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EGO TRIPPING
The hour of Spring Break is at hand. For
scores of wide-eyed highschoolers, droopy-eyed
undergrads and dead-eyed postgrads, the post-
Xmastime Siberian forced-march is finally over
and the feet that shuddered through those last,
interminable, trudging paces have miraculously
transformed into pep-stepping, sandal-clad plea
sure seekers. And then there is the other half: we
who continue to bear the cross of the workaday
world. What shall we indentured servants of the
almighty dollar substitute to sate the yearning
for those prurient seaside bacchanals of yore?
The theatres of the city offer imaginary adven
tures that won't preclude punching in the follow
ing morning.
V Picturebook: There is a reason why artists have
been reworking Ovid's Metamorphoses for the
nearly two millennia since he wrote it. In addi
tion to deftly probing both the threatening and
transcendent aspects of some of humanity's more
enduring and mystifying dark corners (the nature
of change, our relationship to the divine, and the
interstice between love and lust, among a host
of others), the visceral lyricism of this master-
work extends well beyond the traditional dactylic
hexameter the poem employs as its meter. Ovid's
stories are not mere repetitions of the well-worn
myths of the Greek and Roman worlds. They brim
with color, nuance and sheer unbridled reality
in such a way that the characterization of these
gods and heroes is almost instantly tangible as
a series of exemplars of universal struggles: man
against man, man against inexorable force and
man against himself. The Metamorphoses are
like snapshots of us in our most vulnerable and
noble moments tacked to an epic backdrop for
maximum dramatic effect: hence the near-perfect
facility of the title of award-winning rising star
Naomi lizuka's Polaroid Stories. Projecting the
familiar thematic and narrative elements of the
stories through the grimy lens of street kids,
Iizuka has conflated the poetry of Ovid's vi
gnettes and her well-known penchant for grace
ful dialogue with the acrid, indelicate idioms
of the homeless youth she studied during her
writing process. The result is a hybrid of beauti
ful ugliness that is as much a representation of
the broken, all-too-real lives of its characters
as it is a refiguring of the epic poem. In order
to appropriately match such a rich palette of
the theatrical word to the deeds performed on
stage, director Mirta Criste is utilizing contact
improvisation, a postmodern dance technique
pioneered in the 1970s at Oberlin College (Ms.
Criste's alma mater), which affords the practitio
ner an expressive physical vocabulary from which
to portray the elemental structures of character,
relationship and plot directly through movement.
University Theatre presents Polaroid Stories in
the UGA Cellar Theatre, Mar. 23-25 and Mar.
29-Apr. 1 at 8 p.m. and Apr. 2 at 2:30 p.m. There
will be a special demonstration and discussion of
Ms. Criste's form of "contact theatre" following
the show on opening night. Tickets are S10, with
student and senior discount tickets available for
$8. Call the University Theatre Box Office at 542-
2838 for reservations.
Black Sheep Boy: Despite being written by the
second-greatest dramatist ever to write in the
English language, perhaps the most quoted
thinker this side of Ben Franklin, and the only
writer ever to win both an Academy Award and
the Nobel Prize. George Bernard Shaw's play
The Devil's Disciple didn't do well at its English
premiere. It did quite well, however, in America.
The reason is likely that, uniquely among Shaw's
works, the play is set in America and features a
finale in which the Red Coats sheepishly slink
away in the face of certain defeat. The title
character, one Dick Dudgeon, is the Nietzchean
black sheep of his family, bitingly and openly
disdainful of his mothers Puritanism and bris
tling with sardonic one-liners, who transforms,
in the moment of crisis, into a gallant and heroic
figure, willing to lay down his life for his fellow
man. Co-opting the elements of traditional melo
drama—a father's will, a selfless sacrifice, an
ominous gallows and a nick-of-time reprieve—
Shaw sought to create a play that extolled the
virtues of the free-thinking man while remaining
uproariously funny and nail-bitingly suspense
ful. The Devil’s Disciple is part of the Town and
Gown Players’ mainstage season.
See it at the Athens Community
Theatre, Mar. 23-25 and Mar
29-Apr. 1 at 8 p.m., with a Sunday
matinee Apr. 2 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets
range in price from S5 to $15. Call
208-TOWN.
Whose Names Yet Run Smoothly:
Written entirely by local cancer
survivors, loved ones and practi
tioners, The Relay and the Race
reveals the stories of those behind
one of the finest and most worthy
charities around: Relay for Life.
Not only will patrons be given
insight into the difficult, heart-
wrenching and uplifting struggle to
fight cancer, but they can also rest
assured that their attendance will
benefit a wonderful cause in the Loran Smith
Center for Cancer Support. The show plays Mar.
24 and 25 at 8 p.m. and Mar. 26 at 2:30 p.m.
in the Seney-Stovall Chapel. Call 475-4900 for
ticket information.
Ongoing: Athens Creative Theatre s dinner-
theatre production of Jason Robert Brown's
heartfelt musical The Last five Years continues
through Mar. 25 in Memorial Park Quinn Hall.
Call 613-3628 for reservations.
You Were Meant for the Stage: Auditions for
Town and Gown's mid-May production of Noel
Coward's divinely side-splitting romantic comedy
Private Lives will be held Mar. 27-28. Visit www.
townandgownplayers.org for more information.
Get Yr Tickets Now!: The surreal dance /illu
sion amalgam conjured by the world-renowned
MOMIX company presents its new dance experi
ence Passion (which features the music of Peter
Gabriel) at the Classic Center on Apr. 1. More
about this amazing show in the next Theatre
Notes, so stay tuned. Call 357-4400 or visit www.
classiccenter.com for more information. The
shockingly talented youngsters of the Oconee
Youth Playhouse present the Disney/ Elton
John/ Tim Rice Broadway smash Aida Mar. 30-
Apr. 2. Call 769-2677 for tickets.
Brandon Waddell
Send your Theatre Notes news to outthereQ
fiagpole.com, and always put "Theatre Notes" in
the subject line.
Polaroid Stories
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