¿±The Clackamas Print
Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011
aced@clackamas.edu
ArtQ
O U R TOW N: Iconic play comes to Clackamas
By Mandie Gavitt
Arts & Culture Editor
“Our Town” is a play that thrives
on its simplicity and genuine relation
ship with the audience in attendance.
Set in the early 20th Century, ”Our
Town” tells the story of a small town
as it begins to adapt to a changing
world. The story focuses mostly on
the relationships of the people who
reside in the small to w n o f Grovers
Corners, N .H ., in particular the rela
tionship between Emily Webb and
George Gibbs, the two main charac
ters of the play, written by Thornton
Wilder.
The story is narrated by a character
entitled simply Stage Manager, who
is able* to break the fourth wall and
speak directly to the audience. The
Stage Manager not; only plays sev
eral roles in the, show, he also helps
to inform the audience o f what is
happening in thé play.- The scenery;
is entirely minimal,! with only ^à. few
tables, laddèrs^and benches. Instead of
using props, the actors pantomime the
objects they are interacting with.
The story itself is simple, which
means that those attending the play
can instead focus on the acting. The
actors are solely what make the play.
As always the college theatre program
has an excellent cast. .‘‘They are the
bright shiniest thing in the galaxy,”
said Director David Smith-English.
The Stage Manager played by
Michael Mitchell, did an excellent job
of engaging the audience and telling
the story in a way that piade the. play
feel relevant and Athena Folk, who
played M rs.Sdam es, provided m ueh
comedy relief. Emily Webb played
by Shannon O ’Shaughnessy was the
sweetest character of the whole play.
I found her innocence and naivety to
be very refreshing and heart-warming.
O ’Shaughnessy seemed to approach
the character with a child-like inno
cence who steals the show away. The
play follows Emily Webb and George
Gibbs as they go from high school
sweethearts to husband and wife. The
audience gets to be in on the intimate
details o f now the pair progresses from
being two kids-growing up in the same
small town to lovers. The story begins
with them as students at night talking
from their adjacent second story bed
room window. This is done with each
standing onladders to represent the
houses locations to each other.
In a later scene, after a few years
in the story, the lovers are having
a. date at the small ice cream shop,
where Stage Manager takes on tne
role of the owner; of the shop. While
helping themselves to milkshakes, the
two discuss , the possibility of liking
each other enough to get married in
the future. This preludes the wedding
scène where both are shown to have
doubts but with help thèy manage to
keep their cold feet under control and
wed by the preacher w h o is played
ónce again by the Stage Manager, z
Thè wedding scene is qtfite ador
able. Those in attendance for the
-wedding are not necessarily the most
respectful and make the scene humor-;
ous. Mrs. Soajnes loudly tells anyone
who'will listen about how she thinks’
the wedding is one of the nicest she*
has seen.
Because -I hate to spoil endings I
will not say what happens in the final
act. W hat I will say is, that, with a
happy and whimsical feel, the play
moves on and acts one and two quick
ly disappear. W ith superb acting and
a genuine spirit, this play will break
y o u r h e a r t.—
----------- — •—
As is to be expected, the theater
department is once again putting on
a must se,e show. Tickets are $8 . for
students and you can catch this unfor
gettable and Utterly charming, show
Thursday through Sunday until Nov.-
20.
Emily Webb (Shannon O ’Shaughnessy) and George Gibbs (Michael Lissman) talk
with Mr. Webb (Sam Munger) a t their wedding in ‘Our Town. The play, present
ed byC C C ’s Théâtre Arts Department, runs untilNov. 20, Thursday-Saturday at
7:30pm in the Osterman Theatre located in Niemeyer Center.
‘Immortals’ attempts to disguise lacking story with striking visuals
By James Duncan
earlier in the movie. Some of the most impor
tant moments feel silly and so over the top
with testosterone that the actors were about to
start leaking it from their ears. It is hard to take
From Tarsem Singh, the director who something seriously when, bam bam, every
brought you the dark and mind bending other, bam bam, word is, bam bam, broken
movie “The Cell,* comes a new and “exciting
up, bam bam, by an annoying sound effect.
movie for the masses, “Immortals.” Filled with- Repetition is a theme in “Immortals.”
brutal fight scenes, love, tragedy and all things
The visual effects are the only thing that
a Greek epic should contain, it wows its view made this movie watchable: stunning views
ers with spectacular effects and very little else. of ‘Greek’ landscapes and excellently detailed
The striking visual effects do very little to cover fight scenes. Most over-the-top action mov-
up the terrible story and the blatant attempt to ies often seem to throw logic to the wind and
cash in on movies like “Clash of the Titans,” people do insane fight moves that make histo
“Troy” and “300.”
rians and people wno read, shake their heads
The acting of Luke Evans and Henry Cavill and laugh.
is laughable throughout most of *the movie.
This movie has one-upped most. The char
Mickey Rourke isnt at his best but he makes a acters fight like they are in a bad kung fu movie
good bad guy. Even the most dramatic scenes more than that they are ancient Greek soldiers
pf the movie are completely overshadowed by but over everything else heads roll all the
the terrible acting and juvenile writing.,
time. This is another point in the movie that
“Immortals” follows the adventure o f peas feels like someone ran out of ideas really fast,
ant hero Theseus (Henry Cavill) and his adven because everyone’s head pops off constantly in
tures seeking the Epirus Bow to stop the evil slow motion no less. More heads roll in this
plans o f King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke). The movie than in the French Revolution. The last
movie is regularly seasoned with a small selec and maybe most annoying part o f the whole
tion of Greek gods including or rather limited movie was the excessive use of slow motion.
to Poseidon (Kellan Lutz), Zeus (Luke Evans), Yes, we get it. “300” happened, it was good.
Athena (Isabel Lucas), Aries (Daniel Sharman) Now give it up, you are not going to do it bet
and a pinch of Helios (Peter Stebbings) and ter, let alone do it well!
Heracles (Steve Byers). The only interesting
Over all, this movie is bad, really bad. If you
fights in the whole movie are the ones that the are into testosterone fueled heaa chop fests,
gods are involved in and those take up a very this iust might be your movie, but if you care
short amount of the total run time.
at all for story or even a little about the char
For a film thats trailers focused on all of the acters, that won’t happen. “Immortals” should
action it had, a great deal of rambling dialog be getting one of the lowest ratings possible
that rarely seemed to matter or impact the but Because the CGI is ‘just so perty^I give this
overall tone of the movie. In places it felt like movie a two out of five.
the writers ran out of ideas for dialog so they
P.S. The ending sets the movie up for a
would just have the character repeat a line from sequel! Bam bam!
Design Editor