The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 6, 1987 Page: 12 of 20
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12 Friday, November 6,1987 THRESHER Fine Arts
Rice Players present Kundera's superlative play
Jacques and his Master
The Rice Players
The Rice Players complete their
semester of superlative theatre with a
really excellent play-^-Milan
Kundera's Jacques and his Master. It
runs from the eleventh to the four-
teenth of November and again from
the eighteenth to the twenty-sixth in
Hamman Hall.
Milan's given us a play about repe-
tition. For one thing, he's adapted this
play from an eighteenth-century
novel by Denis Diderot—Jaques Le
Fataliste. Its characters repeat them-
selves; their own tales of love and
cuckolding, they realize, are in the
end repetitive: cuckolder, cuckolded,
punishment, anecdote; each of the
tales somehow contains the other. In a
sense, the translated play is an imita-
tion of its Czecholsovakian tongue.
Finally, Sandy Havens and the Rice
Players imitate the script, providing
us with their own version of Milan's
original. For us, though, the play
boasts a fair number of expletives and
a plot with a little raunch and even a
sword-fight, all of which never fail to
excite my banal, groundling appe-
tites.
On that subject, you'll all rejoice to
know that Joan Rae acts the parts of
innkeeper and marquise; as you might
recall from last year's Lysistrata, the
woman's got a certain gusto. Also,
Don Russell, who, in the past, has
evinced a nearly pathological disdain
for the stage, and now, finally suc-
cumbs to the lure of acting, as Saint
Ouen, friend and betrayer of Master
(Stephen Fischer). In all truth, Don's
pretty good; of course, he'll still work
those Hamman Hall lights, but this is
your chance to scrutinize Don on
stage.
You know, there's an interesting,
zodiacal coincidence in this produc-
tion; not one of the cast members has
performed a major role in the Rice
Players until now, with the exception
of Joan Rae and Joseph Lockett, who
doesn't even have a speaking part.
So, the word to stress is fresh: talent as
fresh as all Hostess pastries.
In addition, Sarahjane Milligan de-
signed the set, which fascinated me.
The stage is divided into two sections:
downstage, where the characters
watching the amorous tales reside,
and upstage, where the stories, three
in all, unfold, but not without frequent
interruptions from the "audience"
downstage. I found this entertaining
in that those of us watching this play
within plays feel more like intruders
than a bunch of students who've re-
deemed their art checks.
Jacques (Thomas Hyer) and his
Master (Stephen Fischer) are an inter-
esting comic duo; the master makes
the rules, we're told, but Jaques
chooses which ones to follow. In the
allegorical sense, Kundera means the
relationship between writer and audi-
ence.
Regardless of these symbolic
niceties, Jacques and his Master
amuses me with its tales of immoral
love and its confusion of story and
form. And Havens has placed a highly
varied, perhaps even unusual, cast in
Kundera's script; something interest-
ing is bound to come out It promises
us nothing but good things.
Energetic cast and groovy theme highlight musical
Hair
Hanszen College
Hanszen College, in what seems to
be a tradition of sixties musicals, is
presenting Hair, directed by Jessica
Howard, tonight and tomorrow night
in the Hanszen Commons at 8 p.m.
I'd like to praise all those involved
in the production for their obvious
hard work. Howard directs the show
well with a constantly changing use of
the playing area, very creative dance-
like sequences (with credit ta chore-
ographer Kelley Knox as well) and a
strong sense of commitment among
the actors.
There is no half-hear tedness about
this show and this is a sign of good di-
rection. All the actors are there on the
stage running and dancing and sing-
ing and rubbing their hands all over
each other with out so much as a blink
or break in character. There's also a
great sense of ensemble among the
cast. Everyone works very well to-
gether listening and playing off one
another.
Virtually everyone in the cast dis-
plays great singing ability, something
many musicals lack, and all the per-
Harvey comes to life
continued from page 10
cast to resolve Elwood's bout with
sanity. The group concurs that it is in
Elwood's best interest to take a "nor-
malizing" drug that Chumley has de-
veloped. Before the preparation is
completed, however, Ken Wood en-
ters as Lofgren, thecabdriver. As is so
often the case, this cab driver expels
profound wisdom and common
sense. Ken Wood is ruggedly made up
(in character and costume) to be remi-
niscent of every New York cabbie
you have ever ridden with. Yet this
common man is uncommon. He alone
changes the consensus of the other
eight characters on stage. He explains
in pragmatic tones that he won't take
Elwood home after he has been
changed. "He'll be a perfectly normal
human being—we all know what bas-
tards they are!"
The play is intended to be more
than the comedic adventures of El-
wood and his pal Harvey. It begs the
audience to question the seriousness
of the world around them. Instead of
asking Elwood to wake up and join
society, it asks society to wake up and
join Elwood—who stresses happi-
ness and love. At times it seemed that
an uneasy stage presence troubled
some of the cast, but it was never so
prevalent that it distracted from the
fun. The cast supports well, but this
show is about Harvey—and David
Nathan him brings him to life. Wiess
Tabletop has once again produced
another winner.
—Andy Karsner
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formers brought much energy and
vitality to the songs. Tamara Siler,
Heather Ganz, Loyal Murphy, Sa-
leem Asaaf, Lauren Gass, Diane
Bieber and Katie Fleming filled the
Hanszen Commons with their big
voices.
Scott Davidson, Tom Linneman,
Heather Ganz and Paul Salinas each
had very funny acting moments. If
anything else, it's well worth the
ticket price just to see Paul Salinas in
a wig. But there were no stars in this
production or strong leads. The cast as
a whole is the star.
The Band (akaLovin Hood and the
Wolves O' Passion) was flawless as
always, even though at no point did I
ever hear the cello I saw, and what it
was doing there I have no idea. The
lights were exceptionally good with
some great effects that were both
striking and dramatic.
However, I thought that some of
the costumes were just awful, espe-
cially the wigs. I understand this is a
musical about the hippie generation
symbolized by hair, but when the hair
is four feet long, the subtlety is lost.
It's difficult to find realistic wigs but
I found it distracting that half the cast
looked like either cavemen or Phyllis
Diller.
The greatest success of the musical
is its ability to add life to a very dated
show, and dated the show is. In true
sixties style it lacks a strong plot but is
more a series of well placed songs
which were probably written before
the storyline. This means that the
songs don't advance the plot much—
they're good songs mind you, but
they're songs that can also stand on
their own. Thirty-eight songs are sung
in this production, twenty-six in the
first act, so if you like music, this is the
show for you. Perhaps cutting a song
or two would have helped.However,
Hair also has a strong universal mes-
sage that's just as important today as
it was in groovy times, and it's this
message that gives Hair its longevity.
It's not just about hippies rolling
around on the stage glorifying mari-
juana, but about an individual ques-
tioning the life he's leading and the
choices he faces. Ironically, the musi-
cal looks at the "peace, love and hap-
piness" way of life with a both com-
plementary and critical eye.
The musical is about any social
group that rebels against the norm and
how its live-for-the-day-lifesdye ef-
fects the individual. It is this chal-
lenge that Hanszen has proficiently
overcome with the energetic perform-
ances, cast unity, and risk-taking.
In this age of immediate gratifica-
tion, it's definitely a task to keep our
ever-darting eighties eyes captivated
by the easy mellowness and warm
feelings that the sixties and this show
represent, but Hanszen does an
adequate job. Besides, when else do
you get a chance to see a show that
lists in its program a Tye-Dye Con-
sultant? (I wonder if you can major in
that...)
—Tom Senning
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Raphael, Michael J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 6, 1987, newspaper, November 6, 1987; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245677/m1/12/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.