The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 9, 1987 Page: 12 of 20
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12 Friday, October 9,1987
THRESHER Fine Arts
Revived South African play weak and disjointed
The Blood Knot
Stages Theatre
The Blood Knot, written by South
African playwright Athol Fugard,
explores the relationship between
two black brothers, one very light-
skinned and one very dark, set
against the backdrop of South Af-
rica and its racial tensions. It opened
last week under the direction of Jack
Lampert.
The play is set on the outskirts of
Port Elizabeth, in Zach's (the darker
brother) hut which he shares with
his fair-skinned brother, Morris,
and has done so for a year previous
to when we meet them. Joseph S.
Harper, who plays Zach, and
Wayne de Hart, who plays Morris,
are both strong actors and individu-
ally, quite convincing; however,
together, minimal electricity con-
nects them. The play is difficult and
uncomfortably long, and unfortu-
nately the length doesn't increase
the tension as it could because the
Wayne De Hart and Joseph S. Harper star in The Blood Knot.
pace is too slow and disjointed.
The brothers were born of a black
mother, by a white father, and as they
grew up were treated by their mother
according to their skin color—she
taught Morris pride and Zach obedi-
ence. Morris is educated and
worldly-wise and acts with an arro-
gance not unlike that which the
white men usually use, while Zach
consciously acts the part of the silent
savage that his employers and the rest of
his society expect of him.
The two play emotional mind games
and play roles to act through conflicts,
with Morris playing the despised
white man and Zach playing the
sometimes meek, sometimes un-
restrainably violent black man. They
freely insult and abuse each other
under the guise of realism until they
go too far and can take it no longer.
Morris and Zach loathe each other
and what each other stands for, yet
are brothers and cannot separate. As
the drama closes, Morris explains
"the blood knot": the brothers, dark
and fair, are unalterably bound, just
as the blacks and whites in South Af-
rica are unalterably bound.
The Blood Knot gives an insider's
view of what the turmoil in South Af-
rica is about and leaves little hope
that anything can change. Although
Fugard wrote it more than a quarter
of a century ago, the story remains
fresh. The presentation could be
stronger, but it is nevertheless worth
seeing.
—Karen Nickel
Vonnegut's
continued from page 11
age, Karabekian owns the world's
largest private collection of
Abstract Expressionist art, worth
millions of dollars.
Loneliness pervades Rabo's life.
He is divorced twice, and each of his
Abstract Expressionist friends has
committed suicide. His unappeal to
others is characterized by his cy-
cloptic appearance. Rabo wears an
eyepatch (like Bluebeard) because
one of his eyes was lost in World
WarH.
But salvation and friendship
come in the form of Circe Berman,
a forty-three year-old novelist.
Berman, a magnificent character,
represents Vonnegut's first attempt
at a truly feminine character since
the princess Mona in Cat's Cradle
twenty-five years ago.
Mona was a "perfect" woman
who achieved her desirability simply
because she was amazingly beautiful.
Circe fulfills an analogous role in Blue-
beard by not only her looks, but her
undefeatable intellect and wit as well.
She controls Rabo and thereby forces
into him the drives he lost with his youth.
Circe is an intriguing character, and
Vonnegut hints in his press release that
she may one day get her own book.
Casual readers may not realize just
how personal this book is. I think it is
more than just a book about
Karabekian's life and feelings—it is
about the life and feelings of Vonnegut
as well.
Vonnegut is here, in the pages. Pre-
tend that Vonnegut is Karabekian and
substitute Bellow, Pynchon and Barth
for the Abstract Expressionists. Blue-
beard tells of Vonnegut's struggles as a
person in the writing world while it tells
of Karabekian's struggles as a person in
parallels his personal struggles
the world of art. Vonnegut tells us,
for instance, that he worries about
the permanence of his life's work.
Will it, like Rabo's Sateen Dura-
Luxe, vanish over the years?
The author's voice is strongest
when Rabo is rejected by art teach-
ers and denounced by friends be-
cause his artwork is technically
good, but lacks soul. These, of
course, are the same comments that
Vonnegut has heard throughout his
own writing career. The whole book
is, in fact, evidence of a new dimen-
sion in that career. Instead of declin-
ing in his older years, Vonnegut has
found a fresh literary identity.
He had amazing success creating
young or middle-aged protagonists
when he was younger, such as Paul
Proteus in Player Piano and Billy
Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five.
After the neurotic characters of
Slapstick and the muddled repetition of
the aimless Galapagos, though, I
thought Vonnegut had lost his ability to
write top-notch novels. But, at 65, Von-
negut has found a truly powerful
voice in the elderly Ralx) Kara-
bekian.
—Mike Raphael
Business Majors Invited To
Career-Planning Presentation
By Pat Tillson
LT U.S. Navy Supply Corps
The career path followed
by most business stu-
dents is to go directly
from campus to corpora-
tion. A career-planning
audio-visual^resentation
of the Navy's Supply
Corps questions whether
that path is the best one
for ambitious students.
According to this presentation, global experience
gained in the Supply Corps has been a major factor
in the exceptional success of top business and finan-
cial executives, such as:
• James D. Robinson III, Chairman
American Express
• J.W. Marriott, Chairman/CEO
Marriott Corp.
• James Ketelson, CEO
Tenneco Inc.
• Robert I. Stewart, President
Liberty National Life Insurance Company
• John J. Pruis, Vice President
Corporate Relations Ball Corp.
The success of these and many other prominent
executives may be explained in part by experience
not taught in classrooms or learned in most entiy-
Icvcl positions. This experience includes: learning
to work with people, development of a global per-
spective, management techniques, and postgraduate
education in business comparable to an MBA.
Supply Corps officers don't
command ships or gun batteries.
As the elite business professionals of the Navy,
Supply Corps officers manage one of the largest,
most complex business operations on the globe.
Two Career Possibilities
Business students accepted for commissioning in
the Supply Corps have two options.
1. The Supply Corps as a career.
2. Return to a civilian position after a tour of two to
four years. Under this option, students would be
trained for positions which otherwise would not
be offered to them.
Business students may find out if they qualify to
join the elite business professionals in the Supply
Corps by attending a career-planning presentation
entitled "The United States Navy Supply Corps. The
Business Professionals of the Navy."
This presentation will be conducted by LT Pjit
Tillson one time only this semester at 4:00 P.M.
Monday, October 26, in the Conference Room,
Rice Memorial Center.
Summer movie survey
It's easy to assume that most Rice
students are somewhat avid moviego-
ers. So, we polled you on what you
thought were the top movies of the
summer of 1987, using a grading system
similar to Rice's. The survey received
fairly wide response from all of the col-
leges. Here are the results of the survey:
10Beverly Hills Cop II (GPA: 3.14).
Almost everyone gave this one a B or
B+, but no one gave it an A. It is defi-
nitely not something new, but it was still
entertaining.
9Summer School (GPA: 3.47). A
decent summer comedy, especially for
those in serious lust with Mark Harmon.
8JLa Bamba (GPA: 3.62). For those
who like this kind of stuff, this was "a
great movie. It's just too bad that radio
stations like 93Q are into overkill.
1 Adventures in Babysitting (GPA:
3.67). Aside from what it looks like
(something from a Cracker Jack box),
this was actually a good far-fetched
comedy.
6.River's Edge (GPA: 3.67). This
great movie made you think. This movie
wasn't intended for pure entertainment;
this was actually some pretty heady
stuff.
5Snow White (GPA: 3.72). Some-
one actually complained aboutmajor
holes in the plot.
4JRobocop (GPA: 3.75). One of
the bigger surprises of the summer,
this movie was very fast-paced, very
violent, and very good.
3.TheLost Boys (GPA: 3.85). The
best vampire movie since Dracula,
The Lost Boys was better than most
people expected. The special effects
were excellent.
IJioxanne (GPA: 3.92). This was
Steve Martin's best movie yet.
Romantic, funny, and well-crafted,
this should have been number one.
IStakeout (GPA: 3.93). The pre-
views looked like crap, but it sur-
prised almost everyone. I guess it
really was a good movie.
Of course, none {if any) of these
movies is still showing at movie
theaters, but for those of you who
have access to a VCR, these flicks
are worth the buck or two it takes to
rent them.
—Robert Bartsch
CASSETTE
DUNKAHON
High quality cassette tape copies while you \yait.
kinko's
Great copies. Great people.
2368 Rice Blud.
In The Village Open 24 Hours
521-9465
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Raphael, Michael J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 9, 1987, newspaper, October 9, 1987; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245674/m1/12/: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.