arts / 8 War never changes » ‘Trojan Women’ presents abstract battle of the sexes Adam Tatelman Senior Columnist Women posed a political criticism of the unprovoked Greek warfare against peaceful Melos. Updated by Charles Mee, the fractured script of Trojan Women is replete with anachronistic musical interludes and dialogue cobbled together from anecdotes by Holocaust and Hiroshima survivors. It often borders on the nonsensical, but under the direction of Thrasso Petras, from the Douglas College theatre department, it stays true to the play’s 3000-year-old anti-war message. Amanda Larder’s set design evokes a bleak tone from the outset with backlit column- like banners, lighting that alternates between oceanic blue and hellish orange, a distant gangplank, and a massive pile of rags at centre stage. Classical Greek architecture and third- : world misery congeal into a : muddy temporal mishmash, the : backdrop of eternal war. n 415 BC, Euripides’ The Trojan : : (Allie Melchert) rises from the : rags, mourning her children : and her war-ravaged city. Her : musical, enraged Chorus (Ashley : Scigliano, Sarah Mendoza, : Kaleigh McDonald, Robyn : Crawford) represent enslaved : women. Andromache (Zoe : Frank) regrets the chances : she never took. Polyxena : (Claire Temple) accepts her : fate as sacrifice to Achilles’ : tomb. Cassandra (Morgan : Oehlschlager) foretells the : doom of the Greeks. Talthybius : Jackson Boudreau) carries : out questionable orders with : the aid of his sadistic soldiers : (Levi Williams, Dan McPeake, : Thomas Halkes). Helen (Mikayla : Hart) bargains for her life in the : face of her husband Menelaus’ : (Ben Groberman) wrath. It : is, in asense, the same plot as : Euripedes’ but elongated and : disjointed. The play opens as Hecuba Though the script is : episodic, allowing each of the : eponymous women to tell their : stories, the play is performed : as one long scene. No actors : leave the stage, although they : occasionally switch roles or : rummage through the rags for : costumes. All transitions occur : unobstructed, including one : suggestively veiled scenario. Each situation plays out : like an interpretive dance, using : all of the bodies on the stage : to create moving paintings : of a sort. As they are revealed : one by one, each character : speaks brutal testimony into : microphones, the sound : echoing throughout the theatre. : : There are silent silhouettes, : impressive nine-part choral : arrangements—even the : stage floor is used to create a : percussive heartbeat. The story may be difficult to follow without having : read the original text, but it : remains thematically powerful : regardless. The play’s point is to : make a compelling philosophical : : statement more than to develop : characters or plot, so the actors : often seem like collective entities : : rather than individuals, and : there is less action than there is : abstract imagery. Given the subjugation : of the female characters, it is : easy to interpret the script as : aggressively feminist, yet the : female actors dominate the : stage more often than not. : Perhaps it is not the sides of : the conflict but the battle itself : that intrigues Mee, since love : and warare parallel conflicts : throughout human history. The Image from Douglas College’s Trojan Women promotional video theotherpress.ca : play doesn’t offer much hope : of resolution, but it poses these : questions ina visually intriguing : way, and asks that we keep : pondering the solutions in the : future. If you're in the mood for something melodic, balletic, and : hieroglyphic, check out Trojan : Women at the Laura C. Muir : Performing Arts Theatre on : the fourth floor of the Douglas : College New Westminster : campus. The show will run : through March 27. Tickets are : $12, or $10 for students, and can : be purchased through Massey : Theatre. Animesque: Fans only beyond this point » ‘Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone’ review Adam Tatelman Senior Columnist OOOOS ideaki Anno, of Studio Gainax, was facing following his work on Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water when he decided to create a savage deconstruction of the popular Giant Mecha genre in 1995. The result was Neon Genesis Evangelion—a preposterously titled, existential take on typical Mecha Anime—rife with religious symbolism. To his surprise, it became a mega-hit. Flash forward to 2007, when Anno looked back at all the imitators his work inspired and decided to remake his of films, this time directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki of FECL fame. Thus was born Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, a streamlined take on the first six episodes of the series with a little less isolationist angst. I can only imagine how morose the original Evangelion must have been by comparison. You Are (Not) Alone tells the story of Shinji Ikari, a : student who is summoned : by his estranged father to an : underground military base : called NERV. Against his : will, Shinji pilots EVA-o1, a : humongous robot with bizarrely : humanoid insides, against disillusionment with his fanbase shape shifting alien giants called | : Angels who want to stomp out : humanity for some reason. : Shinji's cowardice and need for : filial approval clash, leaving his : loyalty to NERV conflicted as the : : Angels approach in force. Despite my recent interest : inall things Otaku, Iam not : part of this film’s intended : audience. You Are (Not) Alone : fails immediately as a remake : because it assumes the viewer : has already watched the series. : Don’t know what the Second : Impact is, who SEELE are, why . : . : Shinji is the only one who can Evangelion series as a quadrilogy pilot EVA-o1, or what the Dead : Sea Scrolls have to do with all : this? Youre in good company. : Why remake a series in a way : that alienates potential new : fans? The film’s structure is : confused due to the glossed-over : : backstory: characters behave : inconsistently, likely because : pertinent scenes from the : original Evangelion were cut for : time. The whole thing drags, : feeling much like an overlong : television series pilot, ora : : glorified clip show. The film tries : : toend onacliffhanger, butasa_ : : newcomer, I don’t haveenough =: : information to understand what : : exactly is being set up and why it : matters in relation to what I just : : watched. Nonetheless, through Shinji’s narrative, the film does : effectively explore themes of displacement, social isolation, : and commitment in the face : of failure. Some of the most : mundane moments in You : Are (Not) Alone are its most : profound, such as seeing the : slovenly life Major Misato leads: : when she’s not on the job, or the : : sense of place Shinji gets from : something so simple as seeing : a familiar ceiling when waking. : Then someone's pet penguin : walks into the room and I don't : know what kind of scene we're : trying to have anymore. The action is especially impressive when accompanied : by overblown crucifixion : imagery and Gregorian chanting Shinji is no more willing to fight : : than he was in the first place, : the Angels are still looming, and : in the soundtrack. The visuals : are memorable, particularly the : gruesome Angels whose hideous : : bodies defy every physical : law ever scribed by man. : Unfortunately, Studio Gainax’s Gaal) (AY YOU ARE (NOT) considerable technical acumen : is undercut time and again bya : predictable narrative pattern—_ : : brood, fight monster, repeat, roll : : credits. By the end, nothing’s really resolved. Though he’s more : attached to his squadmates, : SEELE’s omnipotent council of : vagueness is still planning— : something. Maybe the sequels Image from Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone rN Ke) N= : elaborate, but I hold out little : hope. Fans might say that I don’t understand this movie because : [ was never invested in Neon : Genesis Evangelion. I would : say that this was Anno’s chance : to get new fans invested, and instead he chose glamorized nostalgia. I'd exclusively recommend Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) : Alone to anyone who liked the : original series.