
into one — bedridden, gasping 
for breath and reaching for the 
heavens almost-corpse adorned 
with makeup so gray and sad 
that it looks as if Tim Burton 
animated it.

Every 
choice 
in 
“Bitter 

Harvest” 
is 
either 
obvious, 

melodramatic or both. However, 
it is worth commending the 
film on its one success; the 
cinematography 
(Douglas 

Milsome, “Full Metal Jacket) 
is stunning. Filmed in the 
Ukrainian 
countryside, 
the 

beautiful opening shots give 

false hope to a 
rather mediocre 
film. While the 
bleak, 
gloomy 

footage 
from 

Kiev 
and 
the 

wintry 
tundra 

of 
Siberia 
add 

contrast 
to 

the 
painterly 

landscapes of Ukraine, it is 
again, an expectedly obvious 
choice.

“Bitter 
Harvest” 
is 
a 

substandard attempt at trying 
to depict an overlooked tragedy. 
The romance between Yuri 
and Natalka overshadows the 
tragedy of Holodomor. “Bitter 
Harvest” is so preoccupied with 
trying to capture the love story, 
that both the romance and the 
famine suffer. Sadly, the viewer 
will not learn anything of the 
Holodomor famine until the very 
end of the film, where before the 
credits roll the event is finally 
clarified with a few frames of 
text. The Holodomor famine 
is most certainly a story worth 
telling, but “Bitter Harvest” 
does not do near enough justice 
to the heartbreaking genocide. 

REBECCA PORTMAN

Daily Arts Writer

COMMUNITY CULTURE PREVIEW
‘Marie’ graces Keene with 
extravagance and comedy

RC Players bring a new perspective to ‘Let them eat cake’

ARYA NAIDU

For the Daily

“Marie 

Antoinette”

Keene Theater

March 17th & 
18th @ 8 P.M.

Free

FILM REVIEW

“Bitter 
Harvest”

Roadside 
Attractions

Goodrich Quality 16

Melodramatic period piece abandons famine for fantasy

Columnist Bailey Kadian explores the modern instinct to 
avoid commitment in favor of short, cyclical relationships

