Arts & Entertainment
Adventurous comedy leaves audience cold
By Julie Naughton
Senior Reporter
Any form of adultery is a risky
attraction these days, but Tri-Star
Pictures’ new release, “I Love You
To Death,” humorously depicts a world
where there is plenty more than sex
ual disease to fear.
Based on a true story, ‘ * I Love Y ou
To Death” tells the tale of Joey (Kevin
- •
Kline), an Italian husband with a
wandering eye. The opening scene
shows him in a confessional, telling
the priest of the 12 times (‘‘Well,
actually, Father, maybe 13. Some
times it’s hard to tell, you know”)
that he has committed adultery in the
past week.
It is obvious to others that Joey is
a cheater. It is obvious to the employ
ees of Joey’s pizza restaurant, par
ticularly the pizzeria’s right-hand man,
Dcvo (River Phoenix). It is obvious to
Joey’s Yugoslavian mother-in-law,
Nadja (Joan Plowright).
They try to inform Joey’s wife
Rosalie (Tracey Ullman) of these
indiscretions, but Rosalie refuses to
believe it.
Rosalie believes Joey when he heads
out with a toolbox and says he’s going
to fix some woman’s pipes.
But she quickly acknowledges the
situation when she secs Joey making
out in the town library with another
woman.
She is so angry that she wants to
kill the rat.
To her surprise, her mother and
Devo wholeheartedly agree that Joey
should meet an untimely end and they
plot to knock him off.
First, they try to kill him by adding
two bottles of sleeping pills to his
spaghetti. That doesn’t work. Then,
Devo tries to shoot him. He lands a
bullet in Joey’s head, but a sleepy
Joey only says he has a headache.
Then Devo hires a couple of
drugged-out amateur hit men (Wil
liam Hurt and Keanu Reeves) to fin
ish the job. They get a round off in his
chest, but he’s still not dead, and Joey
doesn’t even seem to realize that people
are trying to kill him.
Eventually, the police show up,
Joey wises up, and the film winds into
an ironic story of zany true love.
The film’s best performance is
turned in by River Phoenix. His por
trayal of the New Age pizza em
ployee - who pines away for Rosalie
— is quite funny.
But this movie leaves the audience
cold - neither the actors nor the screen
writers seem to care about the charac
ters.
‘‘I Love You To Death” is playing
at the Cooper Lincoln Theatre, 54th
and O streets.
Courtesy of Trl Star Pictures
Cousins Harlan (William Hurt, left) and Marlon (Keanu Reeves) are druggie incompetents hired
to kill in “I Love You to Death.”
Outstanding blues dominates the music scene
By Mick Dyer
Senior Editor _
Outstanding blues is the predomi
nant element in live music in Lincoln
this week.
Alternative:
Sunday, Midwest Posse will rap at
Duffy’s, 1412 O St.
Wednesday, The Fifth of May will
play at Duffy’s.
Jazz/Blues:
Tonight, Little Charlie and the
Nightcats will play at the Zoo Bar,
136 N. 14th St.
Little Charlie and the Nightcats is
one of the hottest jump blues bands
playing tcxiay. Jump, a jazz/blucs style
popular in the late ’40s, couldn’t be
more accurately named. “Jump,”
because it bridged the gap between
the big band sound of the ’30s and
’40s and the jazz/blues sound of the
’50s. “Jump,” because it makes
audiences do just that, jump to their
feet. Little Charlie and the Nightcats
take this sound and bring it up to date
by combining bright horns with gutsy
guitar and vocals. Peppy.
Tonight and Saturday, A.C. Reed
and His Spark Plugs, a blues band of
living legend status, will play at
Bourbon Street, 200 N. 70th St.
Tonight and Saturday, Caribe will
play reggae at Oscar’s, 800 O St.
Saturday, Charlie Burton and the
Hiccups, Lincoln’s greatest rock ‘n’
roll band, will play at the Zoo Bar.
Monday, Mothers Big Band will
play brass jazz at Bourbon Street.
Monday through Thursday,Lucky
Peterson will play at the Zoo Bar.
Whooa, Lucky Peterson for a whole
week. Here’s a guy who knows how
to entertain an audience and play a
guitar. Extremely well. On stage he’s
a dynamic performer, a musical vol
cano that erupts and spews and over
whelms the audience with his mag
netic energy. Good stuff.
Wednesday, the C Street Gypsies
will play at Bourbon Street.
Thursday, the Land Sharks will
play at Bourbon Street.
Thursday, Preston Love will play
at Julio’s, 132 S. 11th St.
i-•w
Rock:
Tonight, Balls will play at The
Mountains, 311 S. 11 th St.
Tonight and Saturday, Bobby
Curious will play at Chesterfield’s,
Lower Level 245 N. 13th St.
Tonight and Saturday, Split Image
will play at Sweep Left, 815 O St.
Tonight and Saturday, Baby Jane
will play at the Royal Grove, 340 W.
Comhusker Hwy.
Tonight through Sunday, Fast
Moving Train will play at The Pros
pector, 640 W. Van Dom St.
Saturday, the Paul Paine Band will
play at The Mountains.
Electro-shock therapy, sexual theme
provide energy for tingling UNL play
By Jim Hanna
Staff Reporer
Shocking. Electrifying. Hair
raising. Tingling. High energy.
Overcharged.
The journalistic adjectives ap
plicable to a play called *' Battery ’ ’
are tar too numerous and far too
easy to come up with.
Playwright Daniel Thcrriault,
however, has written a play that
seems to lend itself to just such
hackneyed expressions. The uni
versity theatre group Thcatrix will
be presenting ThcrriauU’s “Bat
tery” this weekend at the Temple
Building.
“Battery,” directed by second
year Master of Fine Arts directing
candidate Jim Michclson, calls on
the varying connotations of the title
word for its substance.
“It’s electro-shock comedy,”
said Michelson. “It’s a play that
revolves around the word battery
and what that connotes.”
The play is set, covenicntly
enough, in an electrician s shop.
Rip (Eric Thompson), the owner
of the shop, has a manic depressive
assitant and sidekick named Stan
(Craig Holbrook).
Stan is a bit backward and relics
on Rip for guidance and direction
in life. When Rip realizes that Stan
may need more help overcoming
his manic depressive condition than
be can provide alone, he creates a
treat machine to “cure” Stan.
The treat machine actually is an
electro-shock therapy machine that
causes an extraordinary transfor
mation in Stan. This change pro
vides the basis for the rest of the
action in the play.
In order to provide the sexual
element implied by the electrical
-M—
It's electro-shock
comedy. It's a play
that revolves
around the word
battery and what
that connotes.
Michelson
playwright
-f »
nature of the play, Rip’s girlfriend
Brandy is tossed into the scene.
Her relationship with Rip is altered
by the changes in Sian.
“(Brandy’s) an overcharged
sexual whirlwind ** a real babe,
you know,” Michelson said.
In the play’s manipulation of
the word battery, it manages to
address several connotations, Mich
elson said.
“If you look in Webster’s, there’s
eight different meanings for bat
tery," he said. "This play has six
of those meanings. We leave out
music and the army. There are
metaphors about the other six."
Metaphors arc a primary ele
ment in the script. Raihegfthan
concentrate on action or storytelling,
"Battery" focuses on language,
Michelson said.
"It’s a play of language — it’s
almost poetry.”
A prominent theme that receives
metaphorical treatment is sex. A
great deal of discussion is directed
towards sex without ever mention
ing the act itself, Michelson said.
While the sex talk may help fill
audience seats, ‘‘Battery" is not a
pleasant look at human nature,
sexual or otherwise.
"It has the potential to make the
audience squirm," Michelson said.
"It is audience confrontational in
(hat it accosts them, bomhards than
with sexual innuendo."
Beyond the language and the
metaphors, "Battery” does have a
goal beyond assaulting the audi
ence. After his treatment, Stan
begins to discover his identity away
from Rip. He realizes he can be a
person without being spoon-fed his ■
personality.
"Individuality, that is the point
of the play."
"Battery" runs at 8 p.m. to
night, Saturday and Sunday in the
studio theatre, Temple Building,
12th and R streets. Tickets arc S2
and may be purchased at the door.
The Chills Courtesy of Werner Bros
Boring album mixes sounds
of seriousness and silliness
By Brian Meves
Staff Reporter
The ChiHs
“Submarine Bells”
Warner Bros.
The Chills’ new album, “Subma
rine Bells’ ’ is sure lo send quivers up
and down your spine.
The New Zealand quartet finally
has broken a long silence with the
recent release of ‘ ‘Submarine Bells.”
The Chills arc by no means a new
band. The band has existed for nearly
a decade, though they were virtually
unknown in America prior to their
1987 performance at the New Music
Seminar in New York City.
Throughout the years. The Chills
have had more lineup changes then
the New York Yankees have had
managers. And when they finally were
ready to record “Submarine Bells,’’
disaster struck again.
Martin Phillipps, the mainstay of
the band, had to piece together the
group after medical reasons led to the
last-minute departure of his drummer.
The Chills’ current lineup includes
Phillipps on lead vocals and guitars,
See CHILLS on 10