Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2005)
w-cuzmi zxoc_ THRASHER! FOR A FULL SCHEDULE VISIT WWW.THRASHERPRESENTS.COM _ COMING SOON TRISTAN PRETTYMAN • KIMBERLY FREEMAN W SUN JUNE S CAFE PARADISIO • 7:00PM DOOR • ALL ACES 1 MAY CONCERTS For more information on School of Music events, call 346-5678. Thur. GENARO MENDEZ, Tenor 5/19 Guest Artist Vocal Recital 8 pm, Beall Hall $9 General Admission, $5 students & senior citizens May SPRING STUDENT DANCE CONCERT 19-21 DO Department of Dance 8 p.m., Dougherty Theatre $10 General Admission, $5 students & senior citizens Fri. CHAMBER MUSIC ON CAMPUS 5/20 DO Chamber Ensembles 4 p.m., Knight Library FREE Admission Fri. THE JAZZ CAFE 5/20 DO Jazz Combos 8 p.m., 178 Music $5 General Admission, $3 students & senior citizens Sat. FUTURE MUSIC OREGON 5/21 DO Music Technology & Guest Artist 8 p.m., 198 Music $5 General Admission, $3 students & senior citizens Sun. UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY: Concerto Concert 5/22 DO Ensemble & Soloists 3 p.m., Beall Hall $5 General Admission, $3 students & senior citizens Mon. OREGON PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE 5/23 DO Ensemble 8 p.m., Beall Hall $5 General Admission, $3 students & senior citizens Wed. OREGON WIND ENSEMBLE and 5/25 SYMPHONIC BAND UO Ensembles 8 p.m., Beall Hall $5 General Admission, $3 students & senior citizens Thur. UNIVERSITY SINGERS, CHAMBER CHOIR 5/26 DO Choral Ensembles 8 p.m., Beall Hall $5 General Admission, $3 students & senior citizens Fri. CHAMBER MUSIC ON CAMPUS 5/27 DO Chamber Ensembles 6 p.m., 198 Music FREE Admission Tues. COLLEGIUM MUSICUM 5/31 DO Early Music Ensemble 7 p.m., Collier House FREE Admission Tues. CAMPUS BAND 5/31 DO Ensemble 8 p.m., Beall Hall FREE Admission For our complete calendar, check: music.uoregon.edu ■ Theatre review ‘Kafka Parables’ shows that too many ideas are better than none The plotless play starts as a wonderment of alienation but then slowly dissolves into manic incomprehension BY RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR The work of Czech author Franz Kaf ka, for better or worse, is some of the defining literature of the 20th century, defining themes of alienation and frag mentation like no other before or since. What social critics have often pinpoint ed as our society's central philosophi cal problems, our disassociation from one another and the loss of personal identity within the cacophony of mod ern life, were all encapsulated within Kafka's three novels and his many short stories and parables. Based on these works, the University Theatre's original production, "Kafka Parables," leaves the audience wondering whether it is expressing these prob lems in a meaningful way or just adding to the noise. The play was devised in a similar manner to 2003's "This Ship of Fools." The actors attended a class in which a core work was selected and an original production was cre ated from the material and inde pendent research. Where "Fools" used Sebastian Brant's 1494 text of the same name, "Kafka Parables" mixes and matches the eponymous author's works into a diverse pas tiche. "Fools" dealt with the absurd side of human interaction, and "Kafka" deals with the tragic side. The play is essentially plotless, throwing stock characters into Kafka's twisted situations, often feeling like a transactional analysis experiment in volving caricatures from the 1920s. Though it takes a moment to get orient ed to the play's distinct style of speech and movement the first act is almost uniformly strong. Much like a Bertolt Brecht play, the actors constantly point out the artifice of the production, speaking in narrative tones taken di rectly from the original Kafka stories, often adding "he said" and "I began" as qualifiers to their speech. The sets are the bare minimum necessary to evoke the Eastern Eu ropean urban decay of Kafka's time. The lighting is subtle and, like good theater lighting should, does not draw attention to itself. Once the au dience adapts to the action, the play is a wonder to watch. Ideas and situ ations stream by at such a fast pace that individual moments get lost in the overall impression of loneliness and despair, with simple human ac tions described in a draconian syn tax and the mir humiliations of every day life turned into soul-crushing finales to sad and wasted lives. But afterthe strength of the first act the play loses its sense of momentum. The second act moves from city life to life in the country, prison to warfare. Parables used to describe urban despair in the first act are reused in the second in the context of imprisonment or battle, a trick that is more obvious than it is interesting. What sense of coherency the play constructed in the beginning is completely lost, ideas no longer click together with the same sense of grace. The concluding para ble, "Children on a Country Road," is delivered in such a manic style that it is difficult to keep up with the words, leaving the play to end on a note of incomprehension. The play's faults are notthe faults of the actors, however. Each perform ance is distinct which is quite a feat considering the characters don't have names or set personalities. But often the source material works against the higher goals of the production. By at tempting to reproduce Kafka's ornate prose style verbatim, the actors often end up spouting absurdly silly lines. What looks good on the page and what sounds good read aloud are often two distinctly different things. The play continuously throws ideas, allusions and images at the audience, hoping some will stick. But having too many ideas is betterthan having none at all, and "Kafka Parables" manages to be intellectually stimulating in spite of its scattershot approach. ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com Heads up Penny www.headsuppenny.com MAY 20 9 PM SHOW o LURR LUNA open Tuesday through Saturday at 4 pm 30th East Broadway (541) 434-LUNA WWW.LUNAJAZZ.COM BELINDA UNDERWOOD! JAZZ STAR VOCAUST (Advance Ticket NOW at Adam's Place 0 SERVICE CHARGE Advance Tickets NOW at Adam’s Place NO SERVICE CHARGE! MAY 8:30 PM SHOW GRASSflOPPAH new grass jazz rock fusion TKIfll CELEBRATE IIIIU THE RELEASE ~ OF A NEW CD! SATQQ MAY CO 9 PM SHOW LUNA Late Night Menu Open Tuesday Through Saturday Live Music Thursday Through Saturday! WiMl-tfP Next t0 Adam’s Place Restaurant Dinning Room open 5 pm to 9 pm weeknights 10 pm weekends For the week starting Friday, May 20th On-Screen Advertising at the Bijou! "A thoroughly fascinating-and horrifying -documentary about the giant corporate house of cards that came crashing down on the heads of all the little people while the big guys cashed out for mega-mlllions, smirking all the way." -Jami Bernard. NEW YORK DAILY NEWS THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM 0, 7:05 7 9:25 ni Sat & Sun Mat 2:30 430, / Joan Allen Sam Elliott J.K. Simmons OFFTHEMARsa 5:00 & 9:20 nightly Sat Mat 2:45 millionss 7:15 nightly Sat Mat 2:55 BIJOU LATENITE Fr-Sat $4 Su S3 ZATOICHI TAKESHI KITANO 11:35 pm Fri, Sat & Sun nights Soon: GOONIES ong bak: thai warrior 11:40 pm Fri, Sat & Sun nights
