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(V" - I -c~·v- Rs-, \.1 - ,.1z, _IS,-. " , ~m~, I ") I 'l, - , ~, _._ ,fxCM = t w7 --- 11 I Hill~Bssb~~p~-~ a TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1 98.7 Th~te Tech PAG E 9 aaala AR S _ -_ . i - o- -..... I ' ' - I . I .- - -- . Ostrovskya "Scoundrel' exposes artificiality ofsociety THE DIARY OF A SCOUNDREL unknown in smart Moscow society. 'There- looks go much like a pop-up book that I look speaks pages about the characters. Written by Alexander Ostrovsky. fore he sets about to curry favor with the thought of the set changes as a turning of And, for the best running joke of the Directed by Larry Carpenter. right people, who will spontaneously pro- the pages into the next chapter of the play. lot, all the characters - not just Glumov Starring Jim McDonnell, Etain O'Malley, vide him with references. The set changes took just long enough -are almost painfully obvious in their ar- Louis Turenne, anad Michael Connely. Jim McDonnell's performance as for us to remember that we were in a the- tificiality, but no one on stage gets it. One ex- At the Huntington Theatre Company. Glumov is both extremely comic and ater, and to wonder what the next set supposes that "Diary of a Scoundel" is not cellently crafted. While refusing to bow to would look like. Together with the won- nearly-so entertaining on paper, given that -By JULIAN WEST society, his character is not immoral. He is derfully gaudy curtain they provoked a much of the humor has been attached to an honest man in a hypocritical society; sense of being in a theater or opera house what would ordinarily be throw-away STROVSKY'S 1868 FARCE effective- and it is perfectly in keeping with his sense for the sense of being seen; the gasps lines. But on the Huntington's stage, it ly attacks the foibles of contem- of ethics that fools are hypocrites who are porary Moscow society: the which always accompanied the raising of blossomns into hilarity. there to be manipulated. the curtain would not have been out of If all this seems a little stagy and artifi- aristocrats,,.the nouveau riche, For his first conquest, he hits upon a the military, religion, and superstition. All place in the opera either. Each set sur- cial, that is exactly the point. Both Glu- wealthy relative, Nils Fedoseich Mamaev passes the last: the Moscow apartement; a mov and Ostrovsky have set out to expose are happily faling into smuggly compla- (excellently played'by Louis Terrene)~ Glu- cent decay. Then along comes an imagina- convincing peasant interior complete with the artificiality of society, to strip off the mov proves that it is easier for a clever orthodox-and unorthodox shrines; a co- theatrical masks behind which their con- tive, upwardly mobile, and unscrupulous man to act as an idiot than for an idiot to young man determined to shake up the lonel's office crammed with swords, temporaries hide. In staging something act shrewd. By acting the part of an hon- globes, a bearskin, and a cannon; and a which is so obviously a performance, Car- system - to his own advantage. est simpleton, he gains immediate sympa- The eponymous scoundrel is Egor gorgeous garden exterior. penter has found a tone which betrays that thy, and the gullible old man quickly takes Through' the 'pages of the storybook society to us. And while it places us, in a Dmitrich Glumov (Jim McDonnell), who him under his wing. Glumov is on his way. Wander a succession of storybook charac- Brechtian fashion, above and outside the has set his sights on a felicitous marriage For the rest of the play, he drifts to an exquisitely -eligible young woman- ters. They are so obviously unreal that action, it leaves us with the uncomfortable through Moscow society, and through a se- they do not attempt to fool us with artifi- feeling that we do not deserve such exalted sfie is beautiful, charming,. and rich. The James ries oof brilliant sets (designed by cial speech, but turn their speech into treatment. We too are guilty of acting. difficulty is not that Mashenka is unwill- Leonard Joy) which resemble the pages of ing; she is ai too ready to be married, and spectacle. Every line, from "hello" to Not that the profession is without vir- a giant pop-up book. The scenery, pre- "goodbye," provides an opportunity for a tue. A fine collection of actors graced this none too particular to whom. However, dominantly brightly colored flats explod- the match is far above Glumov, who is an -laugh. Even between lines, a pregnant production, beginning with McDonnell, ing awkwardly into the third dimensions pause or a precisely orchestrated knowing who brought to Glumov the star qualities of a talented natural ham. One of his best scenes is when he is alone and searching Hey, witch way to the nearest good movie in town? for his "misplaced" diary, repeating to himself that "this is not happening." His THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK Jack Nicholson plays the dark stranger, many-layered with the witches confronting behavior typified that of a man who knows Directed by George Miller. with a mobile brow contorted with smirks gray hairs and mundane lovers along with himself to be alone -but alone in the Screenplay by Michael Cristofer, and sneers. His three co-stars, however, the supernatural, the film is polished, presence of an audience. based on the novel by John Lrpdike. are not about to let him steal the movie showing much less of prosaic Eastwick Humbert Allen Astredo is an astonish- Starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan out froml under them, and they have sultry and more of high-tech luxury in Nichol- ingly pompous old colonel called Kru- Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer. replies to his every lascivious purr. Susan son's pad. Instead of Updike's thoughtful titsky, who embodies the idiotic conserva- Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer are en- meanderings, director George Miller pre- tism of his class. We first see -him By KATIE SCHWARZ thralling, but Cher is on the wooden side. fers brief, clear scenes like road signs didactically holding forth about nothing, Even while Nicholson is talkifig her into pointing out 'specific bits of character. and manipulating furniture in a futile at- HAT IF yOU could make your his bed her expression remains frozen; one Miller evidently set out to make a tempt to demonstrate the undesirability of fantasies come true? What if wonders what she is thinking and feeling, glossy, visually exciting film, and he cer- monkeying with the established social or- you found your innermost but she gives no indication. tainly knows how, putting together transi- der. (Thereafter, other characters who lusts, cravings' for luxury, After the delicious'opening the story tions and crosscuts between subplots in a wander past his inverted table do a brief and urges to dominate, turned inside out slows down and unravels asbit,, making carefully orchestrated clockwork. Even but effective double-take.) Eventually this and standing in front of you? Three small- stabs at comments on sex roles and the in- when the.scenes make a point a little too monument to twaddle employs Glumov to town women - a widow, a divorcee, and a comprehensibility of life,, but.l shrort on .obviously,-they are attentively crafted and help him write a "Treatise on the Harm of deserted wife find out in "The Witches emotional bite. The filimmakers'have not keep the eyes busy. There's an amusingly Reform in General." of Eastwick." And while the film may not so much adapted John. Updike's book .as sensual image of cheese spread being It is easy enough to see whence the revo- reach a philosophically profound answer, culled details from it, caving behind, Vast squeezed onto a cracker and a tumultuous lution sprang. As Glumov exclaims at the it takes you on an entertaining ride look- chunks of plot, characterization,' and the scene where the witches squabble, the end of the play, "you need me, ladies and ing for it. entire second half of the novel. camera flashing from one hectoring face gentlemen,- you can't live without me." Stuck in the staid, stereotypical New Nevertheless the details are skillfully to another. It all makes for a beguiling The momentarily thwarted scoundrel turns England of Eastwick, the three reach out chosen and work in combination with new two hours. his back on society, leaving them to con- for something dangerous, something liber- ones. Where the novel is shadowy and tinue their slow slide into paralysis. ating, something wild, summoning up first a thunderstorm and then a mysterious dark stranger - a coarse, conceited, yet WBCN's Rumble, bastion of Boston rock and roll oddly fascinating man blowing in from the at the front of the stage, the music began hard garage rock was the order of the day (Continuedfrom page 8) inferno of New York. Suspense and hilar- quickly to lose its flavor and I quickly and band members looked the part in ity build as the town senses the animal much from the lead singer's voice. Unfor- started to get a headache. jeans and white T-shirts. At their best magnetism in the brash newcomer taking tunately the keyboard was mixed too far, My headache just as rapidly disappeared when playing'at breakneck speed and al- over one of its ancestral mansions, snoring back to bring out the melody in the music, when Nova Mob took the stage - finally a lowing Casey Lindstrom to show off his raucously at a chamber music concert- the tempo changes came so often that they band that did not seem pretentious.

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