ticularly between battles and intrigue in the
second half of the play.
Brecht’s version of Edward II premiered in
Portland late last year by a recently formed
dramatic group, the Heart Theatre. The thea
ter’s stage, designed by director Mark Worth
ington, was a fascinating, multi-dimensional,
expressionistic construction with four levels,
a trap door, and numerous exits and access
stairways. With the main stage levels raised
up by the wood scaffolding, the audience
viewed the play from the horseshoe-shaped,
terra cotta-faced balcony.
The cast managed to sustain the pace
necessary for this energetic, episodic drama.
The frequent pronouncements of the pre
senters were at first somewhat distracting,
but as the action of the story warmed up,
these interlocutions — the seams of the play
— became less intrusive. To a certain extent
this “warming up” tendency carried through
to the acting performances of the cast in
general; the characters and action in the be
ginning of the play were adequately rendered,
but only later, in the intensifying heat of the
dram a were they genuinely moving.
Unfortunately, the Heart Theatre’s Edward
li was limited to a short run and wasn’t very
widely publicized. As director Mark Worthing
ton pointed out, Edward II is very rarely
performed; it has only appeared on a major
American stage once since Brecht penned
his play in 1924. You might keep this fact in
mind if you’re ever in the vicinity of another
production of Edward II, especially if you had
the misfortune of missing this last very worth
while performance by the Heart Theatre.
Survival by many
other n a m e s...
by Eleanor M alin
Fighting for survival on a hostile planet
with limited and dwindling technology at their
disposal, Louis Gossett, Jr. and Dennis Quaid
star in Enem y Mine. Gosset plays an alien of
the reptile genus shot down on a planet too
gruesome for words by Quaid, who crash
• CINEMA
lands there shortly after. Enemies at first, the
two team up to survive deadly animal, min
eral and atmospheric hazards. As the two
becom e friends, Quaid comes to realize the
alien is superior to him philosophically (no
big surprise), that earthlings started the war
(we always do), and that the alien is even
superior physically (can reproduce all on his
own). By the end of the film, Quaid has fi
gured out that the aliens are O K beings, even
though they are ugly. I figure this is a step in
the right direction. One small step for m an
kind .. one giant step for the ugly.
Quaid is perfectly cast He’s so pretty
everyone looks ugly next to him. All kidding
aside, he was very good in his role. Lou Gos
sett Jr. was excellent as the alien, and will
surely get some awards for a difficult job
skillfully executed. The story’s pretty good,
too.
•
W hoopi Goldberg has been getting well-
deserved kudos for her performance in The
Color Purple, which reads almost like the
longest joke, ever. The film opens
prettily, with the heroine, Celie, a young girl in
a field of flowers, playing patty-cake with her
younger sister. But Celie learns many things
early. You can be raped, impreganted, give
birth, and have the babies taken away from
you by your transgressor.
This training gotten out of the way early,
(by 14), Celie is married to a man known only
to her as “Mister,” who mistreats her horribly,
Ju*t Out. February, 1986
uses her for a domestic slave and a sex thing,
and apparently has not one kind word to say
to her, for decades. Celie is so oppressed, she
seems never to have a happy moment, and
we can't figure out why she doesn’t run away,
or do in her insufferable husband, or do
something. She just takes it and takes it
The gratuitous slapstick stuck on by di
rector Stephen Speilberg, is supposed to be
for comic relief, but let’s face it —
Shakespeare he ain’t
As to the black men in the story — they
were just too bad to be believed. They were
either on the make for females who did not
want them, or, in the case of the minister,
completely unaccepting of his daughter be
cause she was a sexual person. The white
people in the story are all shown as being
menacingly dangerous or stupidly dan
gerous. This story, I daresay, could have used
a few shades of gray, instead of all this black
and white.
But Miss Celie keeps on getting pushed to
the bounds of what any person can endure,
and makes her way back, into a life that, if not
idyllic, yields up some pretty great rewards in
the end. Miss Celie finds a little relief from, of
all people, her husband's mistress, Shug
Avery. Shug awakens passion in C elie; helps
Celie find her sense of self and access her
strength and creativity. The lesbian bond is so
lightly treated that it may be blinked over, by
today’s standards, but then Spielberg's
movies are of a one-size-fits all manufacture,
and he manages the brief (and only) love
scene tastefully.
I wondered why people were staring at me
in the restroom after this movie. When I got to
the mirror, I saw it was because my mascara
had run every which way. Yes, this movie is a
tear-jerker, and it worked really well for me,
but then I cry for flute music, ice dancing, and
nightly, for the news. And yes, there are flaws
in the story and flaws in the filmmaking. And
yes, we are being manipulated, as we are by
the nightly news, and all media. But — there
is some really good dialogue here, and some
really lovely acting. And film so pretty you can
see how a pathetic being might take heart to
live another day, and then another, until finally
something good comes of it. And it was good
to see the black experience be thought of
enough to be portrayed in a major movie.
And, it was good to see so many blacks
working.
The Northwest Film & Video Center
Oregon Art Institute
present the
9th Portland International Film Festival
February 20 - March 9, 1986
*y
Featuring
The story of two women falling In
love in Reno In the ‘5Os.
Saturday, February 22, 7pm '
Call 221-1156 for schedule/advance tickets
1219 SW Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205
Sandy’s
Recorded
Phone
Fantasies
Call Direct*No Membership Necessary
1 976-4848
-
N o M in o r s # $ 2 T o ll
•
Washed of his brown make-up from Gray-
stoke, Christopher Lambert is the protagonist
in Subway, an existential comedy. He is
pursued to the Paris subway system by a man
whose safe he has just blown. He has stolen
papers which show his pursuer to be a crook.
He’s wearing a tuxedo and tells everyone he’s
forming a band. The bad boss man, his
minions, and platoons of im becile subway
policemen pursue him, but he eludes them.
He befriends some of the dwellers in this
eerie demi-monde; unsystematically
goes for the things he seems to want —
money, a band, the bad guy’s young wife
(Isabel Adjani — washed of her brown make
up from The Deadly Summer).
Lambert, as Fred, is intelligent, inscrutable,
ephemeral. Why doesn't he leave when he
can? If he’s an American, why can he speak
French so well? His accent is superb. He's still
doing wonderful eye stuff, and is dazzling in
the role of the would-be impresario organiz
ing a band under seriously adverse
conditions.
Can Fred sing or not? This, and other
questions are left unanswered at the end of
the film. This is a very right-brained movie,
and one many people seem uncomfortable
with. If you go to this movie, try viewing it
through the negative spaces. What does he
not say? What does he not do? And
remember, this world is souterrain — no
sun, no moon, no fresh air, junk food,
champagne, people arriving and departing,
Fred stuck (or not) in hell.
The latest catalogue of photographs by
Robert Mapplethorpe
is available at
CERTAIN PEOPLE
Sheet-fed gravures limited to 5,00
casebound copies, $45
Preface by Susan Sontag
P H O T O G R A P H IC IM A G E G A L L E R Y
Open 11 -6pm Monday-Friday • 11 am-5pm Saturday/Sunday
Or by appointment
208 Southwest First • Portland • (503) 224-3543
15