The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, March 31, 1989 Page: 11 of 16
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THF. RICE THRESHER FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1989 11
Baker produces enjoyable As You Like It
BY BILL TUCKER
"A
Lll the world's a
stage," writes Shakespeare in
As You Like It, and the current
production of this play marks
the twejntieth year that the
Baker Commons has been
transformed into a stage.
Although Monday night's
performance of As You Like It
was marred by some first-night
jitters, it was nevertheless an
enjoyable production.
The story contains many
typical elements of
Shakespeare's comedies,
including disguises and
misrepresentations, intense
family relationships, and
carefully orchestrated confusion
resulting in a happy ending for
nearly everyone. The play can
be, and usually is, performed as
"a rural romp," as Alan David,
the director, put it in the
program. However, he then goes
on to state "I've always
suspected that it is a much
more dangerous play, one that
challenges notions of gender,
that asks questions about the
boundaries of our 'male' and
'female' natures." David's from
the Royal Shakespeare
Company, and is therefore
apparently allowed to be this
heavy and pretentious.
Unfortunately, heaviness and
pretention characterized his
direction of the play, particularly
in the first act. The players
seemed to be doing their best
to remove all comedy and
instead "pry...open...recently-
held myths." This might,
however, have been just
KAHN'S CORNER:
Baker Shake and "Hoiiky Tonk Crazy"
TONIGHT
•Gene Watson, one of the
great "classic" honky tonkers,
performs tonight at the Farm
and Ranch Club. One of Mr.
Wats'On's "chart-breaking"
songs was actually entitled,
"You're Out Doing What I'm
Doing Without" and "Honky
Tonk Crazy." Call 362-9598 for
concert time and details.
•Baker's production of-4s You
Like It continues tonight and
tomorrow in the Baker
commons. Directed by Alan
David of the Royal Shakespeare
Company, the play starts at 8
p.m. Call 630-8068 for tickets.
(See review in this section.)
TOMORROW
•The Houston Symphony
presents an April Fool's Day
concert at 10:30 a.m. in Jones
Hall. Tickets can be purchased
by calling 227-ARTS.
UPCOMING
•April 3—It's my birthday.
Rah. Rah.
•April 5—The Rice Players
present four one-act plays
tonight at 8 p.m. for its final
production of the year. Landford
Wilson's Thymus Vulgaris, David
Mamet's The Shawl, James
Saunders's Birdsong, and
Martin Epstein's Ceremonies of
the Bridal Night will all be
performed in the Farnsworth
Pavilion through April 15. The
production runs through
Saturday and continues the
following week. For ticket
information and reservations,
call 527-4040.
•April 5—My old buddy Phil
Hall plays with his old jazz band,
Four, tonight at Willy's Pub from
10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. For some
terrific music, go see Phil bound
those piano keys. It's a great
band. Trust me.
•April 6—Wiess College
presents Tom Senning's new
musical, Harbinger's, tonight in
the Wiess Commons. Directed
by Baker junior George
Langworthy, the show runs
through Saturday and continues
the following week. Call the 630-
8448 for information.
ONGOING
• The Art of Photography
1839-1939, an exhibit recently
featured in Time magazine,
remains at the Museum of Fine
Arts through April 30. Pictures
by Man Ray, Walker Evans, Paul
Strand, and Robert Evans are
prominently featured.
• Texas Art Celebration '89
remains on display at 1600
Smith Street in the Cullen
' Center until May 18.
•Le Brun...Paris...1940
continues its open-ended run at
Stages Repertory Theatre. For
tickets and reservations for the
one-woman revue, call 52-
STAGE.
• Shear Madness, the longest-
running non-musical play in this
country's history, continues its
open-ended run at the newly
renovated Tower theater on
Westheimer. Performances run
Tuesday through Sunday, with
matinees on Saturday and
Sunday. For times and ticket
information, call the Tower box
office at 529-5966.
•The Contemporary Arts
Museum exhibit Frank Stella
1970-1987 runs through April
23.
nervousness. Once the actors
had loosened up a bit, the
sheer humor and delight of the
play began to shine through,
and the rapport between actors
and audience, which is
essential to a successful
comedy,established itself.
Lisa May and Alec Graham, as
the couple around whom the
action centers, were
appropriately fresh and
appealing, as a fairy-tale couple
should be. However, May had
the misfortune to be onstage
nearly the entire time with
Bernadette Gillece, who played
Adventures
FROM PAGE 10
Austrians or somebody like that
fight the ubiquitous Turks. Over
time, his exploits were
exaggerated and elaborated so
that they ended up taking on the
form of tall tales. The movie
opens with the real Baron
Munchausen taking over the
production of his adventures in
a besieged town.
The story quickly moves on to
Celia, her cousin, and whose
superb comic talent stole nearly
every scene she was in.
Gillece's performance alone is
worth seeing this play for.
Don Russell, who played
Jaques (Shakespeare's play on
this name, which was
pronounced "jakes," has been
lost—the word was a
euphemism for "toilet"), did a
fine job despite a couple of
flubs. In addition, he did his
usual professional work on the
lighting, and designed the
spare, airy set perfectly.
Also notable was Mark
his effort to save the town,
bome aloft by a balloon made of
ladies underwear. He is
involuntarily accompanied in his
quest to find his old compatriots
by a little girl, the "son" of stage
play producer.
The friends he must find are
talented to say the least: a fast
runner, a strongman, a superior
marksman, and a dwarf that
blows with hurricane-force
winds. In his search, he visits
the King Of the Moon played by
Robin Williams and Vulcan
Anderson as a nicely haughty
Duke Frederick, who was
brilliantly costumed (by Shannon
Halwes) as though he had
stepped from the pages of an F.
Scott Fitzgerald novel. Stu
Derby, playing the rather slow
shepherd Corin, has one of the
best sight gags in the show, and
Sarah Keller was appropriately
ditzy as the inconstant Audrey.
All in all, the production was a
well-done continuation of this
great Baker tradition. This first
performance augurs well for
those at the end of this week,
so don't miss it.
played by Oliver Reed, and gets
swallowed by a giant fish/whale.
Gilliam goes to great lengths
to create all this texture and
detail that you can easily miss,
but it is still imaginative and
somewhat awe-inspiring, despite
the flourishes of the off-coined
Pythonesque humor.
Will they escape the whale9
Will they save the town9 Will
Munchausen escape Death?
Probably, but check it out
anyway, it won't cost you 40
million bucks.
Harbinger's, starring Jamie Daruwala and Alicia Ronan opens next Thursday.
MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER PETER STEPHEN
KEATON LLOYD BOYLE FIRST
This morning they were playing ping-pong in the hospital ree room.
Now they're lost in New York and framed for murder.
'Iliis was never covered in group therapy.
Dream Team
Four guys on a Field trip to reality.
IMAGINE EMIRTAINMKM. .CHRISTOPHER W. KNIGHT - HOWARD Z1EFF . "THE DREW! TEAM'
^ LORRAINE BRACCO ^lON CONNOLLY, DAVID LOLCKA ' - DAVID McHl'GH
, ,-|0\ CONNOLLY DAVID LOLCKA" v CHRISTOPHER I KNIGHT ' HOWARD ZIEFF
I MAG I N E [PG UTMUKTS STNOWGW cautkhko 1
Mm imn im .U NIVERSAL RELEASF
nnroou*Tw«iri f %,
OPENS APRIL 7™ ATA THEATRE NEAR YOL'
FREE SNEAK PREVIEW
SUNDAY, APRIL 2
2:00 PM
RICE MEDIA CENTER
All Seating First Come, First Served
Free Admission with U. Houston and Rice U. Campus I.I).
SPONSORED BY: U. HOUSTON STUDENT PROGRAM HOARD
and
RICE UNIVERSITY PROGRAM COUNCIL
FREE MOVIE POSTERS, T-SHIRTS & CAPS WHILE THEY LAST!
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McGarrity, Patrick & Sendek, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, March 31, 1989, newspaper, March 31, 1989; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245718/m1/11/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.