ATHENS, GA.–INSIDE/OUT ** (Worth seeing) Directed and written by Anthony Gayton With R.E.M., the B-52’s, Dreams So Real, and Love Tractor. Athens, Georgia — 60 miles from Atlanta — is home to 45,000 people, the University of Georgia, and one of the most critically acclaimed rock ‘n’ roll scenes of recent years. The B-52’s and […]
Tag: Vol. 16 No. 24
Issue of Apr. 2 – 8, 1987
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
Last night I inserted a new blade cartridge in my modern safety razor. This AM my true love used said instrument (unbeknownst to me) to remove unwanted hair from her lower extremities. Now, a half hour later, I am trying to figure out how to apply a tourniquet to my upper lip after using the […]
Posted inFilm
Lost in Space
BLUE WINDOW Center Theater Blue Window is not so much a story as a portrait of seven people — three couples and a friend. When I first saw it more than a year ago, at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, it struck me as little more than a character study, an “actor’s piece,” a play […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The City File
You can be too old to become an entrepreneur, says president James E. Challenger of Chicago’s Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Based on his surveys of discharged corporate managers, he says, “There are two basic requirements for entrepreneurial success: the person has to be under 50 years of age in order to be mentally and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Easy Life
Vittorio Gassman as a middle-aged playboy who takes law student Jean-Louis Trintignant under his wing, the better to teach him the cynical lessons of modern Italian living. Dino Risi’s corrosive social comedy managed to combine the aggressive energy of the French New Wave and the dissipated drift of Antoniennui in away that seemed fresh and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Curse of the Starving Class
CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company at Amethyst The stupidest and saddest kind of starvation happens when the refrigerator’s full. Sam Shepard calls it a “poison,” an “explosive in the blood,” but mainly in Curse of the Starving Class it’s just that, a curse, ensuring that every move made by the members of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Music Notes: Peter Gena makes a scene
In 1933, Henry Cowell wrote of composer John J. Becker, “He carries the center of interest in modern creative music in the Midwest with him wherever he goes.” Were Cowell alive today, the most likely candidate for that description would have to be Peter Gena. An associate professor at the School of the Art Institute […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Lighten Up, Harold; Lotto Bunk
Lighten Up, Harold Memo to the mayor. Call 573-8700. What we hear from the campaign trail is that Harold Washington isn’t letting up for a minute. Crowds galvanize him. While his enemies bury each other in lime, the mayor rolls on. in that inimitable way of his — a whiz at both progressive government and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Little Victories
LITTLE VICTORIES Trinity Square Ensemble at Live Theatre Little Victories must have been written by a feminist double agent, a saboteur pretending to champion feminism while actually subverting the cause from within. The play seems ideologically pure. It revolves around two icons of feminism –Susan B. Anthony and Joan of Arc — who are busy […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reading: The Clout of the Irish
They were destined to succeed in Chicago politics — they had the language, knew the system, and felt the need to get even. Remind you of anybody?
Posted inArts & Culture
Measure for Measure
Chicago Shakespeare Company The Immediate Theatre Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall — measure for measure. Written between Othello and King Lear, Measure for Measure must have absorbed a lot of spilled-over seriousness from those uncompromising plays. In this alleged comedy, Shakespeare sets up the burning conflicts so strongly that the obligatory […]
Posted inFilm
Lite Lawrence
KANGAROO * (Has redeeming facet) Directed by Tim Burstall Written by Evan Jones With Colin Friels, Judy Davis, John Walton, Julie Nihill, and Hugh Keays-Byrne. Was D.H. Lawrence a profound “priest of love,” or a proto-fascist, or just a fellow who earned a brief notoriety by scribbling a few novels’ worth of sensual yearning and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Off-Off Loop Theatre Festival
Last year, with the Chicago International Theatre Festival running at about the same time, there was an aura of the underdog to this event. This year, they’ve got a nice logo and the field more or less to themselves. Still, the specifics are the same: ten plucky non-Equity companies displaying their wares in a series […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Katia and Mariella Labeque
The Labeque sisters, Katia and Marielle, are the most sensational piano duo since Fitzdale and Gold. Not quite convinced? Neither was I, until I heard and saw them in action last year. For a brief spell, their pyrotechnics and panache made me believe in the merits and possibilities of the dubious genre, which enjoyed a […]