Stoppard uses scintillating wit to fullest
Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are Dead, The
Real Inspector Hound, Jumpers
and now Travesties) is a writer
whose works one either enjoys
tremendously or finds a crashing
bore. There seems to be little mid
dle ground on the matter, as the
opening night audience for the
University Theatre’s production of
Travesties testifies. Although
comparatively small for a UT
opening night, the audience was
most vocal in its appreciation of
the play, and quite deservedly so.
Stoppard possesses a highly
literate and scintillating wit. He
loves puns, both outrageous and
subtle, as well as word games,
limericks, philosophical para
doxes, and playing with the in
adequacies of the English lan
guage.
A major theme in many of his
plays is the plight of the filler
characters, the also-rans, the third
persons from the left, the seconds
in command, the passing acquain
tances of life’s heroes and how
they deal with and justify their pos
itions in the greater drama of life.
And so it is in Travesties. Henry
Carr, a minor British consular offi
cial, happens to be in Zurich,
Switzerland, during World War I.
Others who happen to be in Zurich
at about the same time are Lenin,
James Joyce and the dadaist Tris
tan Tzara. The play concerns
Carr’s memories, both real and
imagined, of his meetings and
dealings with these three il
luminaries.
As the events of the play occur
through Carr’s rather erratic recol
lections, many liberties could justi
fiably take place, not only with ac
tual history (the big three actually
did live in Zurich during the Great
War), but with the style and
method of telling the story. Stop
pard has made full use of these
liberties.
Carr is a coffee-table conver
sationalist; he enjoys talking end
lessly about matters he often only
half understands. Ergo, long sec
tions of the play are devoted to
discussions of political positions
(with Lenin), philosophies of art
(with Tzara) and the English lan
guage (with Joyce).
And, since we’re dealing with
Carr’s memories, every now and
then the conversation will stop,
sometimes even in mid-thought,
and jump back to a previous
series of statements, which will
then lead to a different series of
revelations.
Stoppard is working on several
levels at these points: He is not
only showing us several
“what-l-should-have-said”-type
conversations, but is also engag
ing, from a literary point of view, a
somewhat cheap but outrage
Buffet
(Continued from Page 4B)
one cut from that film, uvmgston
Saturday Night, appears on Son
of a Son..., and is also featured
in the movie FM (and on the album
soundtrack). Buffet performed the
FM version live as a staged be
nefit for “Save the Whales.”
Eugene and Jimmy Buffet are
both “down to earth” and his fans
and the curious will agree, as
Playboy did, in calling Buffet “a
true original. His songs are special
stories. Some are outrageous
Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
romps, but others come danger
ously near being poetry. Jimmy
writes about pieces of America
that most of us can see, but never
stop to notice — and he keeps
getting better.”
Flutist Tim Weisberg finally
makes it to Eugene as Buffet’s
guest. Weisberg’s latest album,
The Tim Weisberg Band, brings
Weisberg closer to a pleasing
combination of music that appeals
to a broad range of music lovers.
Tickets (all reserved seating)
for the EMU Cultural Forum event
are $7, $6 and $5 for the general
public, and $5.50, $5 and $4 for
master’s thesis
dance concert
FEETSFEETSFEETS
by joan tazarus
june 2 & 3, 1978
8 pm
free admission
geriinger annex 354
686-3386
University students. The EMU
Main Desk, the Sun Shop, and
Everybody’s Records in Eugene
and Corvallis are ticket outlets.
THREE AWARD
WINNING FILMS
ZERO DE
CONDUITE
by VIGO
(Truffaunt’s favorite
filmWnOh YES!!!)
Also
PAS DE DEUX
LA JE TEE
Two showings
7:00 & 9.00 pm
Admission $1.50
AT THE
OPEN GALLERY
445 HIGH ST.
(across from the 5th St Public Mkt)
EMU Cultural Forum
Proudly Presents
JONATHAN
KOZOL
Author: Death at an Early Age
“Education in America: Reading,
Writing, or Brainwashing”
Thursday, June 1
EMU Ballroom 8P.M.
Admission FREE
ousty clever method of getting a
great deal of exposition and
character development across.
Few writers would have the in
testinal fortitude to do what Stop
pard does with the dramatic form.
Fewer still would have the ability
and wit to carry it off. Stoppard
does.
r
Jerry Lambert was quite crisp
and distinct as Joyce and Dave
Smith gave a good deal of needed
strength to the character of Lenin.
Arastoo Sepehr’s Tzara was in
tensely enjoyable although he oc
casionally suffered from a diction
problem.
Also of note was Katie Klein
By BOB WEBB
Travesties
I
Carr also has a penchant for the
music of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Therefore, every now and then the
play slips into broad burlesque,
even to the point of breaking into
outrageous song and dance.
As Carr, James Lundstrom
does a higly commendable job of
getting an enormous number of
words to us while still keeping us
visually occupied. He is quite an
energetic actor who apparently
sees the fun of the play and is
able to transfer it to use. He gets a
little too carried away at times but
that is essentially a directoral
problem.
sasser, whose introductory lec
ture to the second act was spirited
and fun.
There were, however, two
areas in which the production
needed some help.
One was the burlesque se
quences. Sometimes the vision of
a three-ring circus gone awry was
organically appropriate to the ac
tion, but occasionally it smacked
of being weird for the sake of
being weird.
Also, often a particularly out
rageous set of actions which
should have brought the house
down didn’t because the timing
was off. An off-the-wall bit will work
consistently only if it is meticul
ously thought out and timed to do
so. Planned insanity, as it were.
Director Jean Cutler should cer
tainly be commended for keeping
things moving at a brisk and
energetic pace (a less visually
fluid production of this play would
be disastrous, as it is an ex
tremely wordy piece; Jerry Wil
liams' brightly colored and varied
sets as well as Nancy Hills’ cos
tumes also helped in this area). I
only wish more care had been
given to the burlesques.
The third problem is the acous
tics. The area is far too bright au
rally. This, plus the fact that the
actors at times seemed to be
shouting rather them projecting,
caused sounds to bounce around
off the walls and echo into the au
dience. This is especially bad
when, as in this case, one of the
major dramatic values of the play
is the language.
As mentioned earlier, Stoppard
is not everybody’s cup of tea. But
those who enjoy acrobatic exer
cises in the cerebral realm should
find Cutler and crew’s production
of Travesties well worth their
while.
The play continues tonight
through Saturday night at 8 p.m.
Volunteers
In
Service
America
VISTA volunteers work with low-income
groups whose purpose is to increase the
voice of the poor and powerless in the
decision-making process of their
community.
Graduates in the liberal arts, social
sciences, humanities, law, architecture,
health, and other areas are needed now for
one-year openings throughout the U.S.
For details contact Condon Hall, Rm. 315.
Tues./Wed./Thurs. 10 am - 3 pm, 687-6493
Last week at U of O