You and me against the world, I think
By Gordon Palmer
Features Editor
"Why do you want me to
stay?" "Why don't you go?"
"There is no one else." "There
is nowhere else."
And if it's come to this, what
kind of game are these two
playing?
The answer is Samuel Beck
ett's "Endgame," a one-acter
which opened before a small but
amused and enthused audience
Saturday night in the rehearsal
hall. The game is indeed com
ing to an end; the characters
involved are the only earthly
existence that they know of, and
their own lives are flaking off a
little at a time as they age.
The first to appear is Clov,
played by co-director Tom
Abrams. Abrams is unwaver
ingly consistent in his portrayal
of this mocking, stiff-legged,
laughingly loyal servant. Clov
"doesn't complain," he laughs,
but never loses his composure
enough to guffaw.
Clov's (and everyone else's)
boss is the blind, wheelchair
bound Hamm, played by anoth
er seasoned Reveler, Gene
Cline. Hamm has a Louis XIV
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scale ego, and will let them eat
biscuits, which are hard enough
to break all of their teeth. His
suffering (he even perceives
this as the most exquisite)
comes chiefly from the oft-re
peated question, "When will it
finish?"
-When
will it be
finished?'
Cline does "Hamm it up"
considerably, which is for the
most part a factor contributing
to the effectiveness of the
overall performance. Hamm
sets himself up as a heartless,
unremitting despot, and if he
ever shows consideration for
others' feelings, it is only in
order to be able to lash them
harder in the end.
As Hamm carries out his final
move, his ultimate domain
turns out to be a room in the
middle of a barren planet, and
his subjects (besides a hypo
thetical little boy outside to
whom he won't have Clov call)
are either dead or entirely
jmv
By Bryan Smith
Columnist
Grace Slick, DREAMS.
Grace Slick, vocalist for the
Jefferson Airplane, and then
the converted Starship, was
once described as the icon of the
two groups. Slick's voice and
personality exemplified the
band's basic message of nearly
ten years. And the message,
"Feed your head and find
somebody to love" was brought
forth in Slick's exultant pride
and fascination in this lifestyle.
Grace's voice had an almost
irresistable quality to it. Slick
and the band were, in reality
(reality was an interesting con
cept for The Airplane), the
The Black
no horsing around
By Douglas Hasty
Columnist
The Black Stallion (5 + ) This
is no kiddie movie; it is for all
audiences. This latest Francis
Ford Coppola film is a true
object d'art. It's not the acting
that was so great, but the script.
This script could have made
an actor out of anyone it
makes you laugh, cry, feel pain,
hurt, and elation in the final,
tense moment of the picture.
Rocky's ending was never this
fulfilling! This is the first film
AFTER which there has been
applause.
Stallion will be remembered
as one of 1979's best films, as it
has been out since November. It
is up for two Oscars, including
Best Supporting Actor: Mickey
| Rooney (believe it or not).
The film opens with an acci-
unresponding. Clov (Abrams) is
stone-still.
The roles of Hamm's legless,
toothless, trash-can-inhabiting
parents, on the other hand, are
not overplayed in the least.
Nagg (David Jewett) , after a
strong opening with Nell (Han
nah Welles), needed, in fact, to
regain some missing energy
during a subsequent interlude
of dialogue with her. to get the
chuckles this worn-out, frustra
ted (they never quite touch) love
(?) relationship deserves.
Overall, these four Revelers
made a successful and telling
whole out of four difficult parts.
Part of what makes the play
difficult is that it really is a
"play" rather than a neatly
tied-up game. In Beckett's end
game, there is no winner -
everyone must face the end.
Like much of Beckett's work,
this play involves the participa
tion of the audience' conscious
ness to a great extent. Certain
ideas and phrases are used over
and over again: "When will it
be finished?" "It is never
finished." The characters' per
sonalities must become tangled
Slick: Airplane to Dreams
spacial limits that their music
was about.
However, Slick eventually left
the group because of her strug
gle with alcohol. Marty Balin,
the last original member of the
band, left along with Grace. The
Starship family was broken up.
Grace said she would never sing
again, and committed herself to
curing her alcohol habit.
Apparently, Slick accom
plished her task. Last fall, her
revealing and humorous auto
biography, Of Acid and Aspar
agus, disclosed this fact. About
the same time, Slick began to do
some writing and singing. She
then announced that she would
not go back to The Starship.
Instead, she would work on her
own for an indefinite period of
time.
And now, March sees the
dent at sea off the North African
coast, and the next hour or so
takes place on a fairly-deserted
shore. Here, the film's best
photography and acting is done.
Nearly one hour of underwater
scenes ALL without a spoken
word.
There is, in all honesty,
NOTHING wrong with this film;
there is NO bad part. It would
still be a bargain at double the
ticket price. I heartily encour
age everyone to see it, and will
be back at least one more time
to see this masterpiece of a film.
It is definitely no juvenile film.
Chapter Two (4 + ) Neil Si
mon's new film is about one
happy new divorcee, Marsha
Mason, and a very depressed
new widower, James Caan. The
GUILFORDIAN, APRIL 8, 1980, PAGE FIVE
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For Revelers Tom Abrams, Gene Cline, David Jewett, and Hannah
Welles, the 'game' has ended. Their many months of hard work
were climaxed by their performances on April 5 and 6.
in a web called the nature of
existence, and an indispensable
ingredient to their struggle is
the ability to laugh hollowly at a
hollow life.
And what else can one do,
when the senses and liberty of
motion are all but gone, when
there's no reason to stay and no
release of Slick's recent studio
work. The lyrics are still hard
hitting, and Grace's voice
sounds better than it has in four
years. Perhaps that sense of
urgency is no longer there, or
perhaps the production helps
to create a generally smoother
voice quality in Slick. And the
change of voice, extremely sub
tle sometimes, could come from
Slick's personality metamor
phis.
Slick, though still a romanti
cist ("I believe in magic, I still
believe in dreams "), tends to
see herself and some of her
living habits, which are at times
destructive, in a more objective
point of view. "Well, it felt so
good for a while but then I saw
too many dying, when all they
wanted to do was get a little
higher. . . " Gracie's delivery
story centers on the efforts of
the widower trying to adjust to
life without his dead wife,
whom he put all his self in.
Then comes along Mason,
newly-divorced and damn glad
of it. He's looking for a woman
who will replace and remind
him of his dead wife. She's
looking for a man who will be a
husband and lover, not just
another name on a joint check
ing account.
When Simon puts these two
together, it is a combination of
comedy and drama. This is
Simon's "deepest" movie to
date. Though the best punch
lines stretch fifteen to twenty
minutes apart, they are worth
waiting for.
place to go, when a sullen
monarch turns down a man who
begs for the job of Cod?
Beckett's motive is not so
much to "convince" as to create
something which his audience
can go through with him, to
laugh or cry over And now that
the game's been played. . .
Anyway, it's fun-ny
is not quite as intense, but that
enticing quality of mystery re
mains.
Slick wrote all the material on
side two of the album. She
wrote only one on the other
side; the supporting band wrote
the rest. Scott Zito, lead gui
tarist, wrote two of the tunes
and lends inspirational guitar
leads to many others. A Spanish
calypso influence is evident in
the tunes "El Diablo" and
"Angel of Night."
Although Slick is the domi
nant performer on the album,
the band never can quite back
her up as The Airplane or
Starship could. When the Star
ship or Airplane performed a
Slick tune, Kantner, Kaukonen,
Casady and company played
cathartic and chilling harmonies
which added just enough power
to Slick's vocals. Forceful and
haunting at times, to lyrical and
beautiful, Slick could not have
accomplished her musical mas
terpiece without the tonal com
plement of the band.
This is where Dreams falls
short in places. The weakness of
the studio band focuses more
attention on Slick's vocals. Slick
has the power and intelligence
to pull it off in cuts like "Do it
the Hard Way" and "Let it
Co." In other tunes, particular
ly "Full Moon Man" Grace's
delivery sounds a little too slick.
However, the success of the
album lies in the relevance of
the lyrics, and at times, Grace
sounds a lot like Slick.
HOW TO KEEP THE
LIFE OF THE PARTY
ALIVE.
For free information, write to:
DRUNK DRIVER. Box 2345
Rockville. Maryland 20852