The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2001 Page: 11 of 28
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THE RICE THRESHER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26. 2001
11
!
1
#
THE THRESHER'S
RECOMMEND A TIONS
FOR EVENTS AROUND
HOUSTON THROUGH
NOV, 1, 2001.
EDIT 0 R
picks
mondav
TRYING TO PRAISE
THE MUTILATED
WORLD
Several noted Houston
writers, including Rice English
Professor Susan Wood,
read works by other writers
to help understand the
events of Sept. 11 and their
aftermath. Donations to the
Red Cross will be accepted.
Free. 7 p.m. Brazos Bookstore.
2421 Bissonnet St. For more
info, call (713) 523-0701.
t u e s d a y
IN MEMOR1AM
Directed by Tom Jaber. Rice
Chorale and the Shepherd
Singers perform several works
as a requiem for the victims
| of the attacks on Sept. 11.
\ Includes works by Barber,
s
Wolf, Lauridsen and Faure.
Free. 8 p.m. Stude Concert
Hall in Alice Pratt Brown
Hall. For more info, call
(713) 348-8000.
Wednesday
I
THE SLACKERS
These NYC ska/reggae
mobsters bring their
jazzy, bouncy beats
back to Houston.
$5. 9 p.m. Fabulous
Satellite Lounge. 3616
Washington Ave. For more
info, call (713) 869-2665.
t h u r s d a v
I i
THE MAN WHO
WASN'T THERE
The Media Center holds its
grand re-opening with a
screening of the Coen
brothers' new film. Passes
can be picked up at the
Media Center in advance.
Free. 7:30 p.m. Rice Media
Center. For more info, call
(713) 348-4882.
GO TO CLASS.'f AIL EXAMS, l)ROIJ OUT
Let your 'Hair' down
and join the revolution
Jonathan Hamrick
' THRESHER STAFF
All the controversy, offensiveness
and chaos of the hippie subculture
of the '60s is captured in Will Rice
and Hanszen College's joint produc-
tion of Hair, directed by Sid
Richardson senior Peter Chaivre.
'hair'
Will Rice and
Hanszen Colleges
Rating: *+* 1/2
(out of five)
Tonight, tomorrow and Oct. 25-27
at 8 p.m. Will Rice Commons.
$4 students and faculty, $6
general public. For reservations,
go to http://www.hair-2001.org.
Claude (Martel College junior Jonathan ichikawa) leads a band of hippies and
smokes some weed in the 60s-based musical Hair.
SOUNDS LIKE A LAUNDRY DETERGENT
Its 38 song and dance numbers
give us a picture not only of hippie
life but also of the struggle of a par-
ticular individual, Claude (Martel
College junior Jonathan Ichikawa),
who cannot seem to reconcile a la-
tent patriotic guilt about not joining
the army with the need to maintain
his hipster persona and to hate ev-
erything about the Vietnam War.
Claude is the closest thing to a
protagonist, as he claims not only
that he is Aquarius but that "God
believes in [him]." The other char-
acters are riot nearly as developed as
Claude. There's Berger (Sid fresh-
man Danny Mueller), Claude's over-
sexed friend. Also significant is Woof
(Sid junior Ben Yuhas), another
friend of Claude's, whose featured
song is entitled "Sodomy. "Sid sopho-
more Katrina Leonard does a su-
perb job as Hud. a sexy, non-politi-
cally correct black woman.
'Hie plot, such as it is. develops in
fragments, or more accurately, in
songs about particular characters
and themes of the hippie cause. The
danger of this structure is that if the
fragments don't get progressively
more interesting, or at least more
varied, as the play goes on, the audi-
ence will lose interest. This does
occur to some extent, as many of the
fragments are rather similar, but
there's enough happening in each
individual number to adequately
keep the audience's attention.
Some of the songs are unneces-
sary because they don't contribute
to what appears to be the central
plotline involving Claude. They all,
however, serve to paint a vivid pic-
ture of the hippie lifestyle. They are
also very entertaining lor the most
part, with a good helping of ironic-
wit and clever allusions.
The final number is overdone and
detracts from the entire play because
the resolution is so kitschy. All the
songs are excessive in one way or
St-e HAIR. Purl 14
Alley goes' Art'-istic in new small production
Paul Emig
FOR THE THRESHER
You don't have to go to Broadway
to see the best works in the country
on stage. The Alley Theatre,
Houston's most respected profes-
sional theater, has brought Yasmina
Reza's Tony-winning Art to their
main stage, putting their resources
to creative use in this stellar produc-
tion.
'art'
Alley Theatre
Rating: + + •*+ 1/2
(out of five)
Through Nov. 3. $35-$50. For
tickets, call (713) 228-9341.
Winner of the 1998 Tony Award
for Best Play. Reza's comedy tells
the story of three close friends whose
relationship is threatened by an ar-
gument over a painting. A trendy,
modernist painting. A white paint-
ing. A completely white painting.
Hie trouble starts when Serge
spends 2(K),000 francs on said paint-
ing. This perplexing purchase re-
ally, truly bothers Serge's good
friend Marc — bothers him a great
deal more than it should.
Marc believes Serge has bought
into cultural elitism by acquiring a
bourgeois status symbol, an act that
will somehow lead Serge to imagine
himself as intellectually and palat-
ably superior to others. He resents
Serge for the bold statement implied
by the purchase. Marc never be-
lieves, even for a second, that Serge
bought the painting simply because
he liked it.
Yvan, the third mem-
ber of the trio, is an ec-
centric bundle of nerves
(think Woody Allen
crossed with Michael
Richards' Kramer from
"Seinfeld") who has prob-
lems of his own. The
stress of his impending
wedding has left him in a
sorry state. His mental
and physical well-being
IM CALDWELL ALLE> THEATRE
Serge (David Rainey, left). Yvan (John Tyson) and Marc (James Black) lock horns over a simple white painting in Art.
withers away with each detail that
goes awry. He gets some of the
show's biggest laughs, practically
bringing down the house with a
breathless, nearly five-minute mono-
logue about the politics of wedding
invitations.
The trio's tight-knit friendship
seems to have been destroyed over
a painting. 'To think we've reached
these heights," Yvan offers. "Apoca-
lypse over a white square."
That people would take a work of
art so seriously may seem distinctly
European, and a bit implausible to
American audiences. Friendships
are seldom threatened over trivial
things like art. But Art works ex-
tremely well because it's as much
about the fragile human ego as it is
about paintings. Reza's well-articu-
lated play explores friendship, intel-
lectual snobbery and the danger of a
poorly-expressed opinion. It's just
enough about art. though, to pro-
vide a special treat for anyone who's
ever looked at a modernist piece of
artwork and wondered what the big
deal was.
The painting itself (it's really just
a blank canvas) dominates the stage.
It's a marvelous prop, a constant
joke that acts almost as a fourth
character. The audience's focus
never leaves the painting for long,
even in the most intriguing scenes.
Beattie, in his second Alley pro-
duction, has mounted an extremely
tight show, peppered with moments
of inspired subtlety. His cast dis-
plays a remarkable chemistry and
apt comedic timing. Although the
text includes erudite, often lengthy
discourses on art, there's not a dull
moment in the top-notch production.
The show's intermission-less 80 min-
utes just fly by.
Usually when a theater of the
Alley's caliber puts on a three-per-
son play, it wastes the talent of a
large resident company of actors.
But, in an interesting twist, the Alley
is performing Art with two different
casts: K. Todd Freeman. Paul Hope
andTodd Waite comprise one; James
Black, David Rainey and John Tyson
make up the other.
I can only vouch for the Free-
man/Hope/Waite cast (which is
magnificent), but given the .Alley's
reputation, I can't imagine the other
cast being anything less than su-
perb. Most of the members in the
company have extensive Broadway
and regional theater credits, and it
shows. These are some of the best
actors you'll see in Houston.
Kudos to the Alley for daring to
produce such a great script, regard-
less of its small cast size. There are
some great plays written for small
casts, and Art is one of them.
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Liu, Leslie & Reichle, Robert. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 89, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, October 26, 2001, newspaper, October 26, 2001; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443159/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.