Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 70

Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, January 12, 1983 Tempo Triumphant saga of Sindbad triumphantly retraced 0 1 Ml IV Section 4 1 Tempo reader By Peter Gorner 'TJr- mi: f- ll I ft II "The Sindbad Voyage" By Tim Severin. Putnam, $17.95. HURRY! his crew and set sail. His journey is filled with exciting scenes-elephants hauling timber in the forests of India, the shipwrights laboring in the searing heat of Sur Oman shipbuilding center, the frustration of being becalmed in the Doldrums, hunting sharks for food in the Indian Ocean, the near-grounding on the South Sands in the Malacca Strait, the killer squalls in the South China Sea, the constant vigilance by his heavily armed crew against pirates. Cheering crowds and clashing cultures spice the narrative, and Severin keeps it moving along an unsentimental and often hilarious course.

The key question was, how did Arab navigators succeed in finding their way to China? It was a stupendous achievement. They sailed nearly a quarter of the way around the world at a time when the average European ship was having navigational problems crossing the English Channel. The answer, Severin says, was a wooden tablet about 3 inches wide with a hole in the middle. Through the hole ran a piece of string with a knot in it. The navigator placed the knot between his teeth, stretched out the string until it was taut, and closing one eye held the tablet so that one edge touched the horizon.

He then checked the height of the Pole star against the side or the upper edge of the tablet. SEVERIN MADE himself one, and by the third night, he writes, "I was able to iudge the height of the Pole Star accurately enough to plot the ship's latitude position to within a variance of 30 miles, using only a bit of cardboard and a string with a knot in it! "I was only a beginner, yet already I could have navieated Sohar to any selected point on the SPECIAL PRICES 9 ENDING SOONI fitrwss jflftUTiLUSQ center SHE MEANDERED 6.000 miles across CM the Indian Ocean in 1980, the "Sohar" made quite a sight, an odd but stately wooden sailing snip about 80 feet long, and double-ended so both bow and stern tapered to points. No nails were used in her construction; her planks were sewn together with 400 miles of cord made from coconut husks. Three distinctive triangular sails bore a bright scarlet emblem-two crossed swords and a hooked dagger-showing that the ship belonged to an Arab sultan. Crickets had burrowed into her bowels, so choruses of chirping accompanied her everywhere, as did a fetid stink akin to rotten eggs emanating from her bilge.

The Sohar, though, was a classic Arab merchant vessel and could have sailed directly from the pages of the Arabian Nights. Her equal had not been seen for 15 centuries, and despite some memorable mishaps and a clutch of close calls, she carried British explorer-scholar Tim Severin and his crew of 20 stalwarts across the Seven Seas from the sultanate of Oman to China in 7V4 months. It's always fascinating to travel with Tim Severin, though frankly I'd rather do it without leaving home. The son of an English tea planter, Severin, 42, has been writing of his adventures since he visited the United States at 16 and worked as a cowboy. While still a student, he traced by motorcycle Marco Polo's trail across Asia, canoed the length of the Mississippi and lived in the Antilles.

Then in 1976, he raised $38,000, built a little leather boat of stitched oxhides that looked like a banana and sailed it across the icy north Atlantic. SEVERIN EXPLORED the legend of St. Brendan the Navigator, a sailor's saint and reputed leader of a small band of tough and notoriously feisty Celtic friars who may have reached the shores of North America a thousand years before Columbus. Severin's storm-tossed account, "The Brendan Voyage," proved itself a marvelous blend of adventure, wit and solid scholarship. The book was published in 16 languages, and Severin was hailed as the new Thor Heyerdahl.

Heyerdahl, though, had a scientific ax to grind, trying to prove that pre-Columbian transoceanic voyages explain similarities in cultural traits found in both the Old and New Worlds. Most scientists decry the notion, and Severin doesn't seem to care one way or the other. He is fascinated by ships old, new, big, little and by maps, legends and literature the older the better. "The Sindbad Voyage" to be published Jan. 28 is a delightful re-creation of the legend of Sindbad the Sailor and the golden age of Arab geography that flourished between the 8th and 11th Centuries.

Severin's research took him to Oman, the formerly isolated oil-rich kingdom that sits on the maritime crossroads of the Arab world. Officials were so delighted by Severin's scheme that Oman's young Sultan Quaboos offered to subsidize the entire adventure out of national pride. IN "THE THOUSAND and One Nights" Sindbad goes on seven voyages. Each time he is shipwrecked, marooned or in some fashion cast away so he is propelled against his wishes into another adventure. To Severin, the majority of locations mentioned in the Sindbad text lay on the sea road eastward from the Arabian Gulf, from India, to Sri Lanka, Sumatra and China.

So backed by the sultan, Severin built his boat, hired TODAY AT 2 8PM "The ureal virtue lhal this production of 'Show Boat' has is ils incredibly rich treasury1 of wings." Kkluml chmiianscn. (Iwmai liibunc III! Hill Ml I.IMMI IH'HU PROIH I KIN III Indian coast a good 500 miles away from Sohar's present position. All I needed to know was the height of the Pole Star in finger breadths at that location, sail south until I counted the same number of finger breadths aboard Sohar, turn east and keep the Pole Star at the same height until I made my landfall." Wonderful stuff, this book, and another triumph for Severin. 11th Street does a banner job with 'Streamers' NOW THRU JANUARY 23 LAST 15 PERFS! 1 K'KF TS AT HON Ol I i PHONE RESERVATIONS: (312) 791-6000 M.I-ICH J. A mM' By Richard Christiansen Critic at large Itiokhron or 1 1 1 rs (Scars i Inhunc lower) ONVI MINI PAMklV.

AMI HIMMIUM l( II lilts MAIUH1K All Silk's I in.il Suhuvl lo Avttil.ihilm (iROUP SAl.KS: (3I2) 79I-6IW ARIE CROWN THEATRE mcuirmk puck thk ukk chic v.o. Illinois mi TREAMERS," a major work of American drama now excitingly revived in the 11th Street Studio The "Streamers" A play by David Raba, directed by Tarry Kinney, with a eettlng by Gary Bauph, coatumaa by Zulma Valdez, lighting by Frank Przeallcke, and apaclal ettecte by Susan Mayer. Opanad Jan. 8 at Columbia College'a 11th Straat Studio Thaatar, 72 E. 11th and playa at 6 p.m.

Wadnaaday through Friday, 6 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. Length of performance, 2:16. Tlckata are $2 to $6, with dinner-theater packages available at the Cart, Chicago Bar ft Grill, and Conrad Hilton Hotel.

Phone 663-9485. THE CAST Richie Scott Stuart Martin Thorn Hochman Carlyle Gregory Williams Billy Norman Holly Roger 8teven Long 8gt. Rooney Vlto D'Ambroalo Sgt. Cokes Oannla Farina "A A SOCKO BLOCKBUSTER!" TREAT!" Chicago Sun Times Chicago Tribune a passage of staggering calm that acts as an elegy and a coda. It comes in the person of Sgt.

Cokes, a rummy old noncom parachutist whose drunken parody of the song "Beautiful Dreamer" gives the play its ironic theme song. Cokes, who has discovered that he is dying of leukemia, returns to the base after a long binge and stumbles into the aftermath of the bloodbath in the barracks. Unaware of what has happened, he tells a long, nonsensical story about a monstrous traffic accident, which in its slapstick tragedy parallels the human death crash that has just occurred. Then, in a soft, anguished lament that sums up the sorrow of man's inhumanity to man, he sings a sad little song for a "gook" soldier whom he killed and whose death still haunts him. Dennis Farina, a Chicago police detective who is becoming a fine actor, gives a beautiful performance for this brilliant scene; and Kinney ends it, and the play, with a lightning stroke of directorial magic.

With "Streamers," the Columbia College TheaterMusic Center reaches a new peak of achievement in its season series of professional-student productions. This is a production that could stand tall in any theater. Columbia College who are very near in age and experience to the young soldiers moving from boys to men they are portraying. They're not always skilled or articulate performers, but you can tell that this play is close to the bone for them, Scott Stuart bravely provides an essential sweetness and poignant desperation to the character of Richie, the bright, bitchy and weak boy whose homosexuality triggers the violence in the barracks. Steven Long touchingly walks the fine line between bad dude and calm good guy as the black soldier Roger, torn, between his ghetto background and his hopes for adapting to a white man's world.

One short scene, in which he changes from Army clothes to his stud civvies, is a small miracle of character transformation. As for Norman Holly, portraying the all-American soldier boy destroyed in the maelstrom, he gives a lovely reading to his long monologue of remembrance and regret at the end of the first act; and you will never see a more terrifying outburst of raw emotion on the stage than that which this young man pours out when his straight, civilized exterior is pierced in a final, furious rush of bewilderment and hate. THAT BIG SCENE, harrowing in the extreme, is topped, however, by ater of Columbia College, is as startling and as riveting a piece of theater as you are likely to see this year. The cast consists of two guest artists and nine student actors; the director is Terry Kinney, rapidly developing as one of the city's top interpreters of contemporary works; and the production, which has been extended through Jan. 30, is a knockout.

David Rabe's play winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as Best American Play of 1976 and the last of a Vietnam trilogy that also includes Rabe's "Sticks and Bones" and "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel" is one of the few scripts of the 1970s that catches some of the frustration and rage of the American experience in the Vietnam War. Strictly on its own stage terms, it is a tight, beautifully written melodrama of immense power. The drama is set in a cadre room of a large Army base near Washington, D.C. It is home to three young soldiers of vastly different social backgrounds, and it is also a pressure cooker of racial and sexual tension, just waiting for a spark of anger that will make it explode. Hovering over everybody, from recruit to veteran, is the dread of being shipped out to die in the TODAY AT 2 8PM TIC Kl IS Al IIOX Oi Id- ft IK KI TKON Oim.l TS (Swus Tribune Towwl TELETHON (312) 454-8400 jungles of Vietnam.

In the small studio theater, the surrounding audience becomes three walls of this square barracks room, hemming in the actors in claustrophobic action from which there is no escape. Along with the actors, the audience feels the boredom, laughs at the small talk, experiences the restlessness, watches the tension grow and finally reels from the horror of the violence that erupts so bloodily. GREGORY WILLIAMS, the production's principal guest artist, portrays Carlyle, the ignorant, outcast black soldier whose pent-up fear and rage unleashes this violence. Always a keen actor, he makes his man a combination of sly devilment and weary resignation, and he gives even the most obscene passages in Rabe's eloquent script a sharp, savage edge. His colleagues are students of ORDER BY TELEPHONE (312) 853-8000 We jccepl Mattercird, Visa American tipreu by telephone or the 801 Ollice KOR GROUP SALES.

CALL (312) 236-6661 CIVIC OPERA HOUSE 20 n. wackeh drive Chicago 'That Great Restaurant" CHICAGOLAND re BORED? With tht tame old BUI of Fare Call 943-7494 for Cap'n Bud's Catch of the day Each morning by 8 a.m., our chef. Cap'n Bud has returned to the Waterfront from the Fulton fish 42nd Street and Us ire tor SLind. Coins man a Complimentary door parking and enjoy market with Mi personal selection of the best fish of the day. CtH now and rtMtvt i catch for tonlti.

943-7494 4H 1015 N. RUSH ST. "A MOST IMPRESSIVE TODAY AT 2:00 8:00 PM TONIGHT AT 8:00 PM great meai. CLOSED SUNDAYS ACHIEVEMENT." "VERY FUNNY" New York Times "BLAZING THEATRICAL FIREWORKS' (42nd Street) Is a MAXIMUM YUCKS" Christiansen, Tribune DONT MISS IT." Dally Herald TREASURED THEATRE. Svse.

Sun-Times COINS COINS GARGANTUAN SHOW." Chicago Magazine STAMPS COINS "SPARKS FLY" Chicago Tribune! "YOU'LL LOVE IT' THE MOST PURELY Y. Times 42nd street Roy Leonard, WON. PLEASURABLE EVENING OF THEATRE THIS SEASON." Tickets at Box Orlice, Tlcketron Tele-Tron. Reader RESERVATIONS: 782-1844 ADAMS CLINTON Shear madness MR. GUY'S COINS And a nightingale A Hnmtuiu WtwinnH CIVIC OPERA HOUSE 20 N.

Wacker Chicago, Illinois Charge by Phone (312) 853-8000 Group Sales (312) 236-6661 SANG mull, ou, inui. rnn, oun 3 a. 13.00. Frl 8PM; Sat by C. P.

Taylor 6 30 a 9 30PM: 18.00. Tickets at Directed oy Terry Kinney Pert. Tues. thru Sun. STEPPENWOLF THEATRE 2851 N.

Halsled 472-4141 box unice a Tlcketron Outlets. MAYFAIR THEATRE RlArkntnne Holel IS PAYING The HIGHEST PRICES FOR DIAMONDS. PLATINUM, ANTIQUES OOLD SILVER 10-12-14-18-22K Co'ins Sterling Flatware jewelry Class Rings Sterling Trays. Platters. Coins Scrap Cottee Tea Pots WE ARE NOW SELLING SILVER BARS VISIT US OR WE CAN COME TO YOU Chicago 4959 W.

Fullerton Av. 622-7335 r. STAMPS COINS COLLECTIBLES Bought Sold Cinoni Sump 1 Coin Dept. On So. Stm Chicago 744-2668 Use Your Cursom.

Visa Amev pr Matter Card Charge Michigan al Balbo Chicago Earn the Look of Love IICKei imo 1BII 1312) 700-9120 Group Sales Call (312) 951-7683 Tele-Tron (312) 454-8400 Cnmputer CARGRB TRAINING TODAY AT 2 PM CRITICS' CHOICEI IT'S JUST TERRIFIC! A FUNNY, 18 Price lonlghl tomorrow rsth Hilarious Waakll Melrose Park. III. 2417 Lake St. 681 0505 Addlaon. III.

40 E. Lake 81. 941-0740 TUNEFUL. BEAUTIFUL, EXHILARATING SHOWI" linjc Snopo'ng Piazai Evaa. Sun.

Phone 529-07B2 Division street A Comedy by Steve Tesicti Writer Breaking Away" Christiansen' Tribune 1 STRONG VOICES. INGENUOUS STAGING AND GUARANTEED TONIGHT AT 2 4 8 PM LAUGHSI" Syse' Sun-Times i can. wea. tnru sun. NEW BROADWAY THEATRE 3212 N.

Broadway 472-4488 BOB'S STAMPS COINS AllUMS I SUPPLIES STAMPS A COINS 1 1 1 BUY 1 SELL SILVER IAP.S I 4250 N. Milwaukee 777-3744 I i I ive accept Master Charge A Visa yr .4 Little me WINNER 4 JEFF AWARDS Ohowboat Tuas-Thurt Eves 8PM. Sat Mat 1 1 tat 2PM, Sun Mat 3PM: 16 50, 18.50, Hiding A Srilliitf U.S. and Foreign Coins i Gold Silver Platinum Sterling Flatware Holloware Quality Cold P'7 NOW THRU FEBRUARY 6 Samual Beckett a "BEST MUSICAL 1982" A Marriott's Lincolnshire Prod. Pad.

$13 to $17 Bon OHIce Tlcketron Phone Reserv. Visa and MC 266-0500 DRURY LANE THEATRE WATER TOWER PLACE STAMPS COINS WANTED re ou, rn a sat tvaa BPM; 20.00. 18.00, 14.00, 10.00. Wed Mat 2PM; 16.50, 14.50, 10.50. Tlcketa at Box Oltloa a Tlcketron Outlets.

ARIE CROWN THEATRE McCormlck Place On Tha Lake Ticket Into Call (3121 791-ooo Jewelry Pocket Watches I'Troin fnr a rawarrilna career In auNDGAME a brilliantly aavaga tragi-comedy about attar the Apocatypaa by one ot tha mailert or tha modem theatre. Group Sales Call (312) 791-8190 BUYING stamps covers collections picture postcards STAMP KING COIN KING 775-2100 7139 HIOOINS CHOO ROBERT WEISZ Diamonds Jake's Marketplace, Inc 295S N. CENTRAL AVE CHICAGO, II M634 312.72J.IJ44 Wed-Sat, OOPM, 2:30 7:30 PM Combine A Promising Future With Helping Others: The MedicalDental Fields We Can Train You in Just 28 Weeks Placement Assistance Financial Assistance if You Qualify TONIGHT AT 7 P.M. Part II "THE HOTTEST TICKET IN THE HISTORY OF BROADWAY" a $11. VlsaMcAmex Pre-thow Dining Discounts with Maltory'e Restaurant COURT THEATRE 753-4472 5535 S.

Ellis Frea Parking IIWtMMMH New York Times TONIGHT AT 6:00 PM "HILARIOUSLY OUTRAGEOUS A ZANY FIRST RATE" PVT. PARTY Win Bin Small Stm Col-leciiont, On En.noeei a Com 323-137 STAMPS EXTENDED THRU FEB 201 Tha Lite Adventures of JAMES SONS LTD. GOLD 4 SILVER COINS Richard Chrtstlaneen, Tribune I Computer Programming or Computer Operations. Learn modern techniques In computer applications taught by specialists from business and Industry. On-site IBM 4331 Computer 6 month diploma program Day and evening classes Career aptitude testing available Financial aid available Placement assistance (312)664-1000 Computer Learning Center NICE STAMPS-NICER PRICES ISO WorlttaiUe S0c wild iopro.ill RLR FOREIGN KUGGERANDS STAMPS.

JEWELRY, DIAMONDS CALUMET CITY 312-862-3800 "ASTONISHING AND HILARIOUS ICHOLAS NICKLEBY Starnw B0 1701 Gllnsalt Hl, ll 60137 Applications are now being processed Glenna Syaa, Sun-Times Stamps COLLECTIBLES PRIVATE COLLECTOR SELLING COMPLETE COLLECTION Of COINS Tues 7 PM, Part 1 Wed 7 PM, Part II: Thurs 7 PM, Perl lFrl.7 PM, Part II: Pcnnitt TO Dolmi CALL 371 Sat 2 PM Full Perl: Sun 2 PM Full Tomfoolery The Uomahnua kktmlnmt Coins COINS WANTED Chicago longest running Comedy Ml En EMERGENCY ROOM A vary serious comedy Wed. thru Frt. 6 PM Sal 6 30 10p 3 PM. ORGANIC THEATER CO. 327-5588, 3319 N.

Clark; VMCAme. Tlckelron Words and Music 04 Tom Lahret feature Pert: 70.00, 55 00. Tickets al Box Ottice Tlcketron Outlets BLACKSTONE THEATRE 60 E. Balbo, Chicago, llHnols Ticket Into Call (312) 977-1700 Group Sales Call (312) 977-1705 lues -Sun VleaMsVAmexTroflfDInnar Pko APOLLO THEATER CENTER 2540 N. Lincoln Ave.935-100 THE BRYMAN SCHOOLS of Modical And DanUl AwMting 17 N.

State 18th Fir, Chicago 368-4911 1132 Lake Oak Park 383-9360 Stilt appiovod and nationally acciaditod NllfS COIN SHOP HIGHEST BUYING PRICES ON Stiver COInl, Merlins Piatwaie. Jewelry. Watcrm, etc BIDBOARD THURSDAYS, MSPM W-SSTS 7617 MllwauHH WE BUY SILVER-GOLD COINS Old. Gold. Rlnai, Dontal.

WalchM Sundays- An Educational Service ol aaSillWIiiiia ftn s5 Arts Books Wednesdays- etc. TOP PAY on all OOLO AND SILVER IIW1 KEDZIE KOINS ADVERTISERS CALL 200 E. Ontario Street, Chicago, IL 60611 Approved by tht IL Stare Boaitf of Education Tempo iW) S. KEDZIE i Pvt Buv-U Colm wiwatlei-inonn Penniei will ml uo' au-IIul MISS CRAWFORD 222-4089,.