Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1980)
Theater Shadow Box Written by Michael Cristofer Directed by David Johnston University Theatre Tonight through Saturday Shadow Box is not recom mended to anyone afraid of be ing alive. Michael Cristofer’s Pulitzer prize-winning play about three terminally ill people is an unnervingly direct cele bration of life in the face of death. And the finely-balanced and often very funny (though never morbid) production at the University's appropriately intimate Pocket Theatre demands to be taken personal ly Joe, Brian and Felicity are officially ‘terminal’' — and wear the palest complexions to show it. Released from the hospital proper, they spend their last days in their respective cottages on the sprawling hospital grounds — a kind of death re sort. Here, they share the exper ience of dying with their loved ones as well as with an inter viewing psychologist. The inter viewer (played with perfect clin ical compassion by Elise Jor dan) serves mainly as a device allowing them to speak directly with us — the terminals in the audience. Joe is a blue collar worker wondering what 24 years in a factory has reaped. His wife, Maggie has flown cross-country to visit, bearing shopping bags full of groceries. She is unsure of what her husband needs from her now, and cannot accept the fact that he is dying. Brent Crawford and Nancy Julian are convincing as this simple cou ple stymied by a bundle of un realized dreams who come to see that all they ever had and have now is a moment to share. In the second cottage, Brian, an articulate, literate bisexual who has come to depend too much on words and philosophy to see him through life, is dying. He is attended to by Mark, faith ful nurse and friend (“in the Greek sense of the word"). The unexpected arrival of Brian’s ex-wife Beverly, who long ago left him to seek out new dancing partners around the world, makes for an intense confron tation. This trio presents the most serious problems in the current production. Scott Elliott as Brian and Michael Lasswell as Mark never seem to earn their most volatile speeches. Only Mary Gaither as the alcoholic Beverly convinces us that peo ple are dying here. In the third cottage is Felicity (Carol Krenelka), an old, bitter woman kept alive by spare parts and false hopes. She is wheeled around and waited upon by her long-suffering daughter, Agnes (Laurie Mann). These two are superb together, achieving a sensitivity unparalleled in the play. The set is one cottage serving as the three cottages, with the characters in each group oc cupying different areas throughout the play. Nobody from any one group ever speaks with the others, although nearly Characters portrayed by Scott Elliot, Mary Gaither and Michael Lasswell are forced to look at life as defined by impending death in "The Shadow Box," playing tonight through Saturday in the Pocket Theatre. Photo by Jeff Patterson all the principals speak from the interviewing area. Director David Johnston has taken great care in emphasizing a sense of humor and hope throughout the play; the even ing is never gloomy or tedious. Shadow boxing means spar ring with an imaginary opponent. At the play’s end, only Felicity and Agnes fail to stop shadow boxing, to stop playing this sad waiting game. The others face us as they have faced themselves, to af firm: “If we are dying, we must still be alive,” says Brian. He says it to us. What choice have we but to take it personaiiy? By David Grober 'i Books The Brethren: Inside the Su preme Court By Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong Simon and Schuster, $13.95, 444 pages The Brethren had a history and reputation even before it became available in bookstores. Pre-publication publicity and published excerpts promised an explosive first-time glimpse into the internal machinery of the United States Supreme Court since the appointment of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger in 1969. The publicity, in effect, leads the potential reader to expect a damning expose of the ^^j^^iy^^^Cultural^orun^^ A Festival of Traditional Music From the Mountains of North and South America Elizabeth Cotten Mike Seeger and music of the Andes with _______ SUKAY Sunday, Feb. 17 8 PM EMU Ballroom HO Students $4.00 General Public $5.00 Tickets available at the EMU Main Desk, Everybody’s Records (Eugene and Corvallis) and The Playful Scribe Supported, tn part, by the Motional Endowment for the Arts and the Seattle Folklore Society Court in general and Chief Jus tice Burger in particular. The expose is there, but there is far more to the book than mere political and social voyeurism. Working from pub lished sources and interviews with, they claim, more than 200 persons, Woodward and Arm strong have pieced together an on-going narrative of American history from 1969 to 1975 as seen through the eyes of the judicial branch of the United States government. The authors do expose the inner workings of the so-called “Nixon Court,” but they also tell us a great deal about America in the process. In one sense, the book is a text on the act of judicial com promise. Those who are sur prised that justices of the Su preme Court lobby each other, change their minds, com promise on.principle, or are in fluenced by elements outside the range of the law are perhaps unacquainted with human na ture or the realities of govern ment and justice. Even the realization that the Nixon ad ministration, as had earlier governments, attempted to in fluence the outcome of cases before the'Court should come as no surprise. The specifics given may be surprising, but the book’s primary interest lies in the careful analysis of the Court at work and the particulars of each case discussed. It is from the presentation of these his torical specifics that the por traits of each individual justice as a man and a judge emerge. None of the fourteen justices who appear in the book escape criticism, either by implication or by the words of clerks and other justices. Woodward and Armstrong themselves do not criticize; they let their material do that. The book is based upon diaries, official and unofficial documents, drafts of opinions and dissents, and interviews. Much of the quoted material was never meant to see the light of day outside the chambers of the justices. It reveals work in progress, personal and judicial disagreements, and the way things might have been. The most powerful impression which emerges from all this is a largely negative characteriza tion of Chief Justice Burger. Burger, according to The Brethren, is a man who dotes on power, does not like his work (Continued on Page 7B) WANTED Your Unwanted Records Top Prices Paid "We Buy- Sell-Trade Current, Rare, and Out of Print Records" HOUSE OF RECORDS 258 E. 13th Between Pearl and High Streets
