Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1998)
Emerald RlwthnrBWiCWS FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1998 Birthday Party Campus station KWVA celebrates Jive years on-air with a concert PAGE 8A Dave Matthews Band Read a review of the group’s latest: Before These Crowded Streets’ PAGE 6A Volume 99, Issue 142 Bnmffiffinmiii Thumbs MARTIN SHORT IN‘MERLIN’ His performance was an absolute delight, I had no idea he could be that good. Over all, the casting for ‘Merlin' was im peccable. The Trent-Reznor looking Mordred was dead-on. FILMS AT PLC Tonight, go see ‘The Conformist,’ an excellent film by Bernardo Bertolucci. The film will be in 180 PLC at 8 p.m. You won’t regret it. VW BEETLE ADS Besides being warm and tey, these TV com mercials feature the music of Stereolab. The ads reminded me just how good Stereolab’s latest album, ‘Dots and Loops,’Is. Check it out. MTV OVERKILL Have you noticed lately that every time there’s a video on MTV it has an insipid, lit tle baron the screen’s bottom, on which fan re quests and opin ions are run. I’m sorry, but who cares what Kelly from Illinois thinks about Smashmouth’s latest hit? Still, it's not so bad when the bar is used to run song lyrics, the necessity of which proves that there isn’t a single ‘alternative’ singer left who can enunciate. down the house The Arena Theatre will he lit up as ‘Fire in the Basement' opens Wednesday night By Carl Yeh Freelance Editor There will be a “Fire in the Basement” at the Arena The atre. But nobody will run for their lives. That’s because there is no fire in reality — or in the play, for that matter. The University Theatre pre sents Pavel Kohout’s “Fire in the Basement.” In this one-act play, people masquerading as firemen convince a new lywed couple that there is a fire in their home when there really is not, said Jim Utz, the play's director. “The ‘firemen’ play an elaborate con game with the young couple,” said Utz, a doctoral candidate in theater arts. "They try to convince them there has been a fire in the house. They do this so they can get the couple to sign a fraudulent insurance policy. It’s fraud because they say expensive things burned when they never had those things to begin with.” Kohout, a Czechoslovakian play wright, wrote “Fire in the Basement” in 1973. His play addresses issues of living in Soviet-controlled Eastern Eu rope. "It’s a play that was written in ; Czechoslovakia in the middle of Sovi I et occupation,” Utz said. “[Kohout] was very much concerned with writ ing a parody of his own social reali ty. He’s talking about the initial takeover—the Soviets rolled in and convinced them they needed com munism,” he said. The newlywed couple, Engl and Jartchi, is played by Graham Prichard, a junior planning, public policy and management major, and Sarah Dyrhaug, a junior the Turn to PLAY, Page 7A Musician-comedian extraordinaire comes to Hult By David Ryan Freelance Reporter Not too many people realize there is a connection between Adolf Hitler and Fozzie Bear. It’s Victor Borge, the 90-year-old Danish comedian/pianist who will perform at the Hult Center on May 2. On the eve of World War D, Borge was entertaining audiences in Copen hagen and Denmark by lampooning Hitler during his comedy routines. Hitler, not generally known for his sense of humor, added Borge to the Gestapo’s list of people to imprison and torture. When the Nazis invaded in 1940, Borge managed to take the very last boat out of Denmark to begin his career anew in America. Borge has been touring America regularly since then. In fact, he hasn’t stopped touring. “The way he operates his tours is that he performs three or four shows a week,” said Erick Hoffman, director of marketing and programming at the Hult Center. Borge has done several television appearances, including a Mike Wal lace special, several PBS specials and — here’s the connection — sharing a performance on "The Muppet Show” with Fozzie Bear. But that’s not the only quirky con nection Boige can make. Boige is part stand-up comedian, part clown and part piano virtuoso. These qualities give him the ability to bring classical music to the accessible level of hu mor and sophomoric wit while edu eating audiences on the quirks of the genre. Just to illustrate, Borge will play one of Brahms’ waltzes. Then he will stop playing some notes. And some more. And more still. Suddenly, he is playing “Happy Birthday,” a song that was actually hidden within the melody written by Brahms — all the while slipping off the piano bench. Sometimes, though, he wears a seat belt. Then there’s the piano sonata he will play, but instead he ends up get ting distracted by his watch. “My grandfather gave me this watch before he died,” Borge says during one performance, “for 20 bucks.” Then Borge stands up to talk a lit Tum to HULT, Page 7 A COURTESY PHOTO Victor Borge holds the world record for the longest-running one-man show.
