Sports

   
  
   
    
  
    
  
   
   
   
 
  

Mike Quong (David Lam)

t really surprises me that fans
till flock back to NBA games in
xceedingly large numbers after
e lengthy lockout that nearly
anceled the entire season.
Although the league has been
Hoing promotional work to lure
ans back, I still feel the fans’
telligence is being insulted.
ey introduced a new slogan to
eplace “I Love This Game!”
alled “I Still Love This Game!”
Although I've never been an
Avid fan of the NBA, I still feel
somewhat insulted by players
and owners bickering over
salaries that are ridiculous to
begin with. Lately, I've found
atching Muppets Tonight a lot

 

 

Culture

more entertaining seeing as
though they'll never go on
strike. The settlement of a $35-
million per year salary cap is
probably enough to bring a third
world country out of poverty.
Mind you, Michael Jordan, the
man that made that much
money last season, still makes
millions of dollars off that
poverty to promote his Nike
shoes, so he’s obviously not
giving any of his cash to charity.
The same story was with
the NHL in 1995. I'm sure we all
remember the lockout that cut
the 1995 season in half and
canceled the beloved All Star
Game which is one of my
favourite parts of any profes-
sional sports season. I can’t

A Agnes of God

Trena Coulter forget the incidents and carry on

en I heard the play version of
Agnes of God was running at the
Pacific Theatre, I knew this was
one I couldn't miss. Having
seen the movie version years ago
and loving it, I was curious to
see how it would be played out
on stage. The set, designed by
orris Ertman, was basic. The
age, raked in the shape of an
ow, was flanked on either side
by seats in a fairly small studio
eatre. Downstage centre there
stood a large wooden cross,
pstage centre was a sort of
box-type bench with a step on
pne side that was used as a seat
most times.

Every technical aspect
bf this show was kept to a bare
inimum so as to not take away
om the actors’ performance,
and it worked. There were a few
lifferent techniques for the
ighting, designed by Kevin
cAllister. Gobos in the shape
Df crosses and a couple other
patterns, the colour consisted
ostly of a warm orangish glow
different intensities. There
as great mood quality to the
ighting, which I felt made a big
lifference on how well you were
rawn into the performance.
aving so little else onstage
made it that much more effec-
rive.

  
  
  
 
 
 
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
 
 
   
   
  
 
   
   
  
 
 
   
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
  
 
  
 
 
 

The plot revolves

ound the discovery of a dead
aby in a wastepaper basket in

e convent room of Sister

gnes (Katherine Venour) who is
cused of manslaughter. At

dds are: the court appointed
sychiatrist Dr. Martha
ivingstone (who smokes like a
himney), played by Anita
ittenberg, who wants to heal
er mind; and the Mother
uperior (a one time wife and
other) played by Gina Chiarelli,
ho believes it’s best to let her

 

in her simple life. The story is
broken up by brief narratives by
Dr. Livingstone, of her sessions
with Agnes and her memories of
her Catholic childhood. I rarely
if ever have found myself so
captivated with a performance. I
was hooked the moment I heard
Agnes sing before the lights
even came up onstage.

As her Mother Superior
would say, Agnes has the voice
of an angel, but the mind of a
child. She was taken out of
school at a very young age by
her alcoholic mother, and was
sent to live at the convent after
her mother died. She has never
even seen so much as a televi-
sion program, let alone the
world outside the convent walls.
Claiming to have no recollection
of the conception and birth,
Agnes is sent to Dr. Livingstone,
so she can determine if the girl
is accountable for infanticide or
innocent by reason of insanity.
The following series of events
are some of the most emotional
pieces of work put onstage.
Though, through her ecstatic
ethereal description of the
encounter, we are still left
without an answer as to who the
child's father was. Was she
seduced by a field hand or
gardener, or was it indeed a
miracle, an immaculate concep-
tion? Coming from a young girl
whose palms spontaneously
bleed, and speaks with angels or
other unearthly beings, it does
not seem so far fetched.

Both Dr. Livingstone and
the Mother Superior have-an
unusual sort of obsession with
Agnes, and though the two are
very different, their reasons are
similar. Agnes somehow restores
their faith. To her Mother
Superior, Agnes is a picture of
all that is pure and good and

 

amenting fans return

remember the details of the
agreement since it was so
long ago, but I do know that
as soon as this deal expires,
both the NHL and NBA will
be back to lock outs again.
The one that really
hurt the sport as much as
the fans was probably the
Major League Baseball strike
of 1994. I don't think the
league will ever fully recover
from this tragedy, mainly
because it canceled the World
Series for the first time in
modern history. After the
players went back to work,
the bleachers weren't nearly
as full as they once were, as
fans grew angry at the
players and at the rising

unaffected by the outside
world. To Dr. Livingstone,
she is the choice of her long
dead sister.

Coming down to set
and technical, this show is
not much to see, but the
acting is there tenfold. The
acting was very similar to
the acting in the movie, but
after thinking that through,
T honestly cannot see the
characters being played
another way. Each one is so
distinct, I’m not sure how
much you can change them
without losing something big
in the performance.

I cannot remember the
last time (if ever) I cried at a
play, and I was weeping like
a baby before and after the
intermission. I felt a little
stupid at first, until the
lights went up and I saw
people all over the place
wiping at tears, the actors
included. They received a
well-deserved standing
ovation, and I'm sure for
many of the people in the
theatre that night, there was
some serious philosophical
discussion on the ride home.

ticket prices. Although the classic
1998 homerun derby between
Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa
revived the appeal of the game,
this was a scar that baseball will
probably never recover from.
Professional sports salaries
are a popular topic to discuss just
about anywhere. I've never really
understood the point of players
receiving millions of dollars year
in and year out when the average
person makes less than one tenth
of that and doesn’t complain
about it. Another thing I didn't
understand about the whole NBA
lockout situation was that a
member of the NBA board of
directors was also the general
manager of the Arizona
Diamondbacks of Major Leaque

Baseball. I can’t remember his
name, but while he was with the
other members complaining about
how ridiculous the NBA salaries
were getting, he goes off and signs
Randy Johnson and Todd
Stottlemyer for $80-million and
$70-million respectively. People
often laugh at me when I suggest
this, but it’s a legitimate request
in my opinion: Since the fans are
the ones that pay the players’
salaries by paying outrageous
prices to go and watch the teams,
they should be the ones who
decide the players’ salaries.

Take a pass

Laura Cadieux
proves that
‘French’ does not
necessarily equal
‘g00d’

Jason Kurylo

 

When I review Canadian-made
films, I try to focus on the
positive. When I see a small-
budget French Canadian-made film
do so well regionally that it gets
bumped to national, or even
international, distribution, I
await the opportunity to proudly
wave the flag, felt-tip added
fleur-de-lis and all. For example,
I've been raving about the rich
textures and beautiful cinematog-
raphy of The Red Violin for
months. Alas, I cannot offer such
glowing commentary about It’s
Your Turn, Laura Cadieux.

C't’a ton tour, Laura
Cadieux, if the press releases are
to be trusted, is one of the most
successful Quebec-made films ever
released. The French have em-
braced this tale of self-loathing
women whose lives revolve
around their weight-loss shots so
enthusiastically that Alliance
Releasing has opened the film
with subtitles across the nation.
To say Cadieux’s appeal is a
mystery would be a horrendous
understatement. Ginette Reno, a
well-respected Quebecois thespian
and Juno-winning vocalist,
puzzlingly chose to play a title
character so racist, so homopho-
bic and so irresponsible you'd
think she was a thirteen year-old
pimply Nazi sympathizer. That
Cadieux is a forty-something
mother of three who regularly
refers to herself as ‘corpulent’ and
all but encourages her six-year-
old son to play in traffic are just
two signs of her ghastly persona.

the Other Press March 3 1999

I didn’t find it funny when Chris
Farley played up the T’m fat, I
suck, look at me’ angle, and this
film makes Farley look like an
iibertalented genius. Cadieux’s
‘friends’ are equally awful; one
spends an entire day squealing
verbal abuse at helpful police,
security and retail workers whilst
looking for the aforementioned
six-year-old. Another selfishly
ignores her daughter's happy
engagement because ‘now I'll be
alone with her father. I know she’s
not pretty, but she found someone
equally ugly to take her’ Yet
another devours fatty foods in the
gynecologist’'s waiting room, then
wonders aloud why her shots aren't
working. Upon seeing the premise
of this film, I was hoping for a
refreshing look at overweight folk
just being people, but Cadieux’s
only redeeming character is a
model-thin pregnant beauty who
unknowingly walks into the middle
of the group’s cackling din. It’s
certainly possible to present
undesirable characters in a
watchable forum. Here, however,
the screenplay is indulgent and
forced. The direction is amateurish
at best, and the cinematography is
choppy. The actors are exasperat-
ing, screechingly annoying one
moment, desperate and pathetic
the next. The score is choppy, the
film quality is poor, and the sets
are uninspiring. I once heard an
ignorant moviegoer exclaim,
“Canadian films suck more often
than not.” They were likely more
familiar with the legendarily bad
CBC forays into situation comedy
than, say, Jesus of Montreal, but
Cadieux only serves to futher the
myth. I feel it’s important to
support the Canadian film indus-
try. More money than ever is
slated to make Canuck flicks next
year, and I'm all for it, but an
unfortunate truth is that Cadieux
is just a bad film.

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