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