The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 01, 1982, Page 11, Image 12
-entertainment
i 1 ,1 i 1 , 1 ' >'
?& i
B$ MB B^Ji
S; K^l ^ JV I \
_ J - -. L
if * m:~m
W .?*
Thrill"o/\victory
Students exult as they win at the "gambling"
table during Viva Las Vegas in Russell House
Rallrnnm WflHnnsHau Unmo?nmin? ?
r. ..U.uuuuiiiuiy IIDDH I091IVIIIU9
continue today with the Outdoor Concert at 3 p.m.
on Field A featuring the Outlaws and Fortnox.
Ballet opens season
From Staff Reports
The Columbia City Ballet will Dresent a nrp-spasnn
repertory program, "Murder at the Ballet," this weekend at
Drayton Hall Theatre.
Performance will be at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.
The success of last season's repertory pre-season program
encouraged the City Ballet to increase the size and scope of
this year's repertory offering. Realizing that all the works
selected from the company's extensive repertory for this
show have a tragic ending, Ann Brodie, Artistic Director,
decided upon the title "Murder at the Ballet.''
Tickets are on sale at the Columbia Music Festival office,
1132 Bull Street. Tickets are $6.25 for adults and $3.25 for
students. For more information, call the CMFA, 771-6303.
Stray Cats play the
By Marc Fink
Rockabilly may be almost 30 years old as 11
a popular music form, but the Stray Cats
perform this hybrid of rock'n'roll and _____
wiuuiuy music wuii maximum rocK-auiiuy. "LITTLiIi. i
"Built For Speed," the Stray Cats' first tough versioi
American release, largely consists of tracks and "You I
from the trio's 1981 British album, "Gonna Setzer's raz<
Ball," and British singles. "Built for Speed" effective or
establishes these New Yorkers as one of the mentioned sc
foremost rockabilly bands on today's music "Built For
scene. of which ?
Although guitarist and vocalist Brian "Jeanie, Jea
Setzer, bass fiddler and vocalist Lee Rocker tunes. "Dou
and drummer Slim Jim Phantom were born rockabilly,
years after the heyday of Carl Perkins, the Cochran's '
Johnny Burnette Rock'n'roll Trio, and rhythm. The
Buddy Holly and The Crickets, they remain lyrics.
true to the primitive, frenetic sound that The third
makes rockabilly prime dance music. "Baby Blue
numbers 01
Rocker, P
THE BRITISH hits "Rock This Town" displaying in
and "Runaway Boys," produced by Dave The title ci
Edmunds, open side one and side two, the flimsiest
respectively. Both were penned by the Stray
Cats. WHILE "I
"Rock This Town" is getting American good albur
airplay, with Setzer's guitar figures problems th;
recalling Bill Haley and the Comets ren- America, tn<
dition of "Shake, Rattle, and Roll," while Stray Cats.
"Runaway Boys" rides on Rocker's slap- As the alb
ping bass and features one of Setzer's most from varic
versatile guitar performances on the album. producers,
Other standout original cuts on "Built For present on "<
Speed" include the Chuck Berry-inspired "Lonely S
"Rev It Up & Go," about love of vintage next-to-last
automobiles, "Stray Cat Strut," an anthem raving finale
of macho bravado and sexual swagger from where it breE
a feline Casanova, and "Rumble In Also, "Bu
Brighton," concerning skinhead gangs minutes pla>
looking for trouble in the English seaside three solid
city with riffs from The Chantays' surf "Gonna Bal
classic, "Pipeline." superior tc
"Lonely Summer Nights," by Setzer, is Whiskey," f<
the only ballad on the album, sounding like the British
the heart and soul of the oldie "My Special "Crazy Mixi
Angel." I'm not a fan of Frankie and An- rampage by
nette-type ballads, but Setzer sings a lot these songs
better than Robert Gordon and avoids Elvis this Stray Ca
Presley parody. The saxophone solo adds
'50s credibility. FOR A li
Plav confronts t
m
By John Vaughan
It's a good thing the audience is sitting down when it attends
"The Birthday Party."
It's a good thing because the current production at
Longstreet Theatre does not unfold before the viewer's eyes
? it explodes into the viewer's senses, alternately drawing
every audience member to the edge of a comfortable theater
seat with curious humor, and slamming each viewer back
into the chair with strange terror.
The audience does "attend" this birthday party, as the
r?..u: 1??1-J A? ' ** * * ?
uiuiu-icvcieu poeiry 01 tiaroia jointer's script and the solid
sophistication of the USC production combine to throw the
audience into the action, forcing each viewer to confront the
drama on a personal level.
ON THE surface, "The Birthday Party" concerns six
characters, focusing on Stanley, a down-and-out pianist
existing in a dingy seaside boardinghouse.
The boardinghouse is run by Meg, a dirty, seemingly crazy
but motherly older woman, whose stifling affection toward
Stanley, her only boarder for apparently quite some time, is
almost incestous.
Meg lives with her old husband Petey, a quiet, complacent
and decent fellow who works as a deck chair hand and is
usually out of the house. There is also Lulu, the buxom, vapid
girl next door.
r_t? '
uiiu uus removea ana secure environment come two
sinister figures, who introduce themselves as Goldberg and
McCann. Although the audience is never given much specific
information as to any of the characters' backgrounds or
motivations, it is obvious the two men have come to "get"
Stanley.
ALL OF what is seen in "The Birthday Party" occurs in
about 24 hours. Meg, in another attempt to love Stanley,
I decides to give him a present and declares the day his birthday.
The slick Goldberg insists that a party be given that
evening.
The premise laid, the drama builds through a horrifying,
almost surreal party where Stanley is brutally interrogated
by the sinister duo and is finally broken in an awful game of
blindman's bluff.
"The Birthday Party" is surely one of the finest productions
at USC in recent memory, with purposeful direction by
Richard Jennings and exciting performances by the cast, all
from the theater department's master of fine arts program.
The show's effect is greatly enhanced hv Eric ShawQuinn's
set, which effectively uses Longstreet's value as a
theater-in-the-round, and Michael Reese's masterful
lighting.
-1-tiu ski is structured as a sort of four-sided diorama,
allowing each person in the theater a view into the boardinghouse.
The inside of the house is wonderfully detailed
with properties, and one staircase is employed as the
:ir rockabilly with ma
V1ISS PRISSY," sounding like a MHBWBWMBBiBr 1
of Chuck Berry's "Memphis," s
Don't Believe Me," featuring |
>r-sharp slide guitar, are less WBiipWWB|:.:
iginals than the previously
>ngs, but have their merits.
Speed" has three remakes, two
"Double Talkin' Baby" and v'
nie, Jeanie" ? are second-rate
ble Talkin' Baby" is frantic lIlilllB
while the latter sets Eddie -:
'C'mon Everybody" in rock ||8|ili
? tune has '50s song titles for |f|p 8
1 HUH
remake, Johnny Burnette's f?lllp
Eyes," is one of the strongest * >
i "Built For Speed," with
hantom and Setzer each > -iM
dividual talent. I SKil
it is the only song from 1982 and
song on the LP.
. \,<-Vf IBB
iuilt For Speed" is generally a
n, there are organization *
at should be attributed to EMI e
band's label, rather than the
um is drawn from cuts culled HHH
>us sessions and different Big
it lacks the unity of sound |
Sonna Ball." . ? , _ . _
ummer Nights" should be the Rocker, Brian Setzer and
?...A u ? YnrLorc lAjhn Knrl fn tmual in I
ucttn UII aiuc iwu ut'iui e a lu ??"?" "? <
rather than the second track, rockabilly is on an American r
iks up the music's flow.
ilt For Speed" is roughly 35 "Gonna Ball" and the British
ring time, and there is room for For Speed" is worth obtaining
tunes from "Gonna Ball": The Stray Cats have one
1," a straight rockabilly song rockabilly styles, with Setze
> this title cut; "Wicked distorted by echo and i
maturing Setzer's slide guitar on Rocker's acoustic bass, ar
T D'c? 1 Ari/x nofr **? im f 1 *\ r\ HnitYirviinrf An o ?v
iji o iuiiu uioii uiucuiai, auu U1 uiinuiiig uu a n
ed-Up Kid," the most searing bass, snare and cymbals,
the Stray Cats on record. All of Setzer is also a fine compos<
should have been included on genre suffering from a sevei
ts compilation. new ideas.
Rockabilly has been populai
stener who can't , get hold of 1 in Britain and Europe since tfc
it several levels
boardinghouse staircase, with any upstairs action played out <
of the audience's sight.
The lighting is not only noticeable, but important to the
play's interpretation. A humid, stifling evening is suggested
during the horrible interrogation by a warm, almost surreal
orange glow.
Ao Cfonln.. PK../.U 1 -i
110 oMjmtjf, v/iiuliv niicuci givc5 an diiccitu uui sirung
performance, especially striking in the second act as Stanley
is mentally tortured to the point of collapse.
Hope Nunnery's portrayal of Meg is vibrant, laced with
undertones of emotional or mental retardation. To Meg,
affection is instinctive, and Nunnery accents a physicality
and somewhat senile eroticism.
MICHAEL DOWELL, Mert Hatfield and Fredrica Lawlor
all turn in considered and individual performances as Petey,
McCann and Lulu, and I would mention a respect for
Dowell's devotion to detail ? he shaved the crown of his head
to play the balding old man.
The full terror of Pinter's wnrlr thnnoh ic Hriuon hnmo in
M .. w* waavM^caj AW \*A ft T VII IftV/lliV itl
an exceptional performance by Rich Berg as Goldberg. His
silent entrance is riveting, and throughout the drama the
actor's facial expression and stage presence are exciting to
observe.
These fine performances transmit the stage work on
several levels, with the central question being who are
Goldberg and McCann, and what do they want from Stanley?
While the play works as a poetic allusion on all of these
levels, the temptation to remove the uneasiness and terror
one feels as completely surreal is a grave mistake.'4TheBirthday
Party" touches themes of birth, death, human selfrespect
and Oedipal yearnings, and all are consistent with
another translation.
THE ULTIMATE translation must be personal, though this
reviewer might argue the interpretation of Goldberg and
McCann as emotions, as well as physical beings. The sinister
pair eventually take Stanley, in a catatonic (corpse-like?)
state, away in a big black car, and the feeling that this car is
his hearse is striking, since earlier Stanley scares Meg with a
story of "a big black van with a wheelbarrow (coffin) in it."
From what the men have taken Stanley is yet another
question. The clutches of a woman he simultaneously feels
guilt/hatred towaro (the Oedipus bit) and yet is overwhelmingly
dependent on? A wasted life as a "wash-out"
artist? The security of his child-like existence in Meg's
boardinghouse?
Disturbing implications will remain with the individual
viewer. This reviewer would recommend "The Birthday
Party" with a warning to audiences to be prepared to think.
"The Birthday Party" will run through Sunday, with
performances at 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow and a 3 p.m.
matinee Sunday. Tickets are $3.50 for the general public,
$2.50 for USC faculty/staff, senior citizens and military
personnel and $1.50 for students.
For more information, call the box office at 777-2551.
ximum rock-ability
BlL I
Hh 1
1 | 3l . - ~ ... _r gl ~ s> " ^ -
Slim Jim Phantom are the Stray Cats, a trio of New
England to establish their success. Now their rapid-fire
elease.
singles, "Built America any band playing rockabilly in the
'ttOs wnnlH tw rnncirloraH rntrAfrrnooi.m
of the purist precisely why the Stray Cats had to move to
r's vocals un- England to make the charts in 1981.
reverberation,
id Phantom's BUT THIS year The Blasters' debut made
linimal kit of the top 50 albums, Barry Manilow did a
remake of Shakin' Stevens' "Oh Julie" and
sr in a musical the Stray Cats are finally making headway
re shortage of in their native country.
r as cult music That's why 1982 may well be The Year of
le '50s, while in the Stray Cat.