4
Thursday, July 8, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Entertainment
Howling Woolf
Martha, portrayed by Maureen Hawley, berates George, portrayed by David Cook, in the University Theatre's presentation of
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" The play will run through July 10th.
No weak spots in 'Woolf'
Bv GREGG HEJNA
Staff Writer
The University Theatre production of Edward Albee's powerful drama, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is representative of how good the college stage can be.
The play takes place one not-so-average night in the lives of two college professors, who are almost complete opplies, and are even less similar than their husbands.
What begins as a social call by the younger couple, Nick and Honey, degenerates into a series of cold, dehumanizing games with George and Edward, who are brought to a chilling climax by the hanging spectre of the older couple's son.
WHEN THE PLAY was first presented 14 years ago, the profanity-drenched script came under attack, but the language is not profane for profanity's sake.
The viewer acts as an unseen visitor in the souls of the characters, who react as real people. The language of the play only obscures the feeling of a frightening reality.
There are only four characters in the cast of "Virginia Woolfe," and all are major parts. There is nowhere to hide a weak member. It is to the credit of director Carol Blitten's casting and to the actors themselves that the play stands.
HIS LECTURE-LIKE delivery is excellent. Cook's voice is musical but not sing-song, and is reminiscent of the Shakespearean Richard Burton. It's his strongest quality, and he makes good use of it.
David Cook is George, an overweight history professor who is "90 something and looks like 55." Cook's grayed hair and glasses give a visual believability to his character.
Although the play is a drama there are moments of humor, and Cook's dry, flippant delivery of these lines both underplays and to them that is not felt until they pass by.
George's wife, Martha, is played by Maureen Hawley. Hawley plays Martha's bitchy, brassy, vulgar personality to the girls. She dangles a dagger in one hand a drink in the other. When she tells George that she wears the pants in the family, there's no doubt she's a woman.
Her marriage to George has been disintegrating for 23 years. She bates him for his failures and emasculates him relentlessly. Yet, she complains of their communication, saying there's "not a moment when we can together."
AT ONE point in the play Mara seduces Nate, a young biology professor recently hit by a car accident.
Nick, played by Mike Wise, has come to George and Martha's for a late night drink following a party for the new faculty members. He and his wife, Honey, played and became first spectators and later participants in the older couple's ritualistic games.
honey spends most of her time getting honey on brandy and vomiting. She sobs in her sleep and drinks.
*
Laird portrays Honey well, looking like a sorority girl staggering through a lost weekend. Honey becomes less of what she first seems to be, slipping into a frightened, neurotic woman as the games they play strip away her facade.
WDE DOES an excellent job with the role of Nick, Honey's husband. As the tail,
The actors react as they should and never wander aimlessly. Neither are they riveted to one spot. Biltown shows that she knows where to move, back to the audience and get away with it.
the play walks the fine line between too much directing and too little.
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is an excellent evening of theater, thanks to the ensemble work of director, cast and crew. The play shows what can be found in a college theater when all the elements necessary for a fine production are present.
"Disaster '78" features a mid-air explosion aboard a jet liner, which crashes into a skyscraper and sets it afire, which causes an ocean liner to dam to burst, forming a tidal wave that capsizes an ocean liner whose passengers are left to drift in shark-infested taters. The best thing about "Disaster '78" is that you will never see more than five minutes of
By CHUCK SACK Contributing Writer
Those five minutes are interspersed in the regular 90 minutes of the film "Drive-In." The character inventory for "Drive-In" is almost the same, with the focus within-the-movie. The main cast consists of two would-be criminals, the hero and his kid brother, the heroine and her two girlfriends, the theater manager and his friend, a lawyer. A couple, and a black M.D. and his wife.
Every figure in the film specializes in homepause metaphors or snappy put-downs. One of them brags, "I don't need luck anymore than a tomatick needs a marriage license." A typical insult runs, "To be a biger idiot, you'd have to put on weight."
Everything that could go wrong in 20 years in the busiest outdoor moviehouse happens in three hours at the Alamo, a dinky drive-in in a small Texas town. It is indicative of Bob Pete's screws that the bandits use to confront the hero's kid brother is taken hostage and then helps the outlaws plan their caper.
Tacky as namesake, 'Drive-In' is still fun
What could have been a noxious tale about oversized cars driven by under-sized kids (standard drive-in fare of the "Eat My Dust" variety) is made palatable by the unassuming style of the film. The glimpses that weet of "Disaster 76" are convincing to those who know what Amateu didn't have access to the outkinds from "Towering Inferno," "Airport 76," and "Earthquake." While the special effects are deliberately corry, "Disaster 78"
The secret is in Amateuse's skillful juggling of the multiple storylines. With a completely unknown cast, five major plot threads, and another mini-move to keep coherent, this feat, in the vernacular of the genre, makes for "the trickier than dianping Siamese twins."
Director Rod Amateau evidently recognized the worth of his raw materials, so everything-plot, dialogue, situations and jokes—as treated in quick throwaway dialogs—inside its defects, which are legion, "Dr. Dreit-in" delivers consistent entertainment.
is obviously a parody of current Hollywood blockbusters, complete with all-star casts.
Since it would be worth the price of an admission to not have to see what's on screen at the Alamo, one is more than content to watch the amateurs. The acting, especially in the case of the hero and the villain, are set up as anything more than shallow high school kids, it works in context.
Gradually, it becomes apparent that Amateau and Peete haven't limited themselves to parodying one recent trend in film-making. The format here, superficially similar to "American Gritti," demonstrates all of the virtues of smaller, more intimate movies.
Or, as the Statler Brothers describe it in a song that floats through the soundtrack while the characters cruise in their cars, roller skate at the rink, or wait for the ball to start. "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott has happened to the industry."
"Drive-In," which has the technical polish of a glorified home-movie, is really more fun than any film that I've been in Lawrence for the last two months. It has a vitality that turks like "The Omen," or that turkies clacks like "Logan's Run" lack.
The mundane stories of kid brothers, insignificant fistfights and couples splitting up all look preferable to the tripe in the movie-within-the-movie. The villain of "Drive-In" is a ganglehead who owns a customized van, and even he opts for "Ozzie" when he returns on his portable TV, rather than watch the parade of catastrophes.
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In act two George and Nick weave a maze of conversation as Nick's true personality begins to surface. The awareness he has entering the house begins to fall away, and he relaxes his guard as George keeps filling his drinks.
athletic stud. Nick becomes the foil for Martha's revenge on George.
Through all of this, Wise's portrayal of
Ick is nearly perfect. The man knows how to
speak, but not exactly how to talk.
Movie Fare
Nick and Honey enter a seemingly carefree married couple and depart with their lives altered. They will never again be together, and the pain of life into the roles of these two people.
COMPLEMENTING the fine acting of
their director, Tara Bilgeran,
Bilgert direction. Her tight control over
her body is a hallmark.
DEATHRACE 2000—David Carradine gives a mechanical performance in this refreshingly idiotic chase film. The movie, which was filmed on board and paint, but evidently that's where the miniscule waste was spent; since the money didn't go for scripting or
PARADISE NOW-A hybrid of filmed theatre. This剧本 (with minimal standard camerawork) the Living Theatre's production of the title play.
MURMER OF THE HEART—This naturalistic comic about a young bourgeois boy centring of age in an unprofessional role. It stars the heroine Male's best. Benoit Ferron gives an adopt portrayal of Lauret, the boy, but his mother, as his mother, who steals the show.
GUS—Another workhorse family picture from the Disney Studio. This time
the lovable critter is a mule that kicks
Disengage brain before attending.
GATOR-Actor Burt Burrydoes needs enough rights thing to compensate for the miscalculations of director Burt Reynolds, and Jerry Reed throws in an appearance as the slimy vain to make the southern soaper passable entertainment.
LOGAN'S RUN—This futuristic manuit pursuits to be the season's first white man chasing Runners and everyone else chasing pleasure. It is revealing that the elements of the film provide the material for a very different Peter Ustinov's portrait of the old man.
THE OMEG—Gregory Peck and Lee Remick star as an older couple who get duped into providing a foster home for the child in their childhood, is that it is impossibly slow.
Inge director new Theatre head
Staff Writer
Ru SUSAN APPIERURV
Maintaining the strength of the University of Kansas theater department is the primary goal of Ron Willis, newly appointed director of the University Theatre.
Willis, professor of drama and drama,
begins his duties on Monday, July 19th.
Willis described the theater department as a "large, multi-headed operation."
“This is not a one-man department,” “Willis said yesterday. “A theater department can reflect its director only so much. My job is to keep it moving forward. One of my goals is to maintain its strength, to keep it alive from the academic and the entertainment.”
Wills said he also wanted to further develop the touring program for KU's plays. He's planning a spring tour for "The Wonderful Life" and a series of 'Tol', an ensemble theater piece.
Wills succeeds Jed Davis, professor of speech and drama, who has been director for the past nine years. Davis is resigning to resume full-time teaching.
Willis was notified Tuesday of his appointment by Bobby Patton, head of the speech and drama department.
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Willis received his bachelor's degree in theater at Rutgers University, New Jersey. He earned his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Iowa and his Ph.D. at the University of Iowa.
Before coming to KU in 1970, Willis was director of theater at the University of Colorado. Last summer he was guest speaker at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
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Wills is also National Chairman of the playwriting awards program of the Ballet Theatre Festival. The program fosters the talents and helps them develop, Wills said.
Wills will resign his position as director of the luge Memorial Theatre, which he has held for five years. As director, Wills will be coordinator produced by student directors.
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Although Willis will be teaching fewer cases because of his new job, he will still teach them.
"Playwriting is an area of particular interest for me." Willis said.
His new job will not immediately interfere with his play directing because he isn't scheduled to direct any plays next year, he said.
Wills has directed "House of the Blue Leaves", "The Glass Menagerie", and "Long Day's Journey into Night" for the University Theatre.
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