The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 — 7

Those 
familiar 
with 
Samuel 

Beckett’s magnum opus, “Waiting for 
Godot” will immediately recognize 
the dramatic setting presented in 
Antoinette 
Nwandu’s 
absurdist 

tragedy “Pass Over.” Set “now, right 
now / but also 1855 / but also 13th 
century BCE,” the radio play features 
two men standing, eating, talking 
about nothing in particular and 
awaiting something that never comes 
to pass. Nwandu, however, adds a 
pivotal new dimension to the theatre 
of the absurd through his integration 
of the poignant and painfully relevant 
realities of racism and police brutality.

We the PROUD, We the People 

Representing 
Our 
Unifying 

Diversity Polycultural Productions, 
is 
a 
polycultural 
student 

organization here at the University. 
Their radio play “Pass Over,” 
presented via YouTube, serves as 
the final product of a semester-long 
investigation into the play, primarily 
focusing on the themes of police 
brutality, racism and the importance 
of everyday Black narratives. School 
of Music, Theatre & Dance senior 
Miguel Aviles-Elrod and LSA senior 
Bryce Foley star as both Moses and 
Kitch, switching roles from night 
to night to accurately encapsulate 
the multitudes their respective 
characters contain. 

The play opens with Moses and 

Kitch standing on the block of an 
unnamed ghetto, from which they 
hope to escape. The two are shown 
counting the ten wishes they will 

receive when they “pass over” into 
the promised land. This grocery 
list of dreams spans everything 
from collard greens and pinto 
beans to the return of a brother 
from the dead. 

Their shared dream of getting 

off of the block is inextricably 
intertwined with an ever-looming 

fear of death, which Nwandu 
illustrates through the constant 
surveillance of the “po-po,” or 
police, who were responsible for the 
murders of dozens of Kitch and Mo’s 
friends.

We the PROUD Present ‘Pass Over’: a reflection on 
prejudice, privilege and pinto beans “Pass Over”

YOUR WEEKLY

ARIES

You may be very concerned with 
your public image this week, 
Aries, wanting to promote or 
protect your reputation in some 
way.

AQUARIUS

GEMINI

Be careful with how you 
communicate this week, Gemini. 
You normally pride yourself on 
your communication abilities, 
but with the dramatic Full Moon.

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

SCORPIO

CANCER

Money worries may be 
highlighted as the luxury-loving 
Full Moon shines a light on your 
inability to afford something you 
would dearly love to have.

TAURUS

The Full Moon shines an 
emotional and sentimental light 
on your zodiac sign's family zone, 
and you may be commemorating 
a special event this week.

VIRGO

PISCES

LIBRA
LEO

A Full Moon in your own sun sign 
is a good chance to take stock of 
these first few weeks of the year 
and to check that where you’re 
heading feels right for you, 

emotionally.

Read your weekly horoscopes from astrology.tv

Got a secret, Virgo? If you have, 
you may find this week’s Full 
Moon rather uncomfortable, as it 
will tend to shine a light on things 
you’d rather have remain hidden.

This week’s Venus-Pluto 
conjunction occurs in your home 
and family zone and could signify 
fireworks if someone is very 
controlling or manipulative within 

or around the family. 

Don’t be surprised to feel 
extremely emotional regarding 
your career this week. The Full 
Moon falls in your career zone.

This week’s energy is about 
learning limits, Sagittarius. 
Specifically, perhaps, limits to 
what you can and cannot 
currently afford, and why that 

matters. 

Affairs of the heart are front and 
center this week, notably during 
the Full Moon in your passion 
zone, which coincides with a 
Venus-Pluto conjunction in your 

own sign.

A Full Moon in your love zone this 
week finds you in an uncharacter-
istically demonstrative mood, 
Aquarius, showing open affection 
and love.

A very hectic few weeks may be 
taking its toll on your mental 
health or your vitality. When this 
week’s Full Moon occurs in your 
health zone.

Memories of my dad watching golf 

(or napping through it) go back as 
long as I can remember. He brought 
me and my brother to driving ranges 
since we were little and that “fore!” 
means duck. He’s shown us how to 
hit out of a sand trap. Yet, he’s never 
been a fan of Tiger Woods. In fact, 
he admits that he usually cheered 
against him. But despite all of this, 
through every point of the man’s 
career, through the record-shattering 
highs and the gut-punching lows, my 
dad has maintained the same mantra: 

“Golf is more exciting when Tiger’s 

on the green.”

The sentiment rings true in the 

two-part, HBO Max documentary 
“Tiger.” No matter the shortcomings 
of the filmmakers, delving into the 
sometimes admirable, and often 
controversial, life of Tiger Woods can 
never be anything short of fascinating. 

At a time when many of the clubs 

didn’t even allow Black people on 
the course, Tiger ripped through 
old Masters like they were children. 
In a sport known for its quiet 
meticulousness, 
Tiger 
pummeled 

his competition with vigor. He was 
the first and only golfer to become a 
pop culture icon, and the world could 
not get enough of him. In the eyes 
of his best friend and former Green 
Beret father Earl Woods, Tiger was a 
God-like prophet sent down to unite 
humankind. Of course, according 
to the documentary, these absurd 
expectations are precisely what led to 
his downfall. 

The end of the first part teases an 

interview appearance from Rachel 
Uchitel, a woman who has unfairly 
come to be known by the world 
for one thing and one thing only: 
Tiger’s mistress. From here on out, 
the series picks up, and it picks up 
quickly. 

Part two begins with the first 

rumors of Tiger’s infidelity and 
follows him through all of his vices, 
poor decisions and the over-the-
top backlash he received for it. It 
notes that with just about every 
Tiger Woods cheating scandal, the 
women involved never described the 

encounters as casual. Many of them 
loved Tiger, and most felt he loved 
them back. 

As the documentary clearly frames 

it, Tiger didn’t simply go out and 
have sex. This was a tortured man, 
and he needed help. At all points of 
the episode, the filmmakers remain 
empathetic to Tiger, his ex-wife Elin 
and even the mistresses — an aspect 
I really appreciated. Many women 
have been relentlessly crucified and 
slut-shamed for being with Tiger. 
Elin specifically was unable to escape 
paparazzi following the controversy. 

It’s important to note that there 

doesn’t have to be a single “bad guy” in 
the story. We can remain empathetic 
to 
Tiger’s 
uniquely 
difficult 

upbringing while having sympathy 
for those he hurt. Or, at the very least, 
that’s what the documentary tries to 
show us.

But as interesting as “Tiger” 

can be, it is certainly not the most 
impartial. The documentary feels 
both too neat and too superficial 
to tell this story with justice. 
Relying primarily on the word 
of ex-girlfriends and former best 
friends, the series has moments 
that feel blatantly gossipy. For a 
project that often criticizes the 
way Tiger had his life forced upon 
him without his say, it feels pretty 
hypocritical to watch it do just 
that.

Based on the book of the same 

name, it’s clear that the people 
behind this knew exactly the story 
they wanted to tell. There’s no 
input from Tiger himself, nor from 
anyone who remains close with 
him today. Interview footage is 
often used to supplement the pre-
crafted ideas and guesses that old 
acquaintances have speculated, 
rather 
than 
to 
challenge 
or 

enrich them. In other words, it’s 
uninventive filmmaking. And at its 
worst, cheap journalism. 

Nonetheless, it’s exciting. Because 

at the end of the day, Tiger Woods 
is exciting. He’s an athlete unlike 
any other in history, and his story 
is so ripe with debate, it’s nearly 
impossible to not be intrigued. 
“Tiger” is a compelling guess at a 
man who lived a life like no other. I 
just want more. 

Regardless of what’s been going 

on in the outside world, 2020 was a 
pretty major year for games. “Animal 
Crossing: New Horizons” came out at 
the perfect time to help everyone get 
through the start of lockdown (check 
out The Daily’s Dylan Yono’s coverage 
here), Sony dominated the summer 
with the one-two punch release of 
“The Last of Us Part II” and “Ghost of 
Tsushima” and the next PlayStation 
generation began with a running start 
just last month. 

Despite the great games released, 

I didn’t expect to fall in love with not 
one but two games centered around 
Greek mythology. 

I love Greek myths. I spent 

my childhood buried in “Percy 
Jackson” novels and will steadfastly 
tell you I am a child of Athena. So I 
felt blessed by the gods when two 
high-profile, polished but vastly 
different games came out within 
months of each other. 

“Hades” by Supergiant Games 

concerns itself with Zagreus, the child 
of Hades and Persephone, as he tries 
to escape from the Underworld to 
find his mother. He can choose one 
of six powerful weapons to fight his 
way through the demon soldiers that 
inhabit Hades. (Note: Hades is both 
the name of the god of the dead and 
his realm — it’s confusing, I know.) 
When you die — and hoo-boy will you 

die often — you get sent back to the 
start to try again. 

No run is ever the same: Each 

room, enemy and treasure are chosen 
at random. The gods may assist you, 
but the game relies on skill, so the 
more you play, the better you get and 
the more you can upgrade Zagreus 
and go further before you die again. 
Tie this addicting gameplay loop with 
a thoughtful, carefully paced story in 
a world full of compelling characters, 
and you come out with something that 
many are calling Game of the Year 
material. 

Oh my god this game is good. I was 

obsessed with “Hades” for a good 
two months and I know that I will be 
revisiting the land of the dead as soon 
as I’m finished writing this article.

One important thing to note about 

the game is that it sets out to decolonize 
Greek history and mythology. It is 
admittedly silly to believe that the 
ancient Greeks were as white-bread 
as modern entertainment portrays 
them — Greece was a sailing society 
smack dab in the middle of the 
Mediterranean, indicating a darker 
skin tone like their Italian neighbors. 
Supergiant Games set out to present 
the gods as a much more diverse, and 
frankly attractive, group of immortal 
beings. I truly believe it is impossible to 
view the portrait work of this game and 
not come out crushing on at least one 
character. The writing also elevates 
these static (but again, beautiful) 
portraits into complex, entertaining 
characters brimming with personality. 

“Hades” is a wonderful first step in 

the direction of retracting the white-
washing of history, and hopefully 
sets a precedent within the games 
industry as a whole going forward. 

Another game, “Immortals Fenyx 

Rising,” from the team at Ubisoft 
Quebec, is much more standard, 
which is by no means a bad thing. 
Typhon the Titan has arisen once 
again and captured all the gods, so 
Zeus turns to Prometheus for help. 
Prometheus offers help, but only if 
the hero he creates fails. Thus, players 
get to create and control the titular 
Fenyx as they try to rescue the gods 
of Olympus and defeat Typhon. As 
soon as players are off the leash, the 
entirety of the Golden Isles is at their 
disposal. 

Do you want to save Aphrodite 

first? Or maybe Ares or Athena and 
oh, what’s this chest doing here? The 
world of “Immortals Fenyx Rising” is 
littered with enemies to fight, goodies 
to collect and vaults of Tartarus 
— essentially bite-sized themed 
dungeons — to explore. 

The exploration often feels great; 

being able to climb anything or glide 
anywhere helps make traversing the 
rather large world an easier task than 
it initially seems. 

Possibly the best part of the game is 

its comedic tone. Whether it’s Hermes 
and Aphrodite gossiping about the 
clothing of the other gods or Zeus 
and Prometheus bickering over the 
exact way an event happened, the 
game is full of laughs. However, that’s 

not to say everything is a joke. I was 
happily surprised to find moments of 
sincerity and self-reflection mixed in 
with the light tone. Ten hours deep 
into the game, I was just getting to the 
second exploration area, so I can say 
I was thoroughly enjoying my romp 
through the Golden Isles.

The comparison between how the 

two games use specific characters is 
interesting to examine. In “Hades,” 
Achilles is a friend and mentor to 
Zagreus, providing him with the 
weapons needed to help slay the 
hordes of the underworld. Achilles is 
compassionate, slightly reserved and 
holds a mysterious past, bristling at 
the mention of his former friend and 
probable lover Patroclus. 

Conversely, in “Immortals,” 

Achilles is a wraith, one of four 
great heroes who failed to stop 
Typhon and has been corrupted 
into serving the Titan. He haunts 
the land, a literal shadow of his 
former self and is another thing 
for Fenyx to help set right on their 
path to save the gods. The Greeks 
gods’ 
characterizations 
also 

have interesting similarities and 
differences, always benefitting 
the tone and story of the game 
they are in. Much like Arachne, 
the 
gifted 
weaver 
in 
Greek 

mythology, the developers took 
the same starting material and 
weaved two startlingly different 
tapestries. 

“Hades” and “Immortals Fenyx 

Rising” are two sides of the same 
drachma: the former using its 
Greek mythology for a story driven 
rogue-lite and the latter for open-
world checklist game that Ubisoft 
is known for. These two approaches 
are nothing alike beyond their 
shared mythos. “Hades” limits 
player exploration in favor of 
randomly generated maps, skill-
based combat and a slowly doled 
out story, while in “Immortals” 
the player can go anywhere, climb 
anything and do whatever their 
demi-god heart desires. 

‘Tiger’ is a cheap, but 

riveting, guess at the world’s 

most sensational golfer

‘Hades’ and ‘Immortals’: It’s not Greek to me

M. DEITZ

Digital Culture Beat Editor

SUPERGIANT GAMES

BEN SERVETAH

Daily Arts Writer

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

DARBY WILLIAMS

Daily Arts Writer

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

WE THE PROUD

HBO MAX

