Arts & Entertainment
ibetan monks to teach peace, planners say
Courtesy of Jewel Heart Nebraska
Lincoln included
in Western tour
From Staff Reports
It’snot often that Nebraskans get a
glimpse into the culture of Tibetan
monks, but they will have that oppor
tunity Dec. 18 and 19, when eight
monks from the Deprung Loseling
Monastery in India perform in Lin
coln.
Before the Chinese invasion of
Tibet in 1959, the Deprung Monas
tery was the largest in the world with
more than 10,000 monks in residence.
The Deprung Monastery, founded
in 1416, was a final training place for
the most promising students from the
Central Asian countries that practiced
Tibetan Buddhism.
Loseling was the largest of the five
departments at Dcprung, with approxi
mately 7,000 students and teachers.
After the Chinese invasion, Los
eling relocated to the refugee com
munity at Mundgod, India. This
monastery now houses about 12,000
refugee monks, most of whom are
youths in training.
In 1988-89, Loseling conducted
its first Western tour, performing in
108 cities in North America and 21 in
Europe.
The present tour is part of an inter
national effort to bring sanity to a
troubled world, organizers said, and
employs traditional Tibetan sacred
music and dance for world purifica
tion and planetary healing.
Jangtse Chojey Rinpoche, ex-ab
bot of His Holiness the 14th Dalai
Lama’s monastery in India, will con
duct a lecture entitled “Inner Peace
Generates World Peace” at 7:30 p.m.
on Dec. 18 in the chapel of the First
Plymouth Church.
The Deprung Loseling monks will
perform “Sacred Music, Sacred Dance”
Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. in the Kimball
Recital Hall.
The program will be performed in
two parts. The first is called “The
Taste of Reality,” which includes
introducing the instruments, singing,
a dance to bless the environment and
traditional monastic debate.
The second part, “Planetary Heal
ing,” consists of Man del Yang-sol,
Purifying the Universe; Chc-gyal Gar
cham, Dance of the Sacred Buffalo;
Dur-dak Gar-cham, Dance of the
Cemetery Lords; and Sang-sol Ta
shi, The Offering of Sacred Smoke.
During the tour, the monks also
will be constructing sand paintings
with North American natives at sites
of power to strengthen spiritual links
between these people who are the
keepers of world peace, planners said.
They also will perform private
healing and prosperity rituals for temple
groups and individuals as lime al
lows.
The tour is being brought to Lin
coln by Jewel Heart Nebraska. Gelek
Rinpoche, the group’s spiritual direc
tor, will be here for the lecture and
performance.
Gelek Rinpoche was recognized
as an incarnate lama when he was
four years old. He lived in Loseling
until 1959 when the Chinese invaded.
After the invasion, the monks lived
for 10 years with the Chinese com
munists until 400 or 500 monks es
caped to India.
Theatrix to stage
plays on future,
sex, ieshm~
By Mark Baldridge
Staff Reporter -- v. __„■ ^ ^
This weekend Theatrix presents “A Girl’s
Guide to Chaos,” a new play by Cynthia Hcimcl.
Heimel is a freelance writer whose work has
appeared in “The Village Voice” and “Play
boy.” Her play takes a comic look at love, sex
and friendship in the 1990s.
“Chaos” is directed by Barbe Marshall and
I stars Catherine Jarboe, Daena Schweiger and
l Jennifer Allton Lewis as three friends who
I struggle to understand men.
Angie Claus stars as Cynthia, a journalist
' character based on the author. Tom Crew plays
the “generic male.” He portrays a boyish cow
boy, an aged physicist and everything in be
tween.
“Chaos”plays Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.
and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Studio Theater in
the Temple Building. Cost is $2.
The show parodies sexual roles and how
they’ve changed over the decades — until no
one knows how to act.
The script is light and entertaining, some
times seeming like a string of one-liners.
Members of the audience may recognize them
selves in the comic contradictions the charac
ters fall into.
-
Most of the play is an ongoing conversation
among four women. The subject is sex, of
course, and there’s plenty of talk. More talk
than action. And that seems to be the problem;
no one is satisfied with what they have. The
characters who don’t get it, want it. The ones
who do, want it with someone else. It’s the
story of life.
Those viewers who like to take their culture
in large doses are invited to stay for the show
ingsoftwoone-acts:“Adaptation”and“J984,”
based on the novel J
“Adaptation” starts at 9 p.m. Friday and
Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday. The two shows
play pretty much back to back. Admission is
$2, but all three shows can be had for a total of
S3.
“Adaptation” is a sinister gamcshow in which
the rules arc inscrutable and the stakes are life
itself. There are lights and music, a real carni
val atmosphere. It s written by Elaine May and
directed by Laura Lionberger, starring Becky
Maline, Joan Henrichs, Chris W inkier and Guy
Fisher, as the contestant.
The contestant must adapt to the circum
stances of the game, trying to discover the rules
as he goes. The surreal quality of the show is
reminiscent of “The Prisoner” television series
of the 1960s.
Just as surreal, but darker, is “1984,” adapted
by W. Andrew Baker and directed by Patrick
Lambrccht. “1984” stars Larry Mota and an
ensemble of nihc.
The story is told in symphonic reading of a
future governed by “double think.” Everyone
is watched, constantly, by their own television
sets. It’s a world of fascism in the guise of a
benevolent “Big Brother.”
. . f . Michelle Paulman/DN
Millions and mdlions
Lori Allison of the Millions wails to a packed house at Duffy's Tavern Tuesday night.
Viewer not hooked *
Spielberg's holiday film disappoints
took”
By Anne Sleyer
Senior Reporter
Moviegoers have come to expect great things
from Steven Spielberg, which makes “Hook
(Edgcwood 3, Pla/.a4) all the more disappoint
ing.
It’s like a day at an amusement park: long,
long lines for a few minutes of fun.
“Hook” is a twist on the story of Peter Pan.
Writers Jim V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo
take the title character from J.M. Barrie’s clas
sic novel about the little boy who wouldn’t
grow up. Then, they age him.
The result is a subdued Robin Williams as
the grown-up Peter, an ambitious attorney,
complete with cellular phone, BMW and a
total disregard for his family. Shades of “Re
garding Henry.”
Peter has no recollection of the fabled
Ncverland. At the urging of his wife, he returns
to London to visit “Granny” Wendy (the amaz
ing Maggie Smith) and enjoy a holiday with his
family .That night the house is sacked and Pe
ter’s children are kidnapped by Captain Hook
(Dustin Hoffman), who lakes them to Never
•and . r L r-,
This takes up the first hour of the film,
laying the groundwork for the rest of the story.
Although interesting for adults, “Hook” simply
is loo long to keep the attention of children.
Once sprite Tinkcrbcll (Julia Roberts) leads
Peter to Ncverland to save the kids, the story is
lost among the chaos of special effects. They
are fun, but, oddly enough for Spielberg, get to
be a bit much.
Not that the effects aren’t wonderful — they
are. They are fun, too, from the day-glo mer
maids and multi-colored food fight to the
miniature Roberts. But the story isn’t fast
paced enough to keep up with them.
Hook’s ship is outrageously lavish. It re
sembles an attraction from Disneyland more
than an actual pirate ship. It was incredible to
look at, but the extravagance wears thin.
“Hook” is not without humor. Williams and
Roberts arc both funny, as are the Lost Boys.
There arc some zingers, but unfortunately,
much of the humor is adult-oriented, while the
film is likely to attract a young audience.
Certainly Spielberg has assembled a dream
cast. Williams is solid throughout, although
more subdued than usual. Roberts is endearing
as Tinkcrbcll and Bob Hoskins’ Smee is de
lightful.
Unbelievably the weak link in the cast is
Hoffman. He is a great actor, but he isn’t very
funny here and Hook is more cartoonish than
fiendish. Without the menacing villain, the
idea that Peter’s kids arc in peril doesn’t really
work.
There is never any doubt as to how the film
will end and the culmination of the plot, how
ever entertaining and action-packed, is a long
time coming. “Hook” suffers from being about
30 minutes loo long.
In the past, the story of Peter Pan was always
exciting, but despite the spectacular visuals
and big names, “Hook” is a disappointment.
It’s merely an average film from a director we
know can do better.