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University Daily Kansan
Arts/Entertainment
Thursday, Feb. 6, 1986
Biting comedy disguises political themes
By Monique O'Donnell Staff writer
Semyon and his wife, Maria, fight in bed in an opening scene of the play. Maria is played by Juliet Nelson, Wichita freshman, Kevin Crawford, Lawrence junior, is Semyon.
The Sulicide, 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sun-
day in the Ingle theater in Murphy Hall. Ticket
price $25. For more information, call (314) 690-5700.
Have a seat in a black box. Watch closely as "The Suicide" unravels to become a very funny experience
Nikolai Erdman could hardly have chosen a more sinister title for the play he wrote in 1928. "The Suicide" is a satirical fracile, "a comedy with a bite," said actress Lin Holder, Lawrence doctoral student in theatre. She plays Serafima Ilinichna, the mother-in-law of the main character. Semvon.
Playwright Erdman was Russian, but "The Suicide" was banned in his own country because of its political overreach. Director Joe Brandesky, Lawrence doctoral student in theatre, will bring the play to life this week at KU's William Inge Memorial Theatre. The theatre often is called the black box, because it's small with black walls, floors and ceilings.
Holder said, "This play needed this theater. The Inge conveys a tremendous sense of intimacy. It would be difficult to create this kind of ambiance on a large stage."
With a cast of 22, choreography is important in the confined space of the Inge Theatre. Brandesky said. He uses vertical space to utilize the space as well as to symbolize the nature of the characters. Actors climb to the upper levels of a bare scaffolding if their character is less real and more like an abstraction.
Holder said "The Suicide" was not so much a political play as it was a play that focused on the life of one human being, Semyon. Kevin Crawford, Lawrence junior, portrays Semyon.
Photos by Mark Mohler
Learning to pronounce Russian names such as Semyon Semyonovich Podsekalnikov was difficult for some of the actors, and so, before each rehearsal, the actors chant all the names used in the play for their warm-up.
In the play, Semyon loses his job and can't get a permit to start working again. Everyone, especially his wife, thinks he must be terribly depressed about his unemployment.
Semyon is a down-to-earth person who never has confronted the idea of suicide, but he becomes influenced by the fears of his wife and friends. Their fear that he might commit suicide becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Semvon becomes the focus of different interest groups in his society. Every interest group wants to claim that the social injustice they oppose was the cause of Semyon's death. If he kills himself, his suicide letter could indicate many different causes for the tragedy. Alexander Petrovich Kalabushkin, played by Jay Karnes, Stilwell junior, sells the rights to Semyon's suicide to the different interest groups.
"The audience may have problems understanding the subtleness of the play." Holder said. "The play does not just condemn the Soviet system, but any system for degrading human beings."
Holder said that funny lines and dramatic gestures digressed from the severe theme of the play but that the final scenes were almost moralizing.
Holder called the play modified constructivism because no pretense is made that this is not a theatre. The audience will understand the concept, she said, and the brightly colored costumes in orange and pink will enhance the "fantasy realm of the grotesque" in the play.
Seralima is ecstatic after her son overcomes his depression and begins to play the tuba. Lin Holder, Lawrence graduate student, portrays Seralima.
Jay Karnes, Stilwell junior, who portrays Alexander, tries to prevent Semyon from committing suicide. Semyon, the main character in "The Suicide," is portrayed by Kevin Crawford, Lawrence junior.
Creative, improvised solos will be stressed at jazz fest
By Grant W. Butler Staff writer
The University of Kansas Jazz Festival,
KU Jazz Choir I and the KU Jazz Ensemble I at 8 p.m. Friday in Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union.
The High School District I Honor Band, the KJU Jazz Choir I and the KJU Ensemble I at The University in Cranehoff Theatre. Tickets are $1.50 for KJU students and $3 for the general public.
The University of Kansas Jazz Festival is an ideal chance to promote jazz music and educate the public about the importance of jazz as an art form, the director of the festival said last week.
"There will be no trophy given to the band that plays the highest, the fastest and the loudest," the director, Ron McCurdy, instructor in music, said. "It will be a day of good music and sharing."
McCurdy said that groups such as the Manhattan Transfer had recently made jazz music popular but that jazz always should have a place next to the best classical music.
"Jazz should be right up there with Bach and Beethoven," he said. "It's just as important.
"I say that because we're talking about an art form that was created and developed in America. It's the only music that's truly American. It's the only music we can really call our own."
The jazz festival will emphasize the need for modern jazz musicians to be versatile and experienced in all types of music, including both classical and jazz, McCurdy said.
The improvisational solo displays this power and versatility, and should never be played or sung the same way twice, he said.
Mavis Rivers, who has recorded 11 jazz albums since her career began in 1961, is scheduled to be a guest soloist. Saturday night. She said the KU festival would be an exciting experience.
"I've always been fascinated by people who can ad-lib," she said. "It's absolutely marvelous when I go to festivals and see so many young people performing jazz."
"Improvisation is the one ingredient that mystifies the music. Improv is what keeps the music alive," he said.
Matt Cattingub, Rivers' son, also a scheduled guest soloist on Saturday, said that while people might not want to admit it, jazz had had a major influence on current American pop music.
Catingub, an alto-saxophone player, has written 5 original songs for the Louis Bellson Big Band, and his 1983 album, "My Mommy and Me," featured Rivers.
"The melodies and harmonies we hear today couldn't exist without jazz," he said.
Friday's concert features Vincent DiMartino and Leonard Cuddy as guest soloists.
Cuddy, a 1967 KU graduate who is a drummer for the U.S. Navy band, the Commodores, said festivals helped to keep the big band sound alive and allowed students to work with successful jazz musicians.
"When I went to KU there was no such thing allowed in the school." Cuddy said about the jazz festival. "So it's a real step forward for KU. Eighteen years ago it would never have happened."
DiMartino, a professor of music at the University of Kentucky, is an accomplished trumpet player in both jazz and classical music. He has worked with Chuck Mangione.
In addition to the two evening concerts, high school jazz bands and jazz and swing choirs will perform free concerts Saturday in Murphy Hall.
Film altered for American audience
By Grant W. Butler
Staff writer
Staff writer
Hollywood executives sit in their offices with a distorted view of who common Americans are and what they want to see in the movies, a disgruntled American film director said recently.
They're convinced Americans aren't as intelligent as Europeans, so movies need to be adjusted for American audiences, the director, Terry Gilliam, said of the Hollywood executives who delayed the release of his film, "Brazil."
"They're very frightening to talk to." Gilliam said last week. "They don't think Americans can think. Their view of America is very distorted."
Gilliam's frustration stems from the executives' attempts to coerce him into changing his film to suit an American audience after it already had been released in other countries.
"All studios exert pressure on all directors and all film projects that exist," he said. "There are no directors that have a golden relationship
Unfortunately, Gilliam's frustration with his producers is not unique, said Paul Campbell, professor of theatre and media arts.
with the studios where they can do whatever they want. What all directors want is artistic freedom, and that is attained by only a few."
Chuck Berg, associate professor of theatre and media arts, agreed that directors had to take orders from the studios.
"The movie industry is a business," he said. "Directors are expected to toe the line for the studio. They are an employee of the studio, and the film can, in fact, be taken away by the studio if they feel it is not meeting its maximum box office potential
"Directors have always had to dampen their artistic visions of a film because of box office considerations."
Although "Brazil" opened abroad last year and received good reviews from critics, the producers wanted it modified for American audiences.
Sid Sheinberg, president of MCA,
inc. which owns Universal Pictures,
Gilliam, who was the only American member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, is best known for his writing and cut-out animation. He has directed two other films, "Jabberwocky" and "Time Bandits."
asked Gilliam to cut the film and to restructure the ending for the American release. While unhappy about the prospect of cutting his work, Gilliam consented and removed about 20 minutes of footage. However, he refused to change the ending.
After the Los Angeles Film Critics gave the movie its 185st Best Picture award in late December, Universal agreed to open "Brazil" with Gilliam's ending. The film will go into wide national release on Feb. 14, and is scheduled to open in Lawrence on Feb. 28.
The film centers on the shattered life of Sam Lowry, played by Jonathan Price, who eventually is lobotomized as a result of blunders by the bureaucratic state.
The film's title is inspired by a popular song of the 1940s, which is the only thing Lowry can remember after his lobotomy.
While "Brazil" deals with serious subjects, such as reliance on computers and failing governments, Gilliam said, the film is more of a dark comedy that counterposes serious issues with the folly of society.
"Brazil" stars Robert De Niro.
Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Ian Richardson and Price
Gilliam said he would like to think that the film opened on its own merits, but he said some credit had to go to the critics.
The stand taken by the Los Angeles critics is one that Campbell said he would like to see more often. Critics need to take stronger ethical stands on the movies they review, he said.
The main reason Universal demanded that Gilliam make changes in "Brazil" was a concern over money, Campbell said.
"The aim of the studio is to make money. The aim of the releasing organization is to make money. So certainly they manipulate film-makers in whatever way they can." Campbell said.
"Brazil" deals with the essence of the human spirit and the tremendous odds against it. The battle with Hollywood executives resembled the struggles of the human spirit portrayed in the film, Gilliam said.
"Life totally imitated art in this case," he said. "I was meeting people who were in the film and they were saying the same lines. I knew how the film ended, so it was very depressing."
'Secret Honor' reveals a new view of Nixon
By Leslie Wohlwend Skyrms Special to the Kansao
First "The Big Chill" came along to remind us that the radical youth of the '60s were just mixed-up kids. Then "Rambo" rewrote the Vietnam War so America could win. Now the quintessential figure of the late '60s and early '70s, Richard Milhous Nixon, is back. And if you thought the Nixon who arbitrated the umpire's strike was the new Nixon, wait until you see him in a reprise of his biggest role ever — the mastermind of Watergate.
Philippe, Bohne Hall in "Sacred Horse"
Phillip Baker Hall, the principal actor in Robert Altman's "Secret Honor," plays a Richard Nixon who, during his last days in the White House, is looking back over his life as he contemplates suicide. As the film opens, Nixon removes a gun from his briefcase and records short messages for his aide.
As he drinks more Chivas Regal, Nixon's monologue turns vehement; he begins tirades against his enemies both real and imagined.
He rails against the Kennedys,
Eisenhower, his mother, Kissinger
and a host of people who, he feels,
have done him wrong. He talks about
his last years in the White House, his
forced resignation and his pardon.
The movie script, which was written by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone from their play, uses dialogue from court transcripts and memoirs to enhance the reality of the drama.
The Nixon of Freed and Stone,
however, is not bound by documented speeches. The fictional Nixon says his involvement in and humiliation by the Watergate affair were byproducts of his "secret honor." He
Review
claims that he deliberately staged Watergate — the break-in, the coverup, the disclosure and the aftermath — to escape the machinations of a mysterious "committee of 100."
How a viewer reacts to Nixon's revelation apparently depends on what he brings to the film. Pauline Kael, writing for the New Yorker, says the tale helps the film dramatically and aesthetically.
However, some critics have denounced the film as an attempt to justify Nixon's actions by providing an honorable motive for his electoral machinations.
Movie goers will have the chance to bring their own perceptions to the revised Nixon when "Secret Honor" plays February 10 and 11 in Woodruff Auditorium.