friday, October 6, 1978
page 8
daily nebraskan
arts and entertainment
Eccentric play successful due to fine acting, director
By Alexander Germaine
It is hard to see the validity of Harold
Pinter's play The Caretaker in the mood of
society today. The '60s had their experi
ments and I'm not sure if some of Pinter's
work is not one of them. Time will tell.
The Caretaker is at the Studio Theatre.
Special attention needs to be focused on
Myron Papich as the old man Davies. It is
a difficult undertaking for a young actor to
play an old man, but Papich's performance
was well rounded and convinced the audi
ence that this was indeed an old, decaying
man.
movie review
His research must have been detailed as
the results were startlingly exact. The few
good laughs in the show are due to the
singleness of purpose of this old tramp.
Fine acting
In a most difficult soliloquy, Larry
Petersen, as the dim-witted Aston, made
his character clearer to the audience. With
accurate hidden reasoning his acting por
trayed a stiffness that became frighteningly
realistic.
The aggressive character Mick was well
portrayed by Steve Houser. His delivery of
lines was the most believable of the charac
ters and his energy often was very refresh
ing in an otherwise subdued scene.
Pinter's play deals with listening. It is
about the times when we are silent and a
flood of language is spoken underneath and
how during the most florid conversations
people often don't hear each other.
It is easy to group works of this kind
into a category of absurdist drama with
such playwrights as Beckett and Ionesco.
Come together
Meanings are unclear and the audience is
consistently challenged to make it all come
together. I'm not sure it is meant to come
together in any particular way. The
message one person receives may be differ
ent than another's. Herein lies it strength
and weakness.
Some dramatists have said Pinter's work
is better left for the British. Because the
subtleness and the limited framework is
part of British lifestyle it is better under
stood by them.
The show was directed by UNL theatre
major Joe McNeely. If the thorough char
acterizations had anything to do with his
directing he deserves particular merit for
finally bringing acting to the theatre
department. His blocking was fluid and
worked in the framework of the stage he
had to work with. Any other type of stage
might not have been as communicative.
Well done, old chap
The technical end was unobtrusive as it
should be and everyone did their job professionally.
TiAr( have heen manv college produc
tions that have attempted to do accents of
one type or another and most of them are
not successfully done. It is therefore a
pleasant surprise to find British accents
that are consistent throughout the run.
The show was long and the audience got
very uneasy in the uncomfortable seats of
the Studio Theatre. But if one wants to see
some fine acting, The Caretaker will con
tinue to run through October 8.
PS
o
Photo by Ted Kirk
Playing the dim-witted Aston in The Caretaker, Larry Peterson portrays a frightening reality of his character.
Powerful DEVO album riding New Wave crest to top
By Jeff Taebel
Q: Are We Not Men? A : We Are DEVO!
Thus spake Mark Mothersbaugh, lead
singer and frontman for DEVO, a five
piece band from Akron, Ohio that seems
destined to make a big splash on the New
Wave music scene.
Q: A rC We Not Men? We Are DEVO! is
the title of the band's debut album as well
as a line from its critically acclaimed, if not
financially successful, single of last spring,
"Jocko Homo."
album review
Q: Are We Not Men? A : We Art DEVO!
is one of the most enjoyable albums of the
year and perhaps one of the best New Wave
releases since the musical form was intro
duced. Bizarre vocals
DEVO's instrumentation features three
guitars, bass, drums and occasional syn
thesizer, and lead vocalist Mark Mothers
baugh delivering some of the most intense,
bizarre vocals this side of the Talking
Reads.
Side one of the album opens with a gut
wrenching rocker entitled "Uncontrollable
Urge." This number is followed by a neo
punk, neo-disco rendition of "(I Can't
Get No) Satisfaction" that owes very little
to the Rolling Stones' original.
The next two songs, "Praying Hands"
and "Space Junk" are interesting, but
J 4 rX
1 I m 0v 11 f- I f
Art courtesy Warner Brothers Records Inc.
DEVO's new album may be the best New Wave entry yet.
lack the power and depravity of the side's
closing numbers, "Mongoloid" and "Jocko
Homo."
"Mongoloid" is an example of DEVO at
its hard -rocking best. The song's strong
bass line is punctuated by razor sharp
guitar scratching and some slipping, sliding
synthesizer work that make it sound as
though it were recorded at sea.
De-evolution theory
Side one is closed with "Jocko Homo,"
DEVO's mini-treatise on the theory of
de-evolution, which suggests that we may
be reverting back to our simian ancestry.
"Jocko Homo" changes time signatures
freely and the band's vocals on this number
are out of this world. The song also has
some excellent lines, such as: "They tell
us thatWe've lost our tailsEvolving
upFrom little snailsI say it's allJust
wind in sailsAre we not men?We are
DEVO!"
Side two opens with a dark trip through
the American world of advertising called
"Too Much Paranoias." This tune is
followed by another powerful rocker in
two parts, entitled "Gut Feeling (Slap
Your Mammy)."
The album's last three songs, "Come
Back Jonee," "Sloppy (I Saw My Baby
Get tin')" and "Shrivel Up" are not easily
accessible at first, but begin to grow on
you after a few listenings, as does the
whole album.
On the basis of its debut album, DEVO
has established itself as being a musical
force to be reckoned with. One hopes
that it will present its public with a second
release.