SEPTEMBER 3, 1993 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 21
ENTERTAINMENT
Conflicts of reason and order in season opener
Redevelopment or Slum Clearance by Vaclav Havel
Working Theatre Through October 3
Reviewed by Barry Daniels
Vaclav Havel's Redevelopment or Slum Clearance, being given its North American premiere at the Working Theatre, brings together an eccentric group of characters in a comically convoluted plot that manages to comment on the political changes in Eastern Europe of the past decade as well as provide insight into the human condition. It is a dazzling blend of intellectual dialects and comic technique.
In the play, a group of state-supervised architects has been sent to study a small Eastern European town in order to develop a plan to replace the medieval slums with a modern housing project. Housed in a medieval castle overlooking the town, the architects engage in a complicated series of romantic relationships and ideological conflicts.
The project director, Bergman, a striking combination of existential despair, infantilism, crude sexuality and pragmatism, is involved in a co-dependant affair with Luisa, a middle-aged woman confronting the futility of this relationship. Both Luisa, and her opposite, the sexually innocent young woman, Renata, fall in love with the dashing young rebel architect, Albert. At the level of these personal relationships the action twists and turns like a Feydeau farce and includes drunken confessions, suicide attempts, and shattered illusions.
Albert and Ulch engage in an ideological debate on the meaning of architecture, which forms another axis of the action. Albert stands for an organic humanistic approach to creating the human environment, while Ulch argues in defense of scientific and
technological progress. Albert is all emotion; Ulch is on the side of reason and order. Changes of leadership and government policy further complicate the action as we watch the architects respond to the freedom that replaces the totalitarian regime and then to a moderate return to a new "order."
Director Walter E. Grodzik has placed the audience on four sides of a rectangular stage. Designer Amie Albert has traced a map of the town on the stage floor and drawn large architectural blueprints of housing projects on one of the walls. By making artful use of the many entrances into the room as well as of the gallery above, Grodzik effectively surrounds the audience with the action. If not entirely successful at finding a balance between the play's farcical elements and its scenes of psychological realism, the production is always engaging, often amusing and occasionally affecting. Grodzik is particularly good at capturing the rhythm of farce in the frantic pace of the entrances and exits, and he is successful in letting the human qualities develop realistically in the principal characters.
There are several performances of note in the generally excellent cast (which includes four Cleveland-based Equity actors). Chuck Richie gives a solid comic reading of the prissy, robot-like Special Secretary who acts as a policeman for the state. Jodie Maile, as the physically and socially awkward Mrs. Macourkova, has just the right amount of pathetic charm to make her foolishness endearing.
After an awkward first scene composed of forced grimaces, Catherine Albers succeeds in finding the emotional reality of Luisa and gives a moving portrayal which centers the human drama of the play. Karrie King is delightfully naive and earnest as Renata. Tim Redmond is all youthful blus-
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Venus Infers
Reviewed by Cheetah
What is Venus Infers? "Goddamn esoteric perverts" does sort of sum it up.
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It's not the glitz of the now fully-acceptable (politically correct?) On Our Backs. But it sort of reminds me of OOB in the 80s. It has that core honesty, the integrity I feel in the eyes of a lover before her fist slides in. It has the "leather dyke" directive of Bad Attitude, which has remained faithful to its audience. This quarterly magazine is composed in a manner that reflects the experience of the staff-these girls have never worn leather just 'cause it looks good.
The fiction makes perfect early morning reading, I read "Butch Baiting" twice. Okay, three times. The photography is hot and all very well done. I hope it sets a precedent. The first issue of Venus Infers covers the latest in dyke world-gender lines. They show "Taylor and Her Daddy Sita" and interview Dyke Daddy II Skeeter and her boy Jaime. The combination of viewing them and breaking my finger while replacing floor molding in my kitchen elicited an oath from me to give a little more attention to my butch self.
An essay by Pat Califia, "Who is My Sister?" provides the "esoteric." She does an excellent analysis on the issue of gender identity as it affects inclusion policies in our community, specifically the Powersurge Conference. This is an annual "leather dyke" extravaganza which by nature of its being finds itself defining "leather" and struggling to define "dyke." We have male-tofemale transsexuals and female-to-male transsexuals in our community and with any new growth there are pains.
Pat Califia points out in her essay something I've stressed for years: "Our society literally does not permit gender-ambiguous people to exist." I thought she went a little
hard on the female-to-males. Some of them do not intend to go all the way with the transsexual process, and I feel this leaves a valuable concept to explore. A concept of not "male" nor "female." An "Orlandonian" paradox? The greater society has arbitrarily gender-defined hermaphrodites for decades, at a great loss to our own well-being, I believe. Although Pat also asserts, "The lesbian community is being blamed for some of the stress and ambiguity that is an inevitable part of sex reassignment." What can we and what should we take responsibility for? Definitely something to contemplate. "Talking Dirty With Net Sluts," an informational discussion of lesbian computer "net-sex" is now placed neatly next to my newly installed modem. What good timing.
What is it missing? Well, for one an overflowing personals section, but I'm sure that will fill up fast. Additionally, I would love to see periodic "how to" articles that reflect what Dorothy Allison charmingly referred to as "fashions of play" when she interviewed for OOB (July/Aug '93-an interview worth the price of that magazine alone). Play technique and safety is always needed information. West Coast communities have the benefit of living in an area that can in many ways be greatly supportive and enhances the evolution of new ideas. We dykes out here in the Midwest appreciate
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ter and gush, as Albert. Although both Allen Leatherman (Ulch) and Mitchell Fields (Bergman) are convincing, neither actor found the appropriate comic edge to the character. Violinist Bruce Erwin is perfect as Plekhanov. He is the artist, a comic figure in pale blue pajamas and a red silk robe and nightcap, who exists at the margins of society. He observes, and his violin sings. His fate may well be Havel's bleakest comment on the direction our world is taking.
The peasants who inhabit the medieval slums, the arIchitects in the castle, and their supervisors in Redevelopment form a microcosm that represents life in Eastern Europe today. It is a view from within: playwright Havel, as President of the Czech Republic, has participated in the difficult political and social transitions that are still in process.
LOUIS MCCLUNG
Catherine Albers and Timothy Redmond are two architects designing a housing project for a vanishing regime.
The play concludes with a state of resigned confusion after the unproductive euphoria of liberation. It contains a despair that is much deeper than the existential angst of Project Director Bergman. But Havel also captures the way people live their personal dramas in the midst of political turmoil: it is the stuff of life's never-ending farce. This unique combination of politics and life makes for a thoroughly engaging evening in the theatre. It is an auspicious
debut for the Cleveland theatre season.
Performances at the Pilgrim Church, W. 14th St. and Starkweather Ave. in Tremont, continue through October 3, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm, except Labor Day weekend. Tickets are $10, $7.50 for students and seniors. For reservations call 696-9600.
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