The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 36

ENTERTAINMENT The Vancouver Sun, Friday, August 19, 1994 C10 "1 i THEATRE i -1 I Polluted play not for purists YOU WAHTME TO DO; MICHAEL SCOTT Sun Music Critic J0RE IN DRAG AND DO THE i ivrjjrj.T-g-.i.T.i.Mii.r.m Timon -'-NX C. WARNlNG- I LateNite Show YET OGcasional nudity fc-j- il SATISFYING!" "A killer one of the most compelling -Pumbaa nail-biters to pass our way this an explosive summer escape." MONIKULGMCT1E RICHARD III By William Shakespeare; presented by The Lord Strange's PldyGrs Studio 16 (1545 W. 7th), Aug. 16 to 20, at 8 p.m. interested in exploring the absurd nature of human existence," McCreadie has said.

"It doesnt matter whether the crown is made of gold or tin, whether you have power over a nation or a few acres of garbage, humans want power for power's sake." Engaging as the concept is, McCreadie's version of Richard III has a tangled, dog-eared quality that suits the jumbled landfill of the stage. The text is pared back by almost one-third not off-putting in itself, but certainly no pleasure for Shakespeare purists. Some scenes are brilliantly played, others less convincingly so. Instead of leaving the theatre with a sense of the overarching majesty of the work itself, or of the exquisite villainy of its central character, individual performances are what stick in the memory. (Which is to say that this Richard III is not greater than the sum of its parts, charming and memorable though some of those parts unequivocally are.) Chief among them is Tim Somerville, a young actor who dresses his mournful pleas as the Duke of Clarence with a curling eyebrow and a white-hot focus.

Somerville has a spectacular physicality, hands flickering with character as he argues for his life. Of all the cast he seems the finest realization of the director's intentions: smooth, pulse-quickening Shakespeare, aflame with real emotion, yet framed in absurdity. (Somerville's prison cell is a chest freezer covered in spray-painted graffiti.) Nancy Bell, as the curse-casting Queen Margaret, raises the hair at the back of the neck with her taunting, supernatural formulas. And Ian Gschwind is equally eerie as the two murderers who come to kill the Duke of Clarence in the Tower. (Gschwind uses a stocking puppet on his left arm to speak the works of the second, more resolute assassin.) There is a weird energy in this production that makes up for the liberties McCreadie and his Strangers have taken with the play.

As a question of taste, I would rather my Richard creepier and more venomous, but the evening never fails to stimulate. This is the first Vancouver project of the formerly Toronto-based Lord Strange's Players. McCreadie promises more classical work in the coming season; and an evening of "toilet humor in blank verse" at the Fringe, called Pornographic Pentameter. THE REMIND ME to send a thank-you note to Sun theatre crit-ic, Barbara Crook. If it hadn't been for her holidays this week, I might never have met Lord Strange's Players or seen this remarkable run at Shakespeare's Richard III.

Head Stranger, Drew McCreadie, has adapted and abridged the play in an effort to highlight the dark threads of comedy and other absurdist aspects he finds there. In his hands the blood-soaked court of Plantagenet England is transformed into a garbage-strewn urban wasteland. Courtiers spring forth as bully boys and skin heads; dukes and duchesses are played not as 15th-century nobles, but as skid row smack addicts and bag ladies. In the centre of all the murderous complotting is McCreadie himself, as Richard a villain normally set-off from the other characters by grotesque physical deformities, but distinguished here, in this night-for-day rendition, by immaculate grooming and a spotless tuxedo. There is a general air of unhealth-iness and decay in the proceedings: actors' faces disfigured with ulcers and plaguey spots, for instance; their clothes, filthy and ill-fitting.

"I'm Lion king Si Client taT kJizmc Anna Of THE FRM mo THE FEUCAN iRIEF DwIWHnnCTLIOKrnmi1WS. THtHTDHMT(WM Presented in at Capitoll A.so at CAPRICE DELTA 6C OtMOUL jA C. WARNING-May mgnien young cruioren. OAKRIOOE ABBOTSFORD Town Ptt: 859-5019, Oaily-2 10 4:35 7:10 9:40 7:45 10:30 Sat. wmmmssm emmsesm COOUITUkM SCOTT 721 WK mOM ChecK FAMOUS MOVlEGUtDE MUSIC Montreal woman to join Love's band CONWAY DALY Canadian Press raiBHifflili lrfHfe.N..

Jf" X5. t. "I'm glad I didnt have more time the time of Cobain's suicide in April, at home to think about what I was Cobain was the lead singer of Nir- doing, actually," she added. vana, one of the pioneers of the Seat- Auf der Maur's big break came tie grunge sound. MONTREAL Melissa Auf der Maur, a 22-year-old Montreal bass courtesy of Billy Corgan, lead singer Auf der Maur, who took up the bass player, feels a bit stunned to have for Smashing Pumpkins, who heard last year when her father bought her been asked to joined Hole, the her band last fall in Montreal.

a $700 instrument for her 21st birth-grunge band led by Kurt Cobain's She declined an offer to join the day, said she's played with adven-widow, Courtney Love. Pumpkins and when Corgan sug- turous musicians in Montreal. "It probably will take months gested Hole, she said no again "It just goes to show the wall before it actually sinks in because because it was "too big a change, too between the Canadian and Ameri- there's a lot of work ahead of me," crazy of a thing, and I already had can market isnt so big." "ti-A i L4 Auf der Maur told CBC Radio in a my own band going." telephone interview this week from Then she reconsidered. Seattle. "It sunk in a few days later that "It's overwhelming but it's too big maybe I should look into this." an opportunity to turn down out of The former photography student at fear or something or other." Montreal's Concordia University said: Love needed a replacement for "It's just a trial run so far and I'll see Kristen Pfaff, who died of a heroin how I feel after the next few months." overdoseinJune.AufderMaurwon Auf der Maur said Love, who the job in an audition at the band's picked her up at the Seattle air-Seattle base and will be with Hole port, is "very strong, has obviously whenitplaysReadingFestivalinEng- gone through lots and has pulled land Aug.

26, its first gig in months, through it well. She's very talented." "I spent a week here practising and The tour is to promote Hole's lat- I had 48 hours to go home and tie est album, the ironically titled Live up all my loose ends there. Through This. The album was issued America, sleep tight The safety of the free world is in his hands. nn nn UteNiteShow WARNING -Occasional coarse and suggestive language.

ABBOTSFORD Towne Ph: 859-5019 -Check FAMOUS MOVIEGUIDE for Showtimes Sneak a 1I i ltillUiUM G3 1 111 wTt rhumb spf 'ffpn 1 wMMiWBIliM III' SSp: I i 1 Fu '-t I 1 7:15 9:30 ced b' B.C. WARNING pus Sat Sun 4:00 Melanie Griffith Ed Harris you'd seen the PNE) JV1ILK MONEY 94 0 p.wi'vrpicte JrrtM MILK MONEY raritn WMIHlKEIffltt(MFINAEU10ra Trf" RlCRyiDBEpLN KoTfEIWMARSHAa CGMWOT 4 TNs Saturtay, Conw to set COCriit CklCAV PflEUIPW nl (kuruM) some sjesiiv. MILK MONEY -7) Wt WMFr it 741 rnar.il MILK MONEY 7:00 MILK MONEY 7:00 MILK MONEY FREE admission for children 12 under FORREST GUMP 9:00 FORREST GUMP 9:15 FORREST GUMP FORREST GUMP 9:15 when accompanied by an adult..