1988_02 The Daily Collegian February 1988

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Subterranean Jungle
Weekly Entertainment Section
Friday, February 5,1988
'Twelfth Night' jazzes
up
By Elizabeth Coleman
Staff Writer
A play has two lives. One before the
audience fills the theater, when ihe actors
and crew hammer out details to make the
play work. The other takes shape when
the house is filled, the lights come down,
and the magic between acton and
audience begins, and suddenly the play is
again reborn.
Wednesday night I saw ihe final
showing of Twelfth Night by William
Shakespeare. The production was directed
by Elizabeth Fiester, for a partial
fulfillment of her Master's Degree. The
cast was picked by her without auditions,
alleviating competion and adding to the
atmosphere of creative exchange. In fact
the entire cast is listed on the program as
"creative consultants".
Strong ensemble work by the cast
made this unique production work, and
the fact that it worked so well is a credit
to the enormous creative energies brought
to bear by the actors.
What a director can or cannot do with a
play depends on the actors. The actors in
Twelfth Night exhibited such strong
comcdrc interplay lhat they helped to
overshadow the poor staging by Fiester.
Although it is not known how Shakespeare's plays
were performed during his lifetime, we have   come
to expect a certain amount of pomp to surround his
works.
Set in 1935 , complete with a skyline
for a backdrop, black double breasted
suits, fedoras and Gershwin, ii took a
liule getting use to. When the lights
come up on Feste the clown, played
flawlessly by David Hamp, you wonder if
you aren't in the wrong theater.
The spotlight hiis Hamp in his tuxedo,
as he walks to the keyboard of an upright
piano. Slowly exhaling a plume of blue
smoke into the light, he gives the
audience a devilish look and eases into
"As Time Goes By". This image, fresh
in your mind, is suddenly juxtaposed wiih
the knowledge that you are in fact at a
Shakespeare play. Although it is not
known how Shakespeare's plays were
performed during his lifetime, we have
come to expect a certain amount of pomp
to surround his work. This highly
unorthodox production is funny because it
is not the same old fare. Similar to the
approach Dr. Ed EmanuEL took with
Macbeth.
Twelfth Night is the story of a young
woman who takes on a man's identity and
the insuing confusion that results. Duke
Orsino, played by veteran Paul Klein, is
a gangster-iype dressed in a white suit,
surrounded by unsavory, gun-toting
thugs. As we have come to expect only
the best from Klein in his Shakespcarcian
roles, he has a certain reputation to live
up to, and he docs again.
Jodi Baker is Viola, the woman in
man's clothing She falls in love wnh
Orsino, but he loves another, and besides
he thinks she's a man. This less-lhan-
normal situation invites trouble. Klein
and Baker have one bit that is one of, if
not lhe funniest, scene in the play,
although that is a tough call to make
considering the plethora of funny material
and scenes in the show.
Klein as Orsino, and Baker in her
masculine costume, sit at a small
romantic table, their eyes meet, and lock.
David Hamp sits down ai lhe piano and
begins io croon "Blue Moon", while
these would be lovers start to gaze into
one anothers eyes. Moving closer and
closer together they sian io kiss, when
suddenly they are both over come wiih
the realization that their innoceni kiss is
in fact a homosexual kiss. Boih jerk away
while lhe last strains of "Blue Moon" fade
away.
The woman that Orsino desires is the
Countess Olivia, acled by Hillary
Spector. It is around her character lhat
the group of Maria, her lady in waiting.
played by Lisa Gunn, Sir Toby Blerh
Olivia's uncle, played by Dan Carrion,
Danny Swartz as Sir Andrew Aguechcck,
another of Olivia's suitors and Ron
SiaUer as Fabian, gather.
This group of malcontents and
mischief-makers torment Olivia's Major
Domo Malvolio, played io the hill by
Michael Allen. This group interacts with
such ease and humor that they create a
real cmpaihy for themselves with ihe
audience. When anyone of Ihese actors
appears onstage there is a slight feeling of
anticipation, because certainly comedy
will follow them, and you can hardly wait
10 find out what form il will take.
Danny Swartz was an absolute scream
Please see TWELFTH, page 8
Girl Scouts from Hell
LET'S GO ON A BIRDWALK
Evelyn Chess Baltzar
(Vantage Press; 57 pp.)
By Kurt Hegre
Every once in a while, a book
comes along and changes the way you
live your life. You know, books like
The Bible. Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas and Elvis and Me. Let's Go on
a Birdwalk, by Evelyn Chess Balizar
is one of mose books.
Baltzar has constructed a vision of
the future lhat makes 1984 look like
a Disney film. The world according to
Baltzar will become one huge bird
sanctuary populated by roving packs
of demon-worshiping Girl Scout
troops who lead 60-foot long
kingfishers on strafing raids against
innocent citizens. It's scary.
The book includes horrific
illustrations depicting the mammoth
birds on one of iheir raids as a group
of scouts cheer him on. This is not a
book for children.
It's also not a book to be
comprehended on a first reading. The
first time I read it, I thought it was
little more than a guide to watching
birds. But that was when 1 read the
book during the daytime.
The second time around, I read the
book late at night, right before going
to sleep. The next thing I remember, I
was yanked out of my state of
unconciousness by the incredibly loud
sounds of AC-DC's Back in Black
album coming from the vacant
apartment next to my bedroom. It was
8 a.m. I got out of bed and began
pounding on the wall and yelling at
the lop of my lungs.
The music got louder. This weni on
for about twenty minutes before I duct
taped a pillow to my head and began
running into the wall at full speed. I
was just about to pick myself up off
the floor and make another run at what
A pack of renegade girl scouts watches the author's descent
into a pond full of expensive New Orleans seafood.
was left of my wall, when 1 passed
OUL
I began dreaming. 1 was floating
above New Orleans during Mardi
Gras...
THE GIRL SCOUTS ARE
SENDING COSMIC RAYS
THROUGH THIS COMPUTER
SCREEN. I CAN NO LONGER BE
HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR
ANYTHING 1 WRITE.
THEY HAVE SEIZED MY SOUL
..I am a giant kingfisher in search
of a victim. New Orleans looks great
from the air this Lime of year, the
night so cool, the wind so smooth and
calm. Being a bird is wonderful, no
traffic lo worry about . great radio
reception and an incredible sense of
peace. Everyone seems to be having
fun down there tonight. I swoop over
a group of drunken sailors trying to
set fire to a horse bui decide to leave
them alone.
A couple of blocks over, I spot a
man who looks like my seventh grade
shop teacher and decide to scare the
hell out of him first, then pick him up
and drop him on the freeway from 400
feeL
I'm loo slow. Just before I reach
him, he gets in a cab and heads off
into ihe night. I could give chase, but
to get to my target I would have to rip
the top off the cab and from past
experience know it would taste like
aluminum foil.
The night is young and I am filled
with the confidence that comes with
being a 60 foot, winged assassin.
Sooner or later 1 will find the right
victim. But for now, I just enjoy
doing barrel rolls aver French
resiaraunts, getting a chuckle from
knowing that the snails being sold
inside for S75.00 a plate are actually
being scraped from a brick wall in the
alley behind the eatery. Stupid
humans.
I lake a quick lour of the red light
district and...LAWYERS AT THREE
Please see KUNGFISH, page 7