The Other Press

 

 
 

by lan Hunter

Imagine that you are with a
number of other actors re-
hearsing a musical. There is a
sudden blackout. When the
lights return there are six
strangers in your midst who
claim they are characters in an
unfinished play; a play that is
filled with agony, hate and
despair. A play so depressing
that the author couldn’t finish
it, yet with characters so
powerful they had to live.

“Six Characters in Search of
An Author’’ is the name of
this play, written by Luigi Pir-
andello, and is playing at the
Frederic Wood Theatre at
UBC until Saturday the 22nd.

One can imagine Pirandello
the playwright grapling for
weeks, perhaps months, with
this one play that is so depres-
sing as to have no commercial

appeal but consumes him to
the point where the characters
invade his brain and affect him
as real people who he loves of
hates would. Pirandello prob-
ably gave up the project in
despair and started to write a
musical but found he could not
because his characters would
not let him be. This play could
be a product of such mad
frustration.

“ SIX CHARACTERS" Invaded His Brain |

action to take notes and do
bane ae? scenes themselves.

air of absurd reality is main-

tained throughout the play
mostly due to the fine acting of
Leon Pownall, playing the
father character, and Lisa
Klingspon as. the stepdaughter
The Frederic Wood theatre
is known for it’s ‘‘Expert-
mental’’ theatre. Some of the
productions they have staged

- have not turned out because

The line between sanity and
madness, a line, at best, thin
and fragile, is destroyed in
this play as the six characters
argue that they are more real
then the actors themselves.
The actors agree to let the six
characters act out their agon-
izing play while the company
of actors study them as future
parts. Comic relief occurs
throughout as the actors stop

the company did not have the
talent to carry it out. This play
is one that has and carries
with it the spontaneity and

creativity that playwrights like
Niel Simon lack. Everyone into
acting at Douglas should see
this play, especially those re
maining in the theatre, depart-
ment, for a lesson on how
good student productions can

The Verdict on " THE VERDICT"

by Vic Cromarty.

“THE VERDICT” is veteran
actor Paul Newman's latest
screen effort. As a seedy,alc-
gholic, broken down lawyer in
modern day Boston, Newman
plays the part to a tee.

The story is not out of the
ordinary in itself though.

Newman, as the little guy,
is presented with the oppor-
tunity to do good by exposing
a corrupt religious hospital
having covered up an obvious-
instance of malpractice. In the
process, he is also given the
chance to regain his lost self-
esteem.

From the introduction of
Newman's character, to the
legwork and scheming used
in setting up the case for his
client, to the concluding court
room scenes, the film flows
smoothly.

The acting is super. Jack
Warden plays the regular,
crusty character he does so
well. Charlotte Rampling i is
fine as Newman's secretive,
beautiful paramour. Paul
Newman, as I’ve said earlier,
is oe on.

My favourite performance i in
this flick though’ is by James
Mason as the crafty lawyer in
charge of defending the hos-
pital. Though he has far too
few scenes to himself in this
story, he damn near steals the
show.

As he prepares his younger
associates to do battle with
Newman, one of them smug-
gly suggests that they enlist
the talents of a negro lawyer
for appearance sake. Mason

CHILLIWACK PLAYS

by Darrow Lee

The Chilliwack concert in
Vancouver last month was:act-
ually a 2 hour glimpse of the
bands material success over
the last 12 years or so.

Considering that it was Chi-
lliwak’s first major concert
tour in quite a few years, they
put on an exciting perform-
ance. Chilliwack, which is
mainly a studio band, showed
by their performance that they
_ desperately wanted toestab-
lish themselves as a g
stage band also. The three

members of the band, Bill
Henderson, Brian Macleod,
and Ab Bryant all performed
with extreme expertise.

With the addition of the two
new keyboard players (Glen
and dennis Grayson), and the
new drummer (Joe Franco),
The band played in relatively
better harmony, than I’d

‘thought possible.
On the whole, Chilliwack’s

long awaited return back to
the concert scene was well
worth waiting for.

dresses him down in cuttingly
logical, yet very human fash-
ion, fully realizing his charac-
ter in our minds in just a few
short lines.

“The Verdict’’ is a finely
acted, literate movie. With the
exception of one instance of
audience titillating, gratuitous
violence, in which Newman
needlessly punches another
character, the film holds to-
gether very well.

 

January 18th 1983

   

Paramount Reveals seks Not’ Dead ve

 

Run away from
"COMEBACK ”

by Vic Cromarty.

Unless you suffer extensive
brain damage, are almost deaf

This is mainly due to the
extremely poor photography .
Out of focus shots, widly dif-
fering light and camera levels
from scene to scene, and the

and blind, or are so fond of most uninspired cinematography

Micheal Landon that you could
watch him use deodorant and
get a thrill, there’s very little

chance of your enjoying the |

movie ‘‘Comeback’’.

If listed all of the problems
with this film, the review wo-
uld fill the whole paper. There
wouldn’t even be room for
ads.

This is a review though, so
I’ll give you a few examples.
First, the script. If you can
imagine every bad cliche you’-
ve ever encountered glued end

to end, you'll get an idea * of

what you can expect.

In point of fact, the

actual scenes as filmed are
much much worse.

since ‘Plan Nine from Outer
Space’ produce an unbelievab-
ly bad series of images. Actu-
ally, I’m being unfair to ‘Plan
Nine...’

The acting is sooo baaad!
Even extreme closeups of Lan-
don doing his award winning
Kodak smile failed to relieve
the boredom. :

I did like one part of the film
though. When the credits fin-
ally started to roll after two
hours of uninterrupted com-
post scrapings, I was ecstatic.
I felt like I'd been given a
ticket out of purgatory, or at
the very least, I’d had an in-
grown toenail removed. Nuff
said.

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ALFIE’S

NARIETY THEATRE

We will be offering the best in comedy and magic acts in

Western Canada.

If your all discoed out and rock n’ roll has lost it’s magic
for the moment then escape the noise, come to us, and
laugh...you need to sometimes , you know?

HOURS: 7pm - 2am
Tuesday thru Saturday |
759 Carnarvon St. New:

Westminster. Phone:522-3577

*There is plenty of cheap parking behind Alfie’s in the new
Douglas College parkade.

OR OR OR OL OO