The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 82

SMHfl Page F16, The Citizen, Ottawa, Wednesday, January 22, 1986 Pages F16-F19 Sympathy, revulsion in show that explores hope for torture victims TV preview By Noel Taylor Citizen staff writer Man Alive: Ending The Nightmare 4, 5, 6M, 11, tonight at 9.30. Part II Jan. 29. where you were tortured, everything is now all right. But the tortured are changed for the rest of their lives." This from one of the team of doctors, psychiatrists and volunteer agencies whose rehabilitation efforts at Welcome House in Toronto are the subject of Ending The Nightmare.

The torture victims now living in Canada are from all continents, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua, Poland to El Salvador, countries where torture has become a political act. (In one of every three countries in the world, we are told, systematic torture is an integral part of the system). Some of them are' identified; others won't give their name for fear of reprisals on relatives at home. Toronto is where most of them end up in Canada, and Welcome House, incorporated in 1983 is only the second torture treatment centre in the world. Those who voice the horror are sometimes themselves doctors, psychiatrists members of a class whose very education made them the target of official goonery.

Not for them the official euphemisms, the "post-traumatic stress disorders" and references to "torture syndrome." One of them pleads for understanding and empathy; i.e., treatment by one who has himself been through the torture ordeal and who is aware exactly how every knock on the door, every whistle or bell can trig ger a shock reaction. Man Alive host Roy Bonisteel speaks more idealistically of encouraging the victim to talk about the torture until they begin to see that it is the torturer, and not the victim, who is degraded. The second part of Ending the Nightmare next week, fo-cusses on women and children as victims. Its dominant image is the impassive face of a small girl listening to her mother tell the pyschologist about discovering her child playing in the dust with a human head. The program states the obvious that women are in many ways more vulnerable to the torturer than men.

A mother, told by her persecutors that they were going to kill her unborn baby, says she replied: "I don't care. I was planning to have an abortion, so go ahead I actually showed a rejection. I couldn't establish any emotional bond with my baby." There's more, but by the end of the second half-hour, Ending The Nightmare, for all its positive intentions, shows signs of repetitiveness. The evidence accumulates, sympathy and revulsion are invoked in equal parts, but little new is being offered. Ending The Nightmare wraps up with a pitch for more volunteer helpers by Bonisteel and' the voice of a victim who in sists, without a lot of hope, that torture as part of a political system must be abolished in civilized society.

This isn't a program for the queasy; the subject of torture never was. Listening to this hush-voiced evidence by refugee-victims, now in the safety of their Canadian homes, of man's inhumanity to man it's still no easier to comprehend the full extent of human bestiality. A torturer's victim is buried alive five or six minutes, then revived with electric shocks. The process is repeated until he either submits, or dies. Another tells of victims being dismembered piece by piece, limb by limb.

And yet another of a man whose testicles are tied with nylon cord, the other end of which is attached to a bucket into which stones are dropped one by one, gradually increasing the agony. In Ending The Nightmare (tonight and Jan. 29), CBC's Man Alive does not dwell on the indictment itself. What it explores is the prospect of hope, though for many of the victims this is elusive. "So many people think because you are free of the place Hss iing portrait NAC orchestra treats children with respect One-man show offers fascinating glimpse of Nazi I in I.

mmmmmvmmm. Theatre review Hess National Arts Centre Studio Jan. 21-Feb. 1 Evening performances 8 p.m. Saturday matinees, 2 p.m.

The arts 'i Jacob Siskind nign exterior. He tells of his service in the First World War, his instant devotion to Hitler when they first met in the 1920s, and his ill-fated 1941 peace flight to Scotland, a mission that prompted Hitler to denounce him as a madman and resulted in his immediate imprisonment by the British. Although the peace mission was seen by some of his Nazi colleagues as little more than an effort at self-aggrandizement, to counter the rising influence of the more flamboyant Herman Goer-ing, Burrell's Hess styles himself as an omniscient diplomat who could have ended the war if only he'd been given the chance. And he draws disturbing parallels between the ideals and methods of Nazi Germany and those of today's superpowers. In one of the play's most effective moments, Hess recounts the day at Nuremberg when the accused were shown films from the concentration camps.

His voice quakes and gasps as he recalls his horror and revulsion, but it is not long before he is once again defending himself, trying to absolve his own guilt by condemning the actions of others. Because of its subject matter and its intensity, Hess is not always an easy play to watch, and one doesn't emerge with a clear-cut sense of right and wrong, good and evil. But it is a compelling portrait of a man who remains one of society's horrors, both a symbol of the misplaced ideals of the Nazi regime and a reminder of our. continued fear of those dreams. By Barbara Crook Citizen staff writer Stooped by infirmity and age, hands gnarled into useless clubs, the old man hobbles about the stage.

Clad in a scarlet robe and striped pyjamas, crippled feet shod in cozy slippers, he could almost pass for a harmless, affectionate grandfather as he shares reminiscences and opinions nurtured over more than 90 years of living. But it is no ordinary old man that British actor Michael Burrell brings to life onstage at the National Arts Centre Studio. It is Rudolf Hess, Hitler's dark-browed deputy, who has spent close to 45 years in prison, the last 20 as the only inmate in Berlin's Spandau Prison. Hess, the one-man show written and performed by Burrell, is a beautifully acted, fascinating glimpse into the Nazi who was known within the party as Hitler's "conscience" and was once described by fellow Nazi Albert Speer as a martyr and a buffoon. There are a few slow moments in the play, and even in a quiet theatre, there are words and lines that are difficult to hear.

But Burrell, in his late 40s, is totally convincing as the shrivelled, sickly man twice his age, particularly when he paws for a piece of paper in his pocket, or- One of the National Arts Centre Orchestra's activities that gets too little attention is the series of concerts it presents for local schools. Offered during the day, these events are not open to the general public. The youngsters are brought in classes by their teachers and then returned whence they came. There are six of these events taking place this week in the NAC Opera and mention is made of them because they have the kind of vitality and energy that is too often lacking in programs for children. Too many conductors and orchestra associations think of their concerts for young people as a necessary evil.

They cordially detest playing for the little monsters and that feeling radiates out into the hall, triggering an equal reaction in the opposite direction. The marvel of the NAC Orchestra's concerts is that you feel no resistance coming from the 8,000 young people who attend these programs. At least, there was none apparent from the audience on Tuesday afternoon. Hamilton Philharmonic conductor Boris Brott was on the podium again in a guest appearance and it was clear that he does not think of these events as a chore. He had gone to a great deal of trouble to put together a program that is both different and interesting.

The theme this time is the conflict between two rival composers of the same era, Mozart and Salieri, the theme that was explored by the highly successful Broadway play, later an Oscar winning film, Amadeus. Brott only touched on the surface of what it is that motivates two composers, men who had a certain respect for each other, but he also saw to it that the audience had an opportunity to compare actual music by the two men. I must say he loaded the dice pretty obviously by choosing a rather limp piano concerto Michael Burrell as Hess in one-man show movement by Salieri and contrasted it with the slow movement that has now become known as the Elvira Madigan theme. It was a bit like comparing a Cabbage Patch doll with a child, but it made its point. Incidentally, the soloist was Nari Maatsura, a 15-year-old Ottawa pianist who played both pieces with charm.

Brott also had a couple of aces up his sleeve with Mary Lou Fallis, that irrepressible diva who loves a cutup almost as much as she loves singing. She warmed up the crowd first with her impression of a young hopeful at a Kiwanis festival and then went on to a couple of Mozart arias that were tossed off brilliantly. I almost wished she had also done some Salieri arias as well, to add weight to the contrasts. Finally, Brott had a little playlet in which Gilles Provost and Daniel Arnaud impersonated Salieri and Mozart and that added yet another dimension to the event. The important thing is that while the youngsters were restless at times, they were quiet and attentive when the good things were happening, and that is the beginning of the development of taste and discrimination.

Brott loves talking at the best of times and his obvious enjoyment on this occasion was shared by the youngsters who found it all good entertainment. I almost wished that a program of this kind could be offered in the early evening instead of some of those wimpy pops concerts we get. It would be just as enjoyable for all ages and infinitely more satisfying musically and as pure struggles to put on his cherished uniform. The content of the piece, directed by Philip Grout, is an interesting mixture of historical fact and carefully-drawn characterization. In a two-hour performance punctuated by humor and pathos, Burrell's Hess alternately harangues and seduces his spellbound audience with his recollections of Hitler and the ideals of the Third Reich ideals he in-' sists hold a secret appeal for North Americans.

"Deep in your hearts, you love the Third Reich," he hisses. "We had ideas, we had solutions, we had a dream. We dared to have a dream." Vain, spiteful and totally unrepentant, Hess is at once frightening and pathetic, almost succeeding in convincing us that he can't be evil after all this time, but showing just enough of a lust for power and a single-minded insistence on the absolute morality of the Nazis' goals to add an edge of menace and revulsion to his be Prime-time soap operas dying? CHRO-TV seeks to leave CBC By Peter Boyer The New York Times By Doug Yonson Citizen staff writer wr m. i '1 yafiWMtf i.J. i NEW YORK To the executives who assembled ABC's current program schedule with the hope that the network's ratings slide could be stemmed, The Colbys must have seemed irresistible.

The Colbys is a spinoff of the prime-time soap opera Dynasty, the campy, hugely successful program that was last season's top-rated series. Dynasty was a bright spot on an ABC schedule of programs that slipped to third place in the prime-time ratings competition. But The Colbys has struggled for an audience this season, and other prime-time network serials are performing below par. And the view in the television industry is that, after eight years as the hottest program genre on television, the prime-time soap opera is nearing its end. "The shows are aging, they're getting tired," said Joel Segal, executive vice-president in charge of television for Ted Bates Advertising.

"Serials are not hot. My guess is that we won't see as much in the way of serials next season." It is a widely held view. M. Donald Grant, president of CBS Entertainment and the man who started the serial trend by putting Dallas on the air in 1978, says that CBS has informed Hollywood's production community that the network is no longer interested in nighttime soaps. "There are just too many of them on the air," Grant said in a telephone interview.

"It's tny hunch, instinctively, that this particular cycle is over." If so, it will be a sudden and somewhat surprising end for a programming genre that dominated network television just last year. ABC's Dynasty, the story of the wealthy but uneasy lives of the Carrington clan of Denver, not only became the top-rated series but also led a group of serials that were the most popular shows among advertising's favorite audience young women. According to Segal, Dynasty rated No. 1 among women 18 to 49 years old, followed by CBS's Dallas. The other CBS nighttime soaps, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest, were rated fifth and 11th among young women.

But this season, the top three shows among women are NBC's Thursday night comedies The Cosby Show, Family Ties and Cheers. Dynasty has slipped tB No. Dallas and Knots CHRO-TV, the little guy in the Ottawa Valley television market, says it will spend at least an extra $1.5 million a year to double its locai programming and hire 30 new employees if it is allowed to disaffiliate from the CBC. The Pembroke station, which reaches Ottawa mostly by cable, has applied to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to drop its CBC affiliation. That relationship obliges it to carry CBC programming at least 40 hours a week, including most prime time periods between 8 and 11 p.m.

seven days a week. Paul Marleau, the president of CHRO's owner, Mid-Canada Communications says the station wants to become "a fully independent station serving the Ottawa Valley." The CRTC application was filed three weeks ago, but the broadcast regulator has not yet issued a public notice announcing it. Marleau said there are three other CBC outlets serving the Ottawa area on cable, including the local CBOT and stations in Kingston and Montreal, and CBOT also reaches most of the upper Ottawa valley that is CHRO's prime service area. As a result, CHRO is providing duplicate coverage "75 to 80 per cent of the time," Marleau said, and would like to give viewers greater programming choice by disaffiliating. A CBC spokesman refused today to discuss the application except to say the network is "investigating alternatives." CHRO would move its transmitter from Pembroke to Dacre, 30 kilometres south east, to allow it to directly serve areas like Smith Falls.

Marleau said CHRO now produces 14 hours of local programming a week, including Vk hours of news. It proposes to increase news programming to at least eight hours, and augment total local programming to 29 hours. This would include new children's programming, country music and rock video shows and news interview programs, Marleau said. CHRO now offers first-run U.S. programming between 4 and 8 p.m.

Those programs would largely move to prime time, Marleau said, with the new programming filling those vacated slots. However, CHRO would also be producing its own material, and buying from other Canadian independent stations, to meet Canadian content requirements fqj prime time, Marleau said. jr if Cast of Dynasty: near the end? Landing are tied for 10th, and Falcon Crest has slipped to 27th. Most of the serials have slipped among the general audience as well. Last week, for example, Dynasty ranked 18th in the A.C.

Nielsen ratings, and its offspring, The Colbys, which has to compete with NBC's popular Thursday night lineup, ranked 54th among 69 network prime time shows. CBS's Dallas and Falcon Crest have both faltered slightly in the ratings as well. Only CBS's Knots Landing has remained steady. Brandon Stoddard, president of ABC Entertainment, blames bad scripts for the decline of Dynasty. He recently said that new plots will be infused into the series.

And Ted Harbert, vice-president of program planning and scheduling at ABC, maintains that the weak showing of The Colbys is misleading because the NBC shows it competes against are so popular. He said the show may need a year or more to find an audience. But Grant of CBS thinks that nighttime audiences have just had too much of the serial form, which requires more consistent viewer loyalty than the successful daytime soap operas usually command. "4v Paul Latour. Citizen Boris Brott suitably dressed for Mozart-Jgalieri concert iifti 0 A jti 1 rfft.