MARCH 11, 1994

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

17

ENTERTAINMENT

And the Beat goes on

The Life and Times

of Allen Ginsberg Cleveland Cinematheque

Reviewed by Joseph Morris Few outspoken twentieth century Americans have been able to weather the last five decades without becoming either passé or pop culture. One of the hold-outs is that icon from the 1950s Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg. Most references to the man attach the qualifier, poet Allen Ginsberg, categorizing him according to his original claim to fame, but Ginsberg has long ago transcended that simple occupation.

The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, a 1992 film playing at the Cinematheque in March, chronicles the man's upbringing, influences, friends and ultimately his impact on the American public. According to this tribute, Ginsberg was one of the key figures who moved the country's younger population from the reflective and restless 1950s into the enlightened activism of the 1960s. In the process, the art of poetry shifted from reflective observation to a battle cry and a call to consciousness. Ginsberg himself metamorphosized through the years, moving from outrage to a more peaceful and mature being but never becoming the status quo. Always the rebel, Ginsberg has respectably held himself away from the establishment; a curiosity, perhaps, but never an oddity.

The film takes no groundbreaking approach; it is in the form of a standard biographical documentary. But don't nod off; the richness of the material and the personality of the subject make it well worth seeing. Interviews and photographs with Ginsberg's cronies and contemporaries Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, William Burroughs, and others--bring a real focus to the nurturing process that was taking place in the coffeehouses of the 1950s.

To gay audiences, Ginsberg is a breath of fresh air. Terrified of his homosexuality, his cautious teenage coming out announcement is greeted with a general "so what?" by his artistic friends. Ever since then, he has worn this badge proudly. There are the casually and ambiguously explained sleeping arrangements with Kerouac and others; the film also describes how Ginsberg devoted

himself at first glance to poet Peter Orlovsky for a life-long relationship. In the 1990's segment, mention is made of problems that Orlovsky has been having, with the implication that the two lovers have been separated for awhile.

Filmmaker Jerry Aronson, who first met Ginsberg during the Democratic Convention demonstrations in 1968, spent 10 years compiling his material with the full cooperation of his subject and friend. Perhaps the working title was "Mama's Boy"; frequent third-party references are made of the lasting impact Ginsberg suffered while caring for and then being separated from his mentally unstable mother. But this good Jewish boy suffered gladly. He remained devoted to mother and father (who also wrote poetry and read selections with his more famous son) until their deaths.

Aronson spans Ginsberg across the decades, inter-cutting early era material with later television appearances. The choice of interviews on the smug William F. Buckley's Firing Line in the late 1960s and Dick Cavett's more liberal 1970s show is able to accentuate both Ginsberg's and the country's evolution. We get to hear him read the works that launched him onto center stage, "Howl" and "Kaddish." We see him chanting the "Om" mantra to sedate the restless youths in Chicago. We see him as radical and peacemaker in one.

In its generally chronological progression the film is evenly paced until it rushes through the 1980s. On the other side we find Ginsberg displaying his photographs in galleries and publishing a book of them. The loop is closed; we're again looking at the photographs from his childhood, from his beatnik, hippie, yippie, and flower child stages. Allen the poet, not the poetry itself, is the commodity now. Still writing, still proudly gay, still beating to his own rhythm, Ginsberg never made a "comeback" like that other 1950s fixture, Richard Nixon: Allen Ginsberg never left.

The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg is playing Fri., March 25 at 9:30 pm; Sat., March 26 at 7:30 pm; and Sun., March 27 at 10 pm. The Cleveland Cinematheque is in the Cleveland Institute of Art building, 11141 East Blvd., University Circle. Call 421-7450.

Lyric Opera brings cabaret weekends to downtown

Lyric Opera Cleveland will attempt the unusual and the unimaginable when it brings cabaret entertainment to downtown Cleveland for two weekends in March.

Cabaret at the Cafe Impromptu will feature I Don't Think I'll Fall in Love Today, running the weekend of March 11-12. Paula Cabot will present an evening of familiar and little-known standards by the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, Cole Porter and contemporary composers like William Bolcom. She will be accompanied by pianist Jack Wil-

son.

Cabot is an accomplished Milwaukeebased singer and actress whose work has been seen in Chicago and New York. She has appeared in Girl Crazy, Lady in the Dark, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Threepenny Opera, Candide and Sondheim's Into the Woods.

Lyric Opera's second cabaret weekend, Please Bring Me a Trout, will run March 25-26 and draws upon the brilliant irreverence of two classic comic geniuses, Beatrice Lillie and Noel Coward. Wendy Lehr and Gary Briggle will bring to life the madness and impudence that marked the works of Lillie and Coward. They will be accompanied by pianist Anita Ruth.

Briggle is well-known to Lyric Opera audiences. He most recently appeared as Voltaire/Dr. Pangloss in last summer's production of Candide. He also participated in Lyric's world premiere of Libby Larson's opera Mrs. Dalloway in the role of Septimus Warren Smith.

Wendy Lehr is associate artistic director of the Children's Theatre Co. in Minneapolis. For Lyric Opera she has directed productions of Puccini's La Rondine and Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio. She has appeared on stage in The Tempest, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and The Pirates of Penzance. Her television credits include two commercials in which she appeared as a chicken.

Cabaret performances will be held in the Van Sweringen Arcade, a lovely Beaux

Arts atrium located at 101 Prospect Ave., at the corner of Prospect and W. 2nd St, adjacent to Tower City. Catering will be provided by Piperade.

The Friday performances start at 6:30 pm, allowing for downtown workers to stick around and catch a show. Saturday shows are at 7:00 pm and 9:30 pm. Tickets are $15 and are available from the Lyric Opera box office at 231-2910. ✓

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