2A Thursday, May 20,1999 Daily Nexus GETTING MODERN WITH WAITING FOR GODOT DIRECTOR PETER LACKNER The existential play “Waiting For Godot” is the Theatre the future, but recognize it in the present The relevance o f feeL I love theater that gives a ritual purpose, and we-have to UCSB production opening this weekend. Peter Lackner, the play is that people do need each other and the two main give the audience something special other than renting a who most recently directed Ensemble Theatre Company’s characters need each other. This play is one o f the most uni­ video. Theater is special because the actors are live. This ri­ “The Game o f Love and Chance,” directs the Nobel Prize­ versal plays I know that raises questions but does not give an­ tual should make you more aware o f your own life and see winning play. I sat down with Lackner, who fed me his inter­ swers. what we have in com m on as human beings. A lso, it gives the pretations and feelings about this controversial and compli­ H ow do the characters bring this across? feeling o f being in the present moment and bang aware of cated play that is sure to leave its audience with a new appre­ Pozzo, played by Jessica Green, is kind o f power hungry, the here and now and the space around us. ciation for their lives. controlling, ambitious, and he has Lucky, played by Jake Beckett makes reference to the audience, which could O ’Ceallaigh, w ith a rope tied around his neck. H e has a fam ­ even be G odot He loves to suggest something and then A rtsw eek What made you decide on this play? ous speech which he spouts out when he is asked to think. make it ungraspable. You sense what he means but you can’t Peter Lackner: Samuel Beckett and this play are labeled This monologue is a pseudo-intellectual philosophy about pin it down, like old Beatles songs. You can’t put down good one o f the most important o f the 20th century. Now that the life, and it makes fun o f academic rhetoric, which is one sen­ poetry, and Beckett is good poetry. 20th century is ending, I felt that I’d love to do it. It hasn’t tence long for four pages. How difficult was it to direct this play? been done here in over a decade, and I want to show that it Vladimir and Estragon are characters sitting and waiting Student actors are more willing to explore the craziness. can be done in a lively manner and can be entertaining. M y by a roadside, while the others are on a path o f worldly ambi­ This show demands more depth and detail work with each warning is that it makes you aware o f the present moment tion, but the play shows them going downhill in the second actor. It*s rewarding to w ork with a small cast in order to help along with the acton and forces you to pay attention to what act it's a lesson o f what ambition gets you, which is worse each person get deep into their character. It’s not easier be­ is on the stage rather than watching a movie. It’s pure theater, than people living day by day. Beckett says they are all male cause I feel a responsibility to entertain the audience with surreal fantasy with real human em otions. It’ s liberating and characters, but we cast three female characters. The boy, four people instead o f 20. These characters have to be more fun and allows the a cton to explore and im provise a lo t Y ou played by Katie Long, is played by a girl who is kind o f an­ interesting for die same amount o f time. The challenge is have to feel what it means. drogynous. W e’re trying to respect Beckett’s wish that the harder, but if s easier in terms o f organization. The smaller H o10 do you interpret ’W aiting For Godot’? couple is a universal example o f human relationships, even the cast, the larger the responsibility o f the actors. N o two Godot is a metaphor for placing your hopes in a better fu­ family relationships and couples, but not limited to that bits o f dialogue are the same, and I would call it variation on a ture. People are always looking for someone else like an au­ What do you want the audience to get out o f this? them e. T h e audience-should refish the difference and see the thority figure to help them solve their problems, and this play I want the audience to get a life-affirming experience by progression. says thatyou have tok n ow you rselfan d solve your ow n prob­ going into a depressing circumstance but coming out all the lems. For me, existentialism is labeled as depressing, but more positive. I want the audience to see parts o f themselves ’ Waiting For Godot’ opens Friday, M ay 21, atSp.m ., at the Beckett is trying to say that you should live your life fully and in various characters and be entertained. Theater holds a UCSB PerformingArts Theatre and runs through M ay 29. $12 take responsibility for yourself. H e is saying don’t put your mirror to nature to see little things about relationships that students; $16 general. For information on other show times, tick­ hopes in a false sense that things will be better in the past or we’re all in, with the contradictions and push ahd pull we all ets, etc., call 893-3535. CATERING “Silver Greens Catering Service is Undoubtedly the Best Deal in Town — Great Tasting Food at Great Prices ” — Jay Ferro GRADUATIOMSPECIAm I s e rv e s i ö - J 5 ; J Platter of Finger Sandwiches I I Caesar Salad (substitute, any other salad for $ 5 .» m o re l) g | Roteili Pasta Salad Please jo in us on May 27th froi to 8 PM to celebrate the grand opening of our first Sanj ira store at Paseo Nuevo. For more information a n d » I please call 877.423.2372. nHHH Daily Nexus Thursday, May 20,1999 3A TKNOWS JATCJG^r M f i G a m e b i q POilTl®N.<ELECTION m m ■ MH and id damned | jenne raub “Election’’ is a clever, intelligent film that welcomes its au­ cent, affable guy and Tammy as the libertarian running on porary U.S. politics, and ifs definitely clear after watching dience to the sad, forlorn world o f American politics. It’s a the platform o f government ineffectuality and immediate this film that even a high-school election possesses the same world where cormption runs rampant, morals are nonexis­ . abolishment, a political rat race has soon begun, dirty politics great morality conflicts as even the race for president. But tent and back-stabbing and social-climbing are just a part o f and all. perhaps what is best about “Election” is it reveals the sor^ the game. W ell, actually, i f s a film about an election for high state o f human nature in a way that is so realistic that ifs ab­ school government in Nebraska, but it manages to speak surd — if not grotesque— in its realism. The sex between the both as a veiled allegory fo r U .S . politics as much as it man­ married M r. M cAllister and a recent divorcee is unarousing; ages to speak about the greater trials and tribulations in life. the depiction o f teen sex is (well, according to my male The film successfully changes narration among the four AUCtlStfJ X08 OdVOSOiAO V SV SNUS3Q1NI ONVTV friends) dead on; and the sex between M r. McAllister and main characters: the civic-government teacher and student- HUlSrtQNI ‘TW OUNfU SV SI 3JW SH ONV taiSrTWOW ~dw N3WU38 X3S 3HL his wife is as functional, industrial and interesting as a government adviser, Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick), THE SEX BETWEEN MR. MCALLISTER cardboard-box factory. And, ultimately, nothing is safe in and the three candidates. Brought into “Election” as they be­ AND HIS WIFE IS AS FUNCTIONAL. INDUS­ the world where politics have touched all realms o f life — gin their campaigning, we are quickly introduced to Mr. TRIAL AND INTERESTINGAS A CARD­ and, to be moral, one realizes ifs necessary that politics McAllister and his student, the brown-nosing Tracy Flick BOARD BOX FACTORY should. (Reese Witherspoon). As Flick begins her. campaign, Mr. The movie concludes accurately1— whether ifs a happy McAllister fears a year o f working with the overachiever, and It’s a skill to take the absolutely banal and turn it into in­ ending is a matter o f debate. But with the accuracy o f tire soon begins his plans to rope another into the race. He con­ teresting, witty material, and “Election” succeeds at just that. script, the excellent decisions in casting and the wonderful vinces the do-good, popular ex-football player Paul Metzler High-school politics lack the luster and glamor o f most H ol­ direction of filmmaker Alexander Payne, “Election” is a (Chris Klein) to compete against the obnoxiously successful lywood flicks, but the depiction o f dull commonality in the clever, well-done film. As everyone else on the block runs o ff Flick.