The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 7, 1983 Page: 10 of 24
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THRESHER FINE ARTS
Players' Merchant explores diverse, complex themes
The Merchant of Venice
Directed by Neil Havens
Rice Players
Through October 8
The scene unfolds in Venice — a
merchant, Antonio, wanders the
streets aimlessly, enveloped with a
sense of impending doom whose
depths he cannot fathom, yet
whose repercussions he will soon
comprehend. Thus opens the
Players' production of The
Merchant of Venice by William
Shakespeare. The exploration of
diverse themes infiltrates the
meaning of the play, as the
characters uncover the complex-
ities of situations and the truths
which underlie their concepts. The
interlacing of the theme of
deceptive appearances and the
consequent shadowing of reality
within the scenes constitutes the
backbone of the play.
Out of this structure a variety of
plots develop, including the
discovery of young love and the
exposure of the intensified hatred
existing between the Jews and the
Christians during the era.
Complex in nature, the characters
remain ambivalent in their
loyalties and passions, and thus
their internal controversies divulge
weakness in their temperament.
And yet, The Merchant of Venice
is a comedy.
Vincent Uher, portraying
Christian)" Uher performs with a
genuine sensitivity and thorough
comprehension of his character's
dilemma.
foil to Bassanio (Don Lee), for
whose sake Antonio (Scott
Bodenheimer) obtains a loan from
Shyiock. Lee performs expertly.
Shylock (Vincent Uher) brandishes his
superbly the antagonist Shylock,
conveys the tension and torment
which burst fVum his character's
soul. Shylock, a victim of Jewish
persecution, displays repressed
frustration as he cries, "Hath not a
Jew eyes? (as those of a
knife in preparation to cut "a pound of
The tension of Shylock's
brooding presence is relieved with
expertise by Hal Wiedeman, who
portrays the Jew's "clown-
servant," Launcelot Gobbo, and
by Steve Benef, who plays
Gratiano. Gratiano is friend and
flesh" from Antonio (Scott Bodenheimer)
and clearly understands the
nuances of his role; however, he
might have been better cast. With
his deep register, Bodenheimer
could use his voice for a more
powerful reading of his part; as it
is, he tends to be too low-key.
Angela Roberts and Cindy
Winkler, who portray the female
leads Portia and Nerissa, show
strong character insight, and their
interchange results in smoothly
flowing scenes which captivate the
audience's attention. Portia's
"quality of mercy" monologue
remains a distinct high point in the
play's climax.
In addition, specifically comical
scenes, such as those between
L.auncelot Gobbo and old Gobbo
(Ian Hersey) and Portia and the
Prince of Aragon (James Laura),
facilitate the rapid pace and sense
of urgency which the play's plot
demands.
The costuming by Lisa Carrick
Cawns for The Merchant,
although not finely detailed, adds
sufficiently to the aura of the era in
which the play occurs. The set
design by Linda McNutt is sparse,
but it works well, especially when
the small size of the stage is
considered.
Under the direction of Neil
Havens, the Players performed to
their full potential. Thus the piece
concluded impressively, with
continuity and professionalism
prevailing.
—Carrie Blum
Tracy exhibit reflects upon 'forgotten' Latin America
Michael Tracy: Requiem Para
Los Olvidados
Contemporary Arts Museum
Through November 6
Tucked into the space of the
lower (Perspectives) gallery at the
CAM are Michael Tracy's
reflections on Latin American
politics and art. It seems a peculiar
juxtaposition, until one
remembers that the Virgin Mary is
often given a rank in South
American armies and that
saintliness is often not so very far
from temporal power.
T racy has minimized the conflict
of ihese subjects by using a single
HAIR SALON
name for the majority of the works
(Cruz de la Paz Sagrada, or Cross
of the Sacred Peace), and simply
numbering the separate works to
keep them apart. He has also
unified the entire collection by
painting all the works in a series of
uniform tones: greens, reds, and
purples overlaid and suffused with
gold, silver, and bronze. The colors
blanket the show like a thick layer
of dust, weighing down the works
while at the same time supplying a
unifying theme.
Which brings us, rather
conveniently, to that ubiquitous
question: What is the show about?
Part of the answer is found in the
title: Requiem for the forgotten.
Tracy enumerates the "forgotten"
in the first work in the exhibit, a--^
series of 14 worn wooden
tombstones with epitaphs
scribbled in pencil on the wall
below them. Some of the forgotten
are the unjustly condemned, the
mother and the son, the
compassionate, Jesus nailed to the
Cross, and those who pick
themselves up after falling.
But there is another, much more
important, theme running through
these epitaphs. They do not just
describe the forgotten; they
recount the story of the
crucifixion, from the unjustness of
the condemnation to the
declaration of "Into Thy arms I
commend my spirit" to the
triumph of the Roman travesty.
Modern society forgets about all
but the few with money and power,
and consequently forgets the
lessons that Christianity has to
teach.
That's what the show's about, or
at least what the show might be
about, but there is also a major,
undefinable portion to it, & feeling
about the works. The show is
about oppression, too, both the
political kind and the physical
kind. The pieces (all somehow
religious: triptychs, altar pieces,
processional pieces) are pulled
down by newspapers parroting
political propaganda and by
chunks of wood tied on by braided
strings.
That description may sound
nebulous, but the pieces seem to
me to be purposefully nebulous,
because each incorporates so many
different things. Cruz de la Paz
Sagrada Vll is listed as being
composed of: acrylic on wood,
hair, glass, iron spikes, cloth
braids, tin milagros (small
medallions that pilgrims receive at
their destination), oil paint, and
swords with gilt bases.
Despite this mixture of media,
Tracy has been able to create some
powerful, cohesive works, like the
above. Cruz VII is, in fact a cross,
that has been heavily painted,
weighted with medallions and
pieces of wood, and stabbed with a
dozen old swords. The whole thing
looks as if it were then glazed, the
surface melted and then allowed to
recool. VII is effective because it is
accurate. The Cross is often held
up as a symbol of the whole
(merciful) Christian religion, when
in fact it should be a symbol of
All this may sound a bit gory,
and it is. The exhibit is depressing
too. I'm not even sure that it works
artistically. But it's worth seeing (if
you're not already feeling suicidal
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Cruz De La Pax Sagrada Vll: A America Latina, 1981-83, by Michael Tracy
over midterms), because it has
something to say. And, unlike the
dozens of editorials that we've read
violence and death. Tracy reminds
us of this.
Another impelling work in the
show is the Triptico para los
desparecidos. While all the works
in the show are clearly political,
this is the only one which admits it
in the title. Even the most sheltered
norteamericanos have heard of the
"disappeared ones," those South
Americans, especially Argent-
ians, who simply vanish between
one day and the next. Tracy's piece
gives us the traditional shape of the
triptych, then hacks it apart with
machetes, knives, swords, and
needles.
on the Latin American problem,
Tracy's exhibit admits its bias, ahd
therefore convinces us that what
we see is the truth. A museum
gallery has never been the place for
the unbiased, objective reporting
of the facts. It would have been
easy for Tracy simply to report the
atrocities of 20th-century South
America. But he didn't. He gave us
his perspective on them. And so
perhaps the exhibit does work
artistically.
—Deborah L. Knaff
The Rice Thresher, October 7, 1983, page 10
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Ekren, Christopher. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 7, 1983, newspaper, October 7, 1983; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245540/m1/10/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.