Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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. 4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, October 10, 2003 CONTACT US EMPEB0R S;)11 *1 Story ideas? Questions? Comments? a book, and those who do not travel E-mail us at gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.conj • read only a page.” PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK South of the Border and the scenic grounds of Drayton Hall plantation are alternative destinations for the fall traveler. THEATER REVIEW ‘Gut Girls’runs out of momentum “GUT GIRLS” *★* out of ☆<?☆☆☆ BY GRAHAM CULBERTSON THE HAMECOCK USC’s new Black Box Theatre is definitely black. It is also defi nitely hot. For the Wednesday night production of “Gut Girls,” however, it was mostly just hot. “Gut Girls” is a loosely femi nist, loosely anti-Christian play about five girls who work in a London slaughterhouse at the turn of the century. We are intro duced to the girls through the eyes of Annie (Ashley Kolaya), the newest member of the gut girls. At the slaughterhouse, they are responsible for gutting re cently butchered animals. Looked down upon by almost all of the other characters in the play, the gut girls survive horrible work ing conditions for much higher pay than they would receive else where, and they love spending their money on beer and fancy new hats. In the opening scene, none of the girls establish themselves as clearly distinguishable charac ters. Maggie (Raia Hirsch) is the most clear-eyed and levelheaded member of the group and seems to be the spiritual leader. She is also the only actor who maintains a plausible cockney accent in the first scene, as the other girls all struggle with their speech. Besides Maggie and Annie, the gut girls are: Polly (Nicol Cabe), who cracks terrible puns throughout the whole play; Ellen (Laura Rikard), an activist who talks about trade unions and re fuses to eat meat; and Kate (Jessica Wharton), the youngest gut girl, who is teased for her ro mance with Jim (Ben Compton). Although the gut girls live and work in squalid conditions, they are not especially worried about their plight, and they manage to rely on each other to have fun in the face of poverty. Enter Lady Helena (Beth Hitesman), a Christian noble woman who-feels sorry for the girls and takes it upon herself to improve their lives. Lady Helena establishes a “club” in which the girls will learn how to live prop er lives with proper employment —albeit lower paying - and uses her connections with Authur (Richie Gross), the aristocratic slaughterhouse owner, to ensure that the girls will come. Although Lady Helena means well and the play refrains from, making her an out-and-out vil lain, her actions cost the gut girls their jobs. They have no choice but to go “in service” in rich households, a poorly paid posi tion where they can easily be exploited. After the slaughterhouse clos es, the girls must make their own choices and they gradually appear on stage together less and less. As Lady Helena works to separate the gut girls, the play loses much of its narrative drive and seems to lack focus. We still follow the stories of each girl, but they are increasingly unrelated. Although the play’s early mo ments are excellent, excluding the opening scene, the second half simply cannot maintain the mo mentum. Priscilla (Rebecca' Williams), Arthur’s wife and Lady Helena’s friend, gains a big ger role, and it is well worth it. Williams’ performance is easily the best in the play. Dominated by both her hus band and Lady Helena, the timid and frail Priscilla floats uncer tainly through each of her scenes. At the mercy of all the other characters, the plight of this frightened noblewoman is even more pathetic than that of the gut girls. Despite this excellent perfor mance, the second half as a whole has difficulty making sense. As . the play went on, the audience clearly started feeling the cheap plastic chairs, and the heat be came nearly unbearable — as did the rap music blaring out of cars on Wheat Street. Although the cast does an ex cellent job with what it has to work with, particularly those playing the gut girls and the two noblewomen, poor source mate rial and a shoddy venue ulti mately make this play a mediocre experience. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@kotmail.com r ___ Thei. i i ndiscowed country A wealth of regional sites lie off the usual tourist-traveled path, and Fall Break offers USC students the chance PIT to explore some of South Carolina’s unique attractions pg^* BY MEG MOORE THE GAMECOCK Time flies when you are having fun — especially when you are at tempting to balance that fun with classes and work and various other obligations. For many students, the first half of the fall semester has been a blur of late nights spent studying and early mornings fu eled by Cinnabon and coffee. And there is still another eight weeks to go. During the past week, students have been especially pressed to fin ish papers and study for midterms as today, the halfway point in the semester, comes and goes. Thankfully, the powers-that-be — the ever-important ones who dictate the academic calendar — have recognized this added strain on students’ sanity and respond ed accordingly. From their mercy, Fall Break was born. Anxious to escape the stresses of school life, students are look ing forward to spending the four day weekend away from their studies. Although she only had “one lonely midterm,” third-year po litical science student Brie Wallace is anxious to escape cam pus for a well-deserved four-day weekend. “I am going home to a state that actually gets cool in the fall — Tennessee. I can’t wait to actual ly go outside and have to wear a sweater!” she said. Like Wallace, many students have made plans to return home for Fall Break, using their ex tended weekend to catch up with family and friends. Others intend to spend the time with their USC friends, whether in Columbia or elsewhere. For those who have yet to make definitive plans, plenty of places within the Palmetto State deserve a visit. Pull out your road maps, grab your favorite CDs and fill the gas tank — an assortment of mid-autumn ad ventures await those still look ing for something to do during their Fall Break. ♦ SOUTH OF THE BORDER, DILLON In a way, it is South Carolina’s version of the World’s Biggest Ball of Yam. It has the requisite string of billboards and all the Tijuana tinged tourist trinkets you could ever hope to crowd your car’s back window with. ♦ SERPENTARIUM, 1374 HIGHWAY 174, EDISTO ISLAND The name “ssssells” itself. Edisto Island’s Serpentarium is home to all things reptile. From ♦ COUNTRY, SEE PAGE 5 PHOTO BY MORGAN FORD/THE GAMECOCK Chris Roberts, a first-year psychology student, plans on spending some quality time with his skateboard this Fall Break. I CD REVIEW Mix-master Paul Oakenfold melds divergent melodies on his latest two-disc release, “Perfecto Presents Paul Oakenfold — Great Wall.” On his previous albums, Oakenfold has all but perfected the art of producing catchy, yet original tunes. His new release exemplifies the same electric style he has become known for, yet falls flat In some places with Its reliance on guest vocalists to carry the sound. Artists such as Madonna add definitive star power to Oakenfold’s most recent effort, but they also detract from the usual peculiarity of his techno-style tunes. PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Oakenfold experiments with technopop “PERFECTO PRESENTS PAUL OAKENFOLD - GREAT WALL” Paul Oakenfold ★★★★ out of COREY GARRIOTT THE GAMECOCK DJ Paul Oakenfold is allowed to be less than perfect. After all, he is basically No. 1. But his lat est album, the two-disc “Perfecto Presents Paul Oakenfold — Great Wall” oscillates between his usu ally inspired trance to some rather dry house music in places. Inspired riffs abound on “Perfecto Presents.” Most of the first CD in the double set uses sweet rambling keyboards, and Oakenfold’s remix of “Requiem for a Dream” gives the song an X Files-like science-fiction inter pretation. This'first CD could be sold alone. The only problem is the punctuation — he surrounds the superb tracks with a pre dictable, never-ending first track and ends with a ho-hum Madonna riff. The second CD works even better. “Hypnotized” and “Deep South” would make great rave anthems. Oakenfold might-be ex perimenting with discordance on “Emit/Collect,” which dis obeys some of the rules of strict melody. In fact, with near-perfect artists like Oakenfold, the devi ations from perfect are often more interesting to discuss. The problem with tracks like “Nugen” might be the singing. BT, ATB and Oakenfield himself prove you can sing to electroni cs. But the first track of the al bum exemplifies where the trend goes wrong. The song won’t stop warming up, and the overbear ing female vocals repeat a cho rus like a broken record. Rather than his house-influ enced trance, Oakenfield gets off track spinning trance-influenced house. Four bass-drum beats a measure; a snare hit on every second. No break beats. But Oakenfold prides himself on doing good mixes of pop hits. Maybe it is simply a matter of taste, but the Madonna mix seems too pop, too Madonna and not enough trance. The song might as well have been mixed by the material girl her self because her voice is not treated as one of the instru ments - it dominates. No one explores techno for easy listening. It even sounds out of place. Oakenfield gives some singers too much reign. Bjork in “Pagan Poetry” gives a pretty easy example because of her un mistakable voice. Techno is peculiar. Good tech no cannot revolve around the strength of a singer’s voice like a band can. It is fun to hear be cause it juggles several interwo ven melodies - techno music is the mix. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockmixeditor@notmail.com