Thursday, April 19, 1973
5
SOKOLOFE
'Abrasive' Play Gruesomely Real
By ZAHID IQBAL
Kansan Reviewer
"Sticks and Bones" is more than a controversial piece of playwriting that found to be "abrasive" to air over the net. The film was shot in Vietnam, where America did in Vietnam as we will see.
For two hours or more, David Rabe's pen retches and retches, and the audience must watch.
No punches are pulled at any point, although the Hashinger production seems to have screened out certain female-anatomy-oriented words.
On television, had the play been screened,
it may have caused a furor comparable to
Orson Wells' little bit of fun with "War of
the Worlds."
The awful part of the whole thing is that everything is as real as the middle-class typical American family background the play is set against.
David Nelson is the red-blooded American boy who got sent off to war and is now back to his loving family. Only, he is blind.
His parents, the green-stamp mentality probably deep-ingrained in them, are short-changed.
And so begins the nightmare for David and his family: a pint-sized father who's always lived in the shadow of big guys and imagined glories; a mother blundering around as she tries, with sickenkey syrupy breath, to find the right things to make David feel at home and brother who brings up the tail of this procession of utterly impossible neurotics.
Current Style, Nostalgia Blend In Beach Boys
The Beach Boys. The name conjures up images of sand, surfing and summer. The group is still around, the personnel about the same, but the sound has changed.
Traces of the old music, the blending of the voices still remains, but the songs are more mature. The lyrics deal with current issues and show more of a concern for people. Song themes range from ruelful sorcery to life's recreation.
The group has two new members, Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin, both from South Africa. Brian Wilson still produces the albums but does not tour with the group. Bruce Johnston was Wilson's road voice for a time but left the group in 1972.
Their music, most notably the newest album, 'Holland', is quieter and gentler than ever before. The vocals show the most change. The range is lower, and the blender's tone is less powerful. Wilson's soprano-like are missing, which fits in very well with the new sound.
The Beach Boys still perform their old songs in concert, according to Mike Miler, SUA activities adviser. They will appear at 8:30 p.m. April 28 in Allen Field House.
"The act is in two sets," Miller said. "The first set is mostly new stuff. The second set, they get into the old stuff. It's good business, yet they're still trying to get a point across.
"It's a shame they don't change their name. People hear 'The Beach Boys' and go wild. They are fighting to get away from stereotyping.
"Yet they know that some of the stuff they did then was good. They're not trying to chase people away but show them that the group has changed."
Miller said that when the group performs at KU they would probably do a lot of songs from the new album.
He said that the Beach Boys were a current group and not just a nostalgia trip or a revival of the past.
Miller said that ticket sales for the concert were going well and that there were 7,080 tickets left. He said that on the first day of sales almost 2,500 tickets were sold.
Area Educators To Train at KU
The University of Kansas was one of 20 colleges and universities recently chosen by PKKa to provide training for educators on involving citizens in school planning.
Richard Halley, assistant professor of education; John Guenther, assistant professor of education; and Mino Slukey, professor of education, will attend a workshop for the training program May 14-16 at Bloomington, Ind.
Phi Delta Kappa, a professional educator's organization, chose KU out of 62 applicants for the training program.
Hatley, who is institutional coordinator of the program at KU, said that at the university, the KU representatives would learn how to train others in educational involvement.
The KU staff will begin conducting local workshops for administrators and teachers in Lawrence and surrounding areas early this fall.
Cynthia Brown Munzer, a 1967 graduate of the University of Kansas, has won second place in the Metropolitan Opera auditions in New York City.
Munzer has sung with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., and has towed the Goldsley Opera group. She is the wife of Steve Munzer, a 196K graduate.
David is acting "Funny." His parents know that within 30 seconds after his arrival home. Playing psychologist, Ozzie, his father, assumes this is partly because of his
Also, hovering wraith-like around the house and David's bedroom is Zung, the girl David has left behind, now with him as the phantom the others can't see.
having "simed against the Sixth Commandment" and that too with a "yellow
father's "goldmann hocus-pocus" and indicates as much with the business-end of his cane. Father Donald leaves, a shaken man, and cannot even be lured into discussing the incident, over the telephone, with David's anxious mother.
"Acceptance of an alien race is rejection of one's own race," says Father Donald, the family priest, who comes in to save David's soul and is duly armed with crucifix, intonations and a copy of "Psychology Today."
But David will have none of the good
Ozzie has already tried to explain to his son that sex is "like going to the bathroom," but he just can't communicate with David. And David, affected in his mind by the assortment of soul diseases his whore must deal with, and syphilis being just two of them) now appears as a talk of butterchick, cruel crumbs and vicious tortures perpetrated on the yellow people.
'it's all in the family—the madness, that
tissue—and now it begins to show in the uterus,
the child!'
A point comes when David's parents wonder if he is their son or a dangerous impostor with sinister designs. The tensions mount although David's mother keeps hoping for some light at the end of some tunnel.
Something has to snap. And it does. They are all sitting around in the living room
'Heartbreak Kid' Has Old Plot, New Style
Neil Simon's screen play "The Heart-break Kid" combines the style of humor of "The Graduate" and the romance of "Love Letters," in the form of a traditional situation comedy.
By RONSCHLOERB
From the opening shots, Charles Groden, who plays a sophisticated New York sporting goods salesman, is a combination of charismatic in the comic and Ryan O'Neal the lover.
Billed as the "best and most original American comedy of 1972," the movie actually reproduces much of the same humor that has been presented some originally though in the area of subtlety. Where "The Graduate" deals in comic revelry, "The Heartbreak Kit" takes a comic situation and shows the woman in a comedic show the comedy down to a realistic level.
Kansan Reviewer
Emotional love and warm, sensitive filming of the bed scenes adds a realistic touch in this new, original form of comedy. Following the Ryan O'Neal style, Groden brings an intensity generally not found in comedy.
As Lenny Cantrell, the lover, Groden faces many difficulties that compare closely to those in "Love Story." He is presented with an alcoof, girl plied
And he offers David a razor, just to make things easier. Ozzie thinks it is good idea too. "If I had a razor, I would do that."
when Ricky, the kid brother tells David, "If I were you I'd kill myself. You should have done it long ago."
by Cybil Shepard, whose father, played by Eddie Albert, is a threat to Cantrell. Also a large quantity of money is involved, which would have made the situation for humor and drama to flourish.
Cantrell said at one point, "I wouldn't take $2,500. I want Kelly (Sheeperd)." An ironically humorous ending hints at the family wealth. During the reception of their book, some same music is played as at his first marriage, which Cantrell forfeits to pursue Kelly and the challenge of her wealthy father. As with most of the other situations Cantrell describes, the viewer doesn't necessarily laugh out loud but the spark of humor is definitely there.
Outstanding performances by Jeanne Berlin, Cantrell's first wife, Groden, Sheperd, and Albert make a slightly dull plot sparkle. For this reason and for the purpose of enjoying an evening, this movie requires you to watch it for no other reason than to gaze at Cybil Sheperd. Women go see the movie to watch chauvinists continually put down.
Photography and direction of this film fall a short distance behind the two movies being compared to it. Poor editing was a first reaction, but some interesting photographic techniques and camera angles make up for occasional flaws.
David's mother runs off to the kitchen to get pans and towels so that when David slashes his wrists there won't be any mess. Yech.
The family presides over the bloodletting, and light conversational patter is kept up as a reminder of the importance.
The scene is as nauseating as it is gruesome. An excellently planned lighting design spares the audience some of the gory details, but the overall effect is very real.
The play is well presented against an authentic set, with players who try hard to give their best. Roger Nolan, as David Cunningham in every respect, Harriet, his brother, in plays like Wunderlich, Nancy Molitor was good enough a phantom to have really been one.
"I really dig this freshman chick. But to be candid...she has not been digging me. Then I asked her to go with me over to Sandy's hamburgers for dinner. Now we're both in love. I love her...and she loves Sandy."
The parts of Ozzie, Ricky and Father Donald are well played but a rifle overdone at certain points. The production is a good one and worth the time and the money.
After all, post-mortem are such run. Thus if David Rabe is to be believed, the dearest price for the Vietnam war is yet to be paid by the ones who got away.
$ \textcircled{c} $ Hardee's Food Systems, Inc. 1972
Not a happy thought, that
The Association of University Residence Halls (A.U.R.H.) is holding its annual election for officers on April 19th at 6:15 p.m., McCollam Hall. The positions open are: President, Vice President, Assembly Chairperson, Secretary and Treasurer. Residents of the University residence halls are encouraged to run for these offices. In light of the Affirmative Action Program adopted by the University of Kansas women and minority students are particularly encouraged to run for these offices. Further information can be obtained from your hall president.
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