i Arts & Entertainment
‘Nunsense’ is a divine musical comedy
with un-convent-ionally funny script
By Kari Kratky
Staff Reporter
“Nunsense,” a musical comedy
playing at Omaha’s Firehouse Dinner
Theatre, provides a refreshing change
from the traditional view of a nun’s
life.
The production tells the story of
four nuns and a mother superior who
put on a variety show to raise money.
The convent cook, Sister Julia —
“Child of God” — makes a soup that
causes 52 of the sisters to die of botu
lism. They manage to bury 48 of the
victims, but the mother superior buys
a Betamax with the rest of the money.
So the remaining dead sisters are put
in the freezer until funds can be raised
to bury them.
Blue nun,anyone?
Through off-the-wall humor,
“Nunscnse” pokes fun at growing up
Catholic and at religion in general.
Each of the five actresses success
fully portrayed a memorable, unique
character. Their strong voices
blended well in the show’s catchy
songs. All the parts were well cast and
performed.
Picture five nuns kicking in a
chorus line, tap-dancingorprescnling
a short, one-scene ballet, “The Dying
Nun.” Envision them showing home
movies like “Nunja” or promoting a
recipe book entitled “Baking with the
B VM.” These antics and more appear
on stage at the Firehouse.
“Nunscnse” is a purely entertain
ing, hilarious show. Due to its popu
larity, it has been held over twice. It
will run through Sunday.
Ohlsson mixes classical, modem
By Micki Haller
Senior Editor
Garrick Ohlsson’s superlative
performance of modem and classic
music earned him the adoration and
respect of the audience Saturday.
Ohlsson was called back to the
stage twice after Schubert’s Fantasy
*People tend to
prefer dead com
posers. '
—Ohlsson
WNHNMMi
in C Major, Opus 15,and played three
encores after a standing ovation.
His nimble fingers at times raced
through runs and across the keyboard
with dazzling skill, but sometimes
lovingly caressed the music and let it
linger forever.
His machine-gun piano technique
shone during the performance of Six
New Etudes by George Pcrlc. Writ
i—■
ten in 1984, the 12-tone music is a
nervous reflection of our times. Like
our society, the moods and trends of
the piece change as quickly as stop
lights.
Ohlsson said this was the Ne
braska premiere of the piece.
Before playing the Pcrle piece,
Ohlsson took a moment to explain it.
“People tend to get very scared by
(modem music). People tend to pre
fer dead composers,” he said.
“Don’t struggle. It won’t do any
good.” The audience laughed.
Ohlsson’s last piece, Barber’s
Sonata, Opus 26, was written in 1950.
Many segments were almost dream
like, and it was impossible to tell
where the sounds stopped and
started.
Ohlsson also played Beethoven’s
Sonata in E major.
The classical pieces were tenderly
played and brought to life although
the composers have been dead for
centuries.
This was the first time Ohlsson
had played the Schubert and Pcrle
pieces, he said.
“The Beethoven is a very, very old
friend,” he said.
Besides playing the piano,
Ohlsson said, he is an avid reader,
likes to spend time with friends, and
plays tennis and pingpong.
“I’m pretty average,” he said.
An admirer protested.
“In most things, I’m pretty aver
age.”
Ohlsson said he developed his
technique through practice.
“I am naturally gifted for the pi
ano,” he said, but he credited his
teachers with shaping that talent.
He said he’s gone through two
technical overhauls.
“It’s hard to describe that in
words,” he said. “It would take hours,
and it still won’t be clear.”
He said Olga Barabini taught him
to play with less tension and Irma
Wolpc introduced him to 20th-cen
tury music.
“I like mixing music,” Ohlsson
said after the concert.
“Sometimes people arc more
apprehensive about new music. I like
to break the ice,” he said.
He said he hated all-modern
niusic concerts because it is hard for
him to digest five pieces of new
music at one sitting.
Classical and contemporary mu
sic play off each other, he said.
“I choose the music because I love
it and believe in it,” he said.
-1
Professor aims at teaching art
of turning stones into weapons
By Micki Haller
Senior Editor
In 40 minutes, 277 people
poured into the Encounter Center at
Morrill Hall Sunday and saw a re
search associate in anthropology
knap (lint.
Flint knapping is the time-hon
ored Indian art of making arrow
heads.
More than 50 people crowded
around Peter Bleed to watch him
transform stones into weapons and
tools.
“To make a good one, two hours
isn’t too long,” Bleed said, but an
arrowhead can be made in as little
as 45 minutes.
Bleed said he learned how to
knap flint from a man in Idaho who
had taught himself how to make
stone tools.
He became interested in know
ing how people made tools because
he wanted to know more than ar
chaeological names and dates, he
said.
“If we know how they made
artifacts, we might be able to know
how they lived,” Bleed said.
People came from around the
region to the demonstration.
Eslalinc Carpenter and Ceres
Henkel of Fairbury saw the flint
knapping on a morning TV program
and decided to see it firsthand . They
brought Henkel’s two grandchil
dren and a friend.
“Basically, we’re interested in
museum-type things,” Henkel said.
“But this rock knapping is so inter
esting.”
Stan Jensen, an associate profes
sor in plant pathology at the Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln, said he
came to the demonstration to learn
more about flint-knapping.
Many people brought arrow
heads and other artifacts. An arrow
head buried in a vertebra was
passed around.
Peggy Engelman, Encounter
Center coordinator, said people are
just interested in making arrow
heads.
She said she thought the nice
weather Sunday had a lot to do with
the turnout.
The flint-knapping program is
fourth in the Encounter Center’s
“Sunday Afternoon with a Scien
tist” series.
Brett Ratcliffc, curator of ento
mology for the University of Ne
braska State Museum, will give a
program about insects on April 10.
All programs arc at the Encoun
ter Center at Morrill Hall from 2 to
4 p.m.
Justine Bateman in “Satisfaction.”
‘Satisfaction predictable
and entertainingly dumb
By William Rudolph
Staff Reviewer
Somebody thought they had a
good idea. Somebody at NBC Pro
ductions came up with the brilliant
concept: “Why don’t we do a story
about a struggling blue-collar band,
fighting inner turmoil and outside
pressures, with only one summer to
make or break it? And let’s throw in
a twist: they’re a girl group.,. well,
we’d better throw in a guy forequal
ity, but a nice guy. A kind of nerdy
guy, but nice. And let’s throw in
some sexual tension, some laughs
and a cameo by a big-time rock star,
just to add some punch.
“Nowall we need is a catchy title.
What about . . . yeah, let’s call it
Satisfaction!’ That way, you can
look at it from all the angles: the
rock song (and let’s have it open the
movie, loo), as a metaphor for the
band’s summer triumph playing to
all those little Long Island preppies,
and let’s let the public think it’s a
double entendre too. After all,
they’re a girl band (whoops, there is
that one guy). But he’s nice. Oh
yeah, and let’s make them all won
der if Justine Bateman chose this
title to get even with Michael J.
rox.
Well, gee, that’s the movie in a
nutshell. The opening credits should
have warned me. When I saw the
name Aaron Spelling — creator of
“Dynasty,” “Charlie’s Angels” and
“The Love Boat” — that should
have alerted me that NBC Produc
tions’“Satisfaction” was going lobe
nothing more than a 90-minutc TV
movie with four-letter words (no
skin — after all. it’s PG-13). Be
sides, what would Steven, Elysc and
Alex say if sweet little Mallory
bared her breasts on screen? Don’t
forget who’s producing the film.
‘Satisfaction” revolves around
the band Mystery. We get Bateman
(with a New York accent, no less) as
a teen-age Joan Jett. But, hey, she’s
also valedictorian of her class and a
scholarship recipient, no doubt due
to her graduation speech in which
she stirs her generation to make a
difference instead of getting sub
verted by the “tccho-tit” of today’s
society. She also playsamcan guitar
and cowbell. Also in the band is the
only other known actress, Trini
Alvarado (“Times Square”), as
Mooch, a tough gangster in black
leather who plays a mean set ol
drums. Tocomplctc this happy little
quintet, we’ve got Britla Phillips as
Billy, the lead guitarist and druggie
extraordinaire. If Justine’s Joan Jell,
then Britta’s the jailbail Lita Ford]
lor sure. Oh yeah, don’t forget
Nickie, the nice guy from across the
street (Scott Coffey) who’s into
classical music and is recruited by
Justine and company to play key
boards. Whoops, we forgot Daryle
(Julia Roberts — why do all these
girls have masculine names?), the
“slut on her good days” who does
eerie things with her chin while
jamming on bass between intense
perusals of the upper classes.
Mystery (how aptly named)
manages to get itself hired to play
the whole summer at the Long Is
land resort bar of Martin Falcon
(Liam Necson), a washed-up alco
holic record producer who hates
them on sight.
In due time, all the usual TV
movie complications occur: Nickie
falls for Mooch, who’s really a
pretty shy girl underneath her mop
of hair and the black leather gear
that she wears to the beach; Daryle
decides she doesn't want to be just a
sex plaything for both the law
school snobs summering at the re
sort and her blue-collar boyfriend;
and the Falcon falls for Justine and
begins to write songs again. He also
wants to gel them a job touring the
dives of Europe.
But there are problems: Can
Justine abandon her college plans?
Will the summer of love last? Just
what kind of an accent docs that
smooth Falcon dude speak in, any
way? Will Billy get off drugs be* fore
they kill her? Why is Mooch called
thai.'
If Justine’s Joan
Jett, then Briita’s the
jailbait Ufa Ford.
I
Of course, I don’t want to spoil
the ending, but common sense and
friendship prevail and it all ends
happily for everyone except the
Falcon. You know he’s not a good
guy: He drinks and smokes in
today’s “Just Say No” era.
The acting in “Satisfaction can
best be described as remarkably
noteworthy, considering the lines
the cast has to deliver. The rock
sequences with Mystery aren’t all
that bad — it’s just hard to keep a
straight face while they jam out to
covers of Aimcc Stewart’s 1979
disco hit “Knock on Wood” and the
original musical source for the Oreo
Big Stuff commercial.
The best thing in “Satisfaction
is unquestionably Debbie Harry,
even if she’s only on the screen lor
about three minutes. Deb has two
linesand is given third billing for her
See SATISFACTION ori 7
