Traveling tricksters
Chris Chandler and the
K, Convenience Store Troubadours
will tout their blend of poetry> a nd
music at the BUZZ/PAGE 9
Unexpected ‘Blast’
The film Blast From The Past' may
not be an Oscar contender, but it
packs a pleasant surprise: a good
time/PAGE 10
Volume 100, Issue 112
■
■WHAT: The
Maids' and ‘Hot ‘n’
Throbbing’
■WHEN: March
4-6and11-13at
8 p.m.
■ WHB1E: Arena
Theatre
■ COST: $3 for UO
students, $5 for fac
ulty and staff,
nior citizens and
non-UO students
and $6 for the gen
Paige McKinney and Joe von
Appen (far left) rehearse a
scene from the play Hot ‘n’
Throbbing.’ RhaetiaHan
scum (left) plays Charlene, a
divorced woman who writes
sexually explicit novels to
support her children.
Presented together at the Arena Theatre,
two postmodern plays create a dark and
heavy theater experience
By Allison Ross
Oregon Daily Emerald
1
The University The
atre opened its
provocative double
billing on Wednes
day night, featuring two dark
postmodern productions.
“The Maids," written by
Jean Genet and directed by Joel
iiciimuii, appears
first and stars Sab
rina Bernasconi,
Shelly Swearingen
and Colleen Wrob
lewski. The three
actresses switch
roles throughout
the play, portray
ing just two charac
ters, but a barrage
of characters with
in the two emerge
as play progresses.
The play forces
photos by Nick Medley/Emerald
the audience to question illu
sion and reality as the two
maids plot the murder of their
Madame. Harmon does an ex
cellent job of blurring the lines
of reality, and it is difficult at
times to understand who is
who and what is real.
But that’s the point.
“This play forces us to con
front how arbitrary reality is,"
Harmon says. “It is a constant
shifting so that things are real
only as long as we allow them
to be. With the actresses play
ing two parts, it’s difficult to
grasp who any of the charac
ters are.”
What really carries “The
Maids” is the performances of
the three actresses. As each
switches roles, the new char
acters become even more ex
citing than the previous. And
despite the fact that the audi
‘The Maids’
and‘Hot‘n’
Throbbing’
DIRECTED BY: Joel
Harmon and Jon Cole
VENUE:
Arena Theatre
RATING:
★★★ArAr
uuue may navtJ nu
idea what is hap
pening, the ac
tresses play off
each other in a
way that keeps the
audience interest
ed.
“The pace of
this show is really
unique,” Wrob
lewski says. “It is
constant surpris
es, and you never
really know what
is going on.
Following “The Maids" is
“Hot ‘n’ Throbbing,” the story
of a divorced woman who
writes sexually explicit novels
to support her two children,
who have their own deep-root
ed issues with sex.
“Hot 'n’ Throbbing,” written
by Paula Vogel, stars Rhaetia
Hanscum and Quinn Mattfeld
along with co-stars Joe von Ap
pen and Jenni Hellesto. David
M. Royer and Paige McKinney
Turn to THEATER, Page 10
Final Four: Almost as good as real thing
Matt Garton
Oregon Daily Emerald
As March Madness once again ap
proaches, with it comes the hope of
many college basketball players of
making it to the Final Four.
Final Four fever has even started to
build momentum on campus as the
Oregon women’s team may
get its own shot at the
NCAA Championship.
Whether you plan on
attending any of the big
games orhostingaTVparty, there’s
a way to catch some of the excite
ment before it even happens. Just in
time for the championship, Sony
has released the video game “NCAA
Final Four ’99” for the Playstation.
Having not played a basketball
video game since the good old
days of the Nintendo Entertainment
System (those old 8-bit days,) I was
amazed at first, not at the graphics but
at the playability. The controls al
lowed me to sit down and play a good
solid game of hoops the first time
through.
The passing from player to player is
accurate and easy, and shooting three
pointers is a breeze. The game incor
porates a new kind of “touch shoot
ing” that gives the player an extra edge
in shooting control. When a player
goes to make a shot, instead of the
game randomly picking whether your
player could have made it, you see a
shot gauge start to fill that lets you see
the player’s ability to shoot. With the
right timing (it takes some practice)
you can make nearly every shot.
Turn to FINAL FOUR, Page 8
► Breaking it down
HSAA Final four '9S
Graphics I
' ■: .:®mm
Music/souid
Game play/control
Difficulty ;
; mmm
Quick game Hading Easy- pto*r control ane ssai centre?
over passing options A oth-'man meter can e»e?te S»
spectators. affecting octr. teams' performances,
■nstani repays occur too cReo—turn Stem oft
Compute opaonant tews out too often and runsvow
oest plays When &a» is toose C s hard a pick ap
Final score: