counterpart 
“Night” 
forces 
us to contemplate what we 
normally 
try 
and 
shuffle 
into the periphery. The stage 
is dark except for a long, 
rectangular table where four 
men sit. One recalls the time 
when his squad, during a war, 
invaded a home and killed 
an entire family until “no 
life remained in the house 
— a ‘family unit’ had been 
eliminated.” Another talks of 
killing two rapists in a tunnel 
and seeing the life leave their 
eyes. Dialogues like these 
made me want to clap my 
hands over my ears and shut 
myself out from the world. 
No one wants to hear these 
things. No one wants to relive 
how terrible the world can be 
every single day. But topics 
like these are discussed so 
frequently in Mee’s work that 
they become normalized. 
Mee’s constant portrayal 
of 
death 
and 
destruction 
raises an important question: 
Is 
modern 
human 
society 
actually civilized? If making 
a comparison to prior foraging 
societies, for example, most 
would say yes. We now have 
agriculture: 
a 
means 
to 
produce our own food instead 
of obtain it elsewhere. We have 

technology and science, but 
with our capacity to kill and 
hate, how are we any different 
from 
those 
we 
consider 

“uncivilized?” 
Our 
human 
nature is the same at its roots; 
we are still capable of war, and 
we still have insecurities. We 
now have complex societies 
linking us together, but very 

little has changed.
During 
“Night,” 
an 
“uncivilized” man caked in 
charcoal and blood moves 
in slow motion about the 
stage, contorting in different 
positions among the feet of the 
“civilized” dressed in suits. 
While the civilized feast and 
clatter their spoons and forks, 
the “uncivilized” man doesn’t 
join, but instead remains at 
their feet like a servant. He 
tries to confront a “civilized” 
man, approaching him slowly 
and purposefully, but ends up 
falling into his arms instead in 
surrender: The “uncivilized” 
is no match for our modern 
world.
In Mee’s world, however, 
civilization 
and 
societal 
structure is the true enemy. 
The less coherent the world 
is, the better. “Night and Day” 
is purposefully jumbled up 
because there is security in 
expression that ignores the 
constraints 
and 
stigma 
of 
the world we like to consider 
“civilized.” 
Sometimes 
the 
world makes the most sense 
when there’s nothing holding 
us back. 
“Night 
and 
Day” 
will 
continue to run Oct. 11-14 at 
the Arthur Miller Theater. 

“Night and Day” is not 
your typical play. There is no 
damsel in distress, no heroic 
prince to come to the rescue 
and no sorcerer casting spells. 
It is not exactly a tragedy or 
a comedy. There is no naïve 
Juliet blinded in search of love 
and no handsome Romeo, bold 
and daring. “Night and Day” 
makes you uncomfortable, not 
content. The result is what you 
have left after peeling away 
the browning outer layers of 
an onion: raw flesh and rich 
substance. 
Charles 
Mee, 
the 
revolutionary playwright of 
“Night and 
Day,” 
declares 
that: 
“There 
is 
no 
such 
thing as an original play.” 
This production is a part of 
Mee’s 
“(re)making 
project” 
which focuses on weaving 
together multiple plays while 
maintaining 
originality 
in 
abstract 
interpretations 
of 
them. “Night and Day” is a 
joint 
collaboration 
by 
the 
School 
of 
Music, 
Theatre 
& 
Dance’s 
Department 
of 
Theatre and Drama and the 

National Academy of Theater 
Arts in Krakow, Poland, and 
is directed by Malcolm Tulip 
and Dominika Knapik. 

“Night and Day” is messy 
and disjointed. There are no 
firmly developed characters. 
Instead, ensemble members 
assume different roles for 
each 
scene. 
Most 
of 
the 

interpretation is up to the 
audience. 
The play opens with a 
woman dreamily proclaiming 
that Mee’s version of “Day,” 
based 
on 
“Daphnis 
and 
Chloe” by Greek romanticist 
Longus, and “Night,” based on 
“Thyestes” by Roman tragic 
playwright Seneca, is version 
“2.0.” It’s new and improved, 
so to speak. It’s evident why: 
The entire production follows 
the plot of these ancient works 
only slightly. 
Minutes 
into 
“Day,” 
viewers 
are 
confronted 
with confessions from the 
ensemble concerning intimate 
portrayals of their sex lives 
and 
miscarriages, 
among 
other topics. One member 
talks 
for 
a 
full 
minute 
about his experience with 
a prostitute, including the 
exact amount he paid her 
and for what services. An 
uncomfortable silence follows 
each of these monologues. 
Awkward laughter fills the 
air with uncertainty. Mee has 
mastered the art of pushing 
uncomfortable topics to the 
forefront, making us question 
why we stigmatize them to 
begin with.
Similar segments in the 

When you stand too close to 
the subway platform and feel the 
wind from the train breathe across 
your body, there is a moment 
where time pauses. Your stomach 
drops, your eyes widen and 
your heart skips a beat. In a split 
second, the rush is gone, the wave 
of heat you felt creep through you 
moments before subsides, but 
your heart keeps pounding, alert 
and on edge. This same surge 
of adrenaline is exactly what “A 
Star is Born” gifts its audience, 
an unexpected drop into a 
mesmerizing world of music and 
intimacy. Lady Gaga and Bradley 
Cooper’s collaboration is nothing 
short of wondrous, inexplicably 
captivating with every note sung 
and every gaze shared. Though a 
remake of a classic tale, Cooper’s 
film gracefully forges its own 
path and leaves us all stunned 
into a state of awe with its heart-
swelling chemistry, entrancing 
lyrics and a sense of electricity 
and vibrancy. 
Working in a restaurant by day 
and moonlighting as a supporting 
act singer in a local drag club, 
aspiring artist Ally (Lady Gaga, 
“American Horror Story”) is a far 
cry from living in the spotlight. 
Though independent, spirited 
and 
tremendously 
talented, 
Ally clearly grapples with her 
unconventional beauty, which 
has played its part in blocking her 
from breaking into the industry 
thus far. Her luck changes, 
however, when one fateful night, 
steady, down-to-earth celebrity 
musician Jackson “Jack” Maine 
(Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings 
Playbook”) 
coincidentally 
staggers drunk into the drag bar 
where Ally is performing. The 
connection between the two is 
almost otherworldly, intense, yet 

pure. Mesmerized by Ally’s voice, 
Jack invites her out for a drink 
and, by the end of the night, asks 
her to accompany him to his show 
the next night. Ally’s life is turned 
upside down, as she is thrown 
into the limelight at Jack’s side 

and subsequently rocketed by her 
talent into a spotlight of her own. 

First 
things 
first, 
let 
us 
acknowledge 
that 
Gaga 
and 
Cooper are nothing short of 
sensational in this film. From 
the start, they delude us into 
thinking that what we are about 
to witness will be one musician’s 
rise to fame and another’s fall 
from it. But the real magic of “A 
Star is Born” is its tangibility. 
Gaga and Cooper personify Ally 
and Jack so deeply that we swear 
we could reach across the screen 
and touch them. The connection 
they share is between them and 
them alone, and though their 
relationship is challenged by 
Jack’s struggles with alcohol, 
they remain somehow untainted 
by the elements of lust, money 
and 
fakeness 
that 
surround 
them. Their love is not one 
manufactured for an audience, 
which is exactly why we can’t 
take our eyes off of the screen. 
Aside from making all of our 
hearts bleed in longing for a love 
like theirs, Cooper and Gaga’s 
musical chops, both solo and in 
tandem, craft a soundtrack of gold. 
As a six-time Grammy winner, 
Gaga isn’t exactly a novice in the 
singing department. However, 
this makes her performance as 
Ally no less powerful. Unlike 

popular pieces from Gaga’s body 
of work, when she performs live 
as Ally up on stage, we get a taste 
of her voice without an ensemble 
of 
synthesizers 
and 
other 
instruments. And it is staggering. 
Her passion behind every lyric 
she sings and every melodic note 
she hits echoes in our ears long 
after the screen goes black. Now, 
of course, we can’t forget about 
Cooper, who kicks of the film 
with a foot-thumping number 
that sends chills of excitement 
down 
our 
spines. 
Cooper’s 
throaty, country-rock style is 
harmonized 
alongside 
Gaga’s 
belting vocals and somehow it 
just works. Leaving the theater 
(after wiping away hysterical 
tears), we can’t refrain from 
immediately downloading every 
track on Spotify, prepared to 
put Gaga and Cooper’s blissful 
melodies on repeat. 
Evidence of Cooper’s brilliance 
as a director is the fact that never 
once do we look on screen and 
see Bradley Cooper, dazzling 
and uber-famous actor, and Lady 
Gaga, eccentric and fearless pop 
superstar. We see only Jack and 
Ally. Just as their characters’ 
love miraculously shadows them 
from the toxic culture of fame 
that surrounds them, Cooper 
and Gaga morph so convincingly 
into their roles that we forget 
any knowledge of their celebrity 
outside of the film, unable to see 
them as anything but two people 
hopelessly in love. One thing 
is for certain: What Gaga and 
Cooper have given us all with 
“A Star is Born” is timeless. We 
can’t shake the fantasy of a love 
so raw and real, just as we can’t 
erase the film’s haunting, yet 
stunning lyrics from our minds. 
Surging with emotional energy, 
the deepest of sorrow and the 
greatest of love, “A Star is Born” 
is a soul-shaking epic that is, quite 
simply, unmissable. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, October 10, 2018 — 5A

“A Star is Born”

Warner Bros. 

State Theater

Cooper and Gaga shine in 
luminous ‘A Star is Born’

SAMANTHA NELSON
Daily Arts Writer

FILM REVIEW

WARNER BROS.

This 

production is 

a part of Mee’s 

“(re)making 

project” which 

focuses on 

weaving together 

multiple plays

NETFLIX

COMMUNITY CULTURE REVIEW
‘Night and Day’ is uncomfortably thought provoking

TRINA PAL
Daily Arts Writer

A few weeks ago news broke 
that the beloved animated series 
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” 
was to live on as a live-action 
reimagining, 
courtesy 
of 
Netflix. Fans who began having 
horrible flashbacks to the last 
time “Avatar” went live action 
were given reason to hope with 
the additional news that this 
time around the remake will be 
spearheaded by original creators 
Brian Konietzko and Michael 
Dante DiMartino. The cast won’t 
be whitewashed and will feature 
actors whose skin tone and 
nationality will properly reflect 
the roles they will be playing. 
This is all very exciting. But, as 
I’ve written many times before 
in this column, the question must 
be asked: Do we really need this?
“The Last Airbender” is easily 
one of the best children’s TV 
series of all time and some might 
go as far as to say it deserves 
to be considered on the list of 
the greatest scripted television 
shows 
period. 
I 
recently 
re-watched the majority of the 
series and it held up even better 
than I remembered. Practically 
everything that goes into telling 
a story in the visual medium, 
from character to plot to music 
to visual design, was done to 
absolute perfection. Spanning 
only three seasons (or “books,” 
as they were stylized in the 
universe), the story has continued 
with a spin-off TV show, “The 
Legend of Korra,” as well as a 
number of books and comics. 
With such an expansive world 
at their disposal, it seems like 
the creators could have brought 
the show to Netflix with a new 
story instead of just a re-telling 
of one we’ve already seen, but 
I suppose there wouldn’t be as 
much money in that.
I’m approaching this reboot 
with trepidation. On one hand, 

it seems impossible that it could 
possibly any worse than the M. 
Night Shyalaman movie “The 
Last Airbender,” which is widely 
regarded as one of the worst films 
of the 21st century. On the other 
hand, it is also hard to imagine 
how this new series could ever 
be better than the original. The 
original show was basically 
perfect on its own, so what more 
could really be done with the 
story and characters that wasn’t 
done 
before? 
The 
“Avatar” 

storyline also worked well in 
the serialized format of old-
school TV, where episodes would 
release every week with long 
gaps, at times, between episodes, 
adding to the experience of 
journeying and growing with 
these characters. It’s possible the 
travelogue nature of the series 
will fall a bit flat if whole seasons 
are released at a time, as is the 
Netflix way.
All that aside, the potential is 
there. The children who grew 
up watching the Nickelodeon 
cartoon are now in their late 
teens or early 20s, and the 
potential to grow the show with 
the audience in a similar way to 
other generational series such 
as Star Trek is clearly there. The 
original episodes featured their 

fair share of dark content but 
also shied away from the concept 
of death and at times sugar 
coated certain aspects of the 
genocidal war that was taking 
place in order for the show to be 
appropriate for children. This 
live-action Netflix need not place 
such restrictions on itself.
The 
other 
big 
question 
hanging over the revival of 
“Avatar” is the status of former 
head writer Aaron Ehasz. Ehasz 
was the head writer for the 
entirety of the series and appears 
to have been an influential part 
of the writing that made the 
show a cut above the rest of early 
2000s children’s programming. 
Strangely enough, Ehasz recently 
debuted 
his 
own 
serialized 
animated series on Netflix that 
was hailed by many as the next 
“Avatar.” “The Dragon Prince” 
came out on Netflix this past 
September and quickly gained a 
following, although it’s a far cry 
from “Avatar.” “Prince” has been 
renewed for a second season, so 
whether or not that will preclude 
Ehasz from working on the new 
“Avatar” remains to be seen.
In this age of never-ending 
stories, 
“Avatar: 
The 
Last 
Airbender” 
remained 
the 
pinnacle of how to tell a story 
correctly. The three books of 
Water, Earth and Fire were a very 
clear beginning, middle and end. 
There was at most one important 
remaining question at the end of 
the series and all character arcs 
were fulfilled in an extremely 
satisfying way. With the brand 
recognition and sheer popularity 
of the franchise, it was unlikely it 
was going to be gone forever, but a 
live-action reboot of the original 
story might not necessarily be 
what fans were hoping for. Only 
time will tell if this new version 
of Aang’s story will be worth the 
trouble.

The Avatar returns

DAILY ENTERTAINMENT COLUMN

IAN 
HARRIS

“Night and 
Day”

SMTD 

Thurs. Oct. 4 - Sat. 
Oct. 6 @ 8p.m.

Sun. Oct. 7 @ 2 
p.m.

Thurs. Oct. 11 - Sat. 
Oct. 13 @ 8 p.m.

Sun. Oct. 14 @ 2 
p.m.

Arthur Miller 
Theater

$30 GA, $12 
Student

