theater review
'Blue Leaves' audience puzzling
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By Jonathan Siegle
CM Vm Emerald
"House of Blue Leaves," the
last summer production of Car
nival Theater to open, is a har
lequin black comedy. The show
is quick, rich, and puzzling Very
puzzling.
It is set in the 1960s on "the
day the Pope came to New
York" in the apartment of Artie
Shaughnessy There are 10
visible and working television
sets facing the audience, a car
door stage left, and a refrigera
tor with what must be a beacon
inside stage right
Artie writes songs. He wants
to run off with Bunny who he
met at a health club Together
they’re going to commit his wife
Bananas His son Ronnie is
AWOL in New York, to blow up
the Pope
What's puzzling is why direc
tor Peter Davis staged it so odd
ly Why are there characters
walking through all the time?
Why are those 10 TV sets flick
' ‘House of Blue Leaves "Isa good evening's entertainment despite
Haws.
ering on and oft? Why are the
clothes a debutante's
nightmare?
A play has to make sense
Even if it's nonsense — like Ion
esco, or Pinter, or Beckett, even
Stoppard — there must be a
clear vision of what sense there
is none of
John Guare's plot, such as it
is, makes some sense There
are some riveting monologues,
and enough quirks and bends to
hook any viewer Yet the
audience leaves puzzled If this
is Davis’ raison d’etre, then he
succeeds
Which is not to say that
"House of Blue Leaves" is not a
marvelous evening’s entertain
ment It is It’s that director
Davis spoils some of the best
damn acting I’ve seen in a col
lege production in years
There’s an old saying in the
theater (Yes dear readers, I’m
well past 30, have been involved
in theater since I was a boy, and
can say these things.) that it's
much easier to play crazy peo
ple than normal ones Well, after
two plays trying to be more or
less normal, the young cast
really cuts loose
Aseneth James as Bananas is
so alive, so full, so balanced that
her insanity makes complete
sense She loves Artie Her
"madness" is Artie's madness
When James delivers her mon
ologue the audience has no
where to go but right inside her
soul with her
As Ronnie, Nicholas Smith
manages to stay right up with
his exquisite mother. His mon
ologue about the deep trauma
inducing experience which
warped his young mind should
make everyone squirm with
remembered shame at his or her
own secret guilts
Charlotte London as Bunny
and Barry Pitzer as Billy Einhorn
both possess just the right
counterbalance 1‘or Stephan
Yarian's Artie Bunny is a
whacko who cooks instead of
screws, and Billy is a Hollywood
director who loves his boyhood
pal.
But Yarian, who so complete
ly carried "Harvey" on his
shoulders, is an enigma At
times he’s brilliant, hanging on
to the puppet strings of every
one in the cast
At other times, he doesn't
seem to even know what to do
with his hands It is Yarian who
suffers most from Davis'incon
sistent directing
See "House of Blue Leaves,”
but don't go expecting to be
passive At one point Artie tells
us "The greatest talent is to be
an audience Anyone can
create There's your
theme. Bring it with you to the
show
Lama to hold workshop
on workina with dreams
Gyaltrul Rinpoche, a Tibetan
lama living in Ashland, will give
a two-day workshop in Eugene
entitled 1 Awakening the
Dreamer" on Saturday from 10
a m to noon and Sunday from 2
pm
The workshop, which will in
troduce participants to Tibetan
methods for working con
sciously and purposefully with
the dreamstate. will be con
ducted at Danceworks, located
Krary Kata Print & Copy — Kraiy Kata -o
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t iie* AieJM - Moo V iuud *t*X XzBJ*
in Eugene at 1231 Olive Street
In 1972 Rinpoche was ap
pointed to teach and preserve
Vajrayana Buddhism in the
West, which he has trained in
since the age of eight He left
the East in 1959 when Mao's
China initiated occupation of
Tibet
The fee for the workshop is
$35 For further information, call
345-0233 or 345-1792
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