= Match 7/1977 “~~ the other press Gord Isfeld ' Jodie Foster just can’t act her age. The fourteen year old actress has been seen recently portraying characters (a prosti- tute, a bar room singer) far out of the reach of her peers (Tatum O'Neal acknowledged). She can handle it. _ In The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane, Jodie is refined and serious in her role as the mature and well-read young daughter of a well known poet, newly arrived in a small town. Living recluse in a leased become suspicious that not all is right with the two. The first on the scene (interrupting the girl's solitary birthday party) is the local ‘‘pervert’’--the landlady’s married son. Being Halloween night he has come looking for some ‘“‘tricks,”” but is handled easily by the ‘“‘up front’’ young girl (this time anyway). The landlady (Alexis Smith), herself a constant unpronoun- ced visitor, is no less threaten- ing. Her persistent prowling finally is her undoing. The local police officer (Mort Shuman) during his many calls, -| becomes suspicious as to the actual presence of the girl’s father. It seems the eccentric world. but left instructions with cottage, a few of the local people: poet had long since left this ‘Little girl — ~ down the lane’ won't act her age his daughter on how to handle this world. She follows his advice to the ‘‘tea’’ (and you had better not drink it). Director Nicholas Gessner, following a screenplay by Laird Koenig (from his book of the same name), has crafted a film of fine quality and subtle sus- — pense. The addition of the. ‘‘child- hood love’’ element only serves to enhance the films realistic appeal. This realistic appeal is main- tained by all the participants, among whom Scott Jacoby (as the boy-lover) and Mort Shuman deserve credit. Alexis Smith is superbly ‘bitchy’ in her role as landlady -come-‘‘community controller’, and Martin Sheen is almost too realistic as her child-molesting, hamster-killing son (in all fair- ness, I believe the hamster did a hell of a good job in his interpretation of a high school — track star--that his name was Gordon has nothing to do with this appraisal-I mean, what's in a name?). **Since when did they let kids do what they wanted,”’ the girl’s father once said in a letter, but in the end it is Jody Foster who does what she intended to do--hold the audience with her to the last scene. theatre Phil Ochs: Chords of Fame by Kevin Kelley It’s too bad Phil Ochs gave up the fight so early, so suddenly. He wasn’t the most incisive folk commentator. He wasn’t particularly consistent even within his own limited outlook. Phil Ochs wasn’t a Marxist and he wasn’t always able to trans- cend a certain maudlin patriot- ism that infects some of his lyrics. Phil Ochs wasn’t a lot of things. But he was a gifted, at times poetic, critic of the mad- ness that finally killed him. He was as mucha victim as he was a conqueror of the long downhill slide of this society. He had a lot to learn, but he also taught his listeners a lot about the time we live in. This album proves it. | Chords of Fame is a sort of posthumous ‘‘greatest hits’’ re- lease. No doubt A&M Records saw Ochs’ suicide in April 1976 as a fortuitous chance to repac- kage old, popular material by a singer who hadn't been very - He wasn’t alot of things, but... productive in his last years. This double-album compendium omits some of Ochs’ earlier works and the absence of any chronology is annoying, but for’ anyone who doesn’t have each of the original releases, Chords of Fame is a faizty comprehen- sive collection of Ochs’ best songs. The extensive liner notes by former Fug Ed Sanders are a bit too fawning in their star-struck evocation of Ochs’ life and . singing career. (‘‘I would go so far as to say (Ochs’ work) is a part of a stream of eternity inte “which I dip each day.’’). But when Sanders does man- age to control himself, he re- counts some humorous anec- dotes about Ochs and lucidly ‘traces the singer’s ‘‘Sierras “of happiness and brilliance; Snake River Valleys of doom.’’ San- ders is most helpful. however, when he lets Ochs do the talking: Vagabonds-quaint little theatre by Gwen Odland To coin a phrase that seems to be very accurate when describ- ing Vagabonds in any sort of review, there is a quaint little theatre nestled in amongst the trees in New Westminster's Queens Park. Despite the fact that this campus of Douglas College is located across the stree from the theatre, I have no doubt that many of the students at all interested in the perform- ing arts have not visited the little theatre behind the parks’ tennis courts. Move Over Mrs. Markham is a good excuse to do so. The play. written by Ray Cooney and John Chapman, and directed by Vagabond’s Paul Goodrich, is farcical comedy based on the amorous adventures of various married and single couples all attempting to use the Markham flat for their romantic interlud- es. Amidst the confusion arrives an all too popular author who wishes to set up a contract with the publishing company owned by two of the married men. Her last publisher was denied rights to her books because of sexual exploits. Paul Goodrich is making his directing debut with *‘Mark- ham’ and I would like at this time to congratulate him on a fine job. Working with an excellent script such as *Mark- ham’ helps, but Paul is a fine director and works well with a talented cast. The cast consists of Diane Lambert as Joanna Markham, Alan Buntin as Spenlow, Karen Yri as Sylvie, Janet Bidwell as Linda Lodge, Dave Crowley as Philip Markham, Tom Worledge as Henry Lodge, Bernie Legge - as Walter, Anne Bettles as Mis Smythe and Cheryl Swarts as Miss Wilkinson. All do a very fine job. Writing on Vagabonds is touching a little close to home, being a member of the company myself for a year. There were often times when I questioned the choice of scripts and the way in which they were approached and handled, but I was pleased to see the production of “Mark- ham’ showed some change in Vagabonds attitude toward what can be done by their group. All in all it would be nice if the Vagabond Playhouse were paid tribute by the students who share the park with the theatre in Douglas College’s back yard. Move Over Mrs. Markham plays Wednesday, March 9 to Saturday, March 12, 8 p.m, Admission $3,$2 students and) $1 children, The Chile Show to return In early December ‘76, Fred- dy Wood Theatre presented a feature entitled ‘‘The Chile Show"’. publicized as a ‘‘group- developed ‘entertainment’ about the infringement of hu- man rights in Chile since the fall of Salvador Allende in the military, coup of 1973.’" The Chile Show is being re-shown at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, 1895 Venables Street Vancouver March 22-26 as a benefit for the Committee for Defense of Huma Rights in Chile. with an admission price of $2.50. The purpose of the Chile Show is to ‘‘publicize the way in. which the military regime has invaded the basic human rights and dignities of the people. In spite of regular and prolonged protest from groups and organi- zations...the brutality and re- pression .continue and most of us remain in ignorance of the facts and details of life in Chile today." Included in the programme is humour, absurdity, poetry andj, the life and excitement of Chi- lean folk music. “(The movement) dwindled out for several reasons. Number one was lack of a real ideology and lack of a party structure to function through. The biggest weakness in the movement was the infiltration of drugs which I basically assume was “ govern- ment inspired...And then Kent State...that meant for white people that the government was prepared to blow your head away...Everybody in their semidrug state was so paranoid anyway that that was enough to finish it off...That was the end of the movement.”’ Well, not quite. The state- ment is quintessential Ochs:tel- ' lingly truthful insight mixed up with naive dramatization. The music, however, speaks for itself. The album begins with an electric version of ‘‘I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore’’ and takes off from there through ‘‘Draft Dodger Rag’’; ‘‘There But for Fortune’’ (superior to the Joan Baez rendition); ‘‘Outside of a Small Circle of Friends’’; ‘‘Love Me, I’m a Liberal’’; ‘‘Chords of Fame’’ (inferior to the Baez rendition); *‘Flower Lady’’; ‘*Pleasures of the Harbor’’, and “*Crucifixion.”’ Now that he’s dead, it’s tempting to portray Ochs as a heroic martyr who died for the cause of freedom and justice. While much of his life was indeed devoted to those aims, Ochs’ lonely suicide stands more as a testament to the limitations of individuality than as a monument to a committed conscience. The songs show that Ochs instinctively sensed the dangers of self-delusion and the difficul- ‘ty of emerging whole from the American dream. Maybe Phil should have trusted his instincts more.