The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 45

Wednesday January 5, 1 977 Ottawa Joanttl 45 TV premiere preview from Earthbound edy to com edy trag yo-yos The most I can say for Earthbound Is that ultimately it Is stimulating because it does raise an army of serious questions, but perhaps it would have been wiser to capitalize on the prize-winning writer's talent (and l-really belive there Is some evidenced) by offering her the chance to work for a while with more experienced personnel. Gee, It must be tough when you are the CBG and encouragement translates as premature Steve Pernio Is Josie's incredible husband. This guy -Is such a masterfoll for Josie's neurosis that someone, should use Earthbound as a pilot film for a new type of hero slt-com. Penile makes the best of a skimpy and disjointed character. The show also gives us a glimpse of a girl who is either the onglnalBarbie doU or one helluva brilliant actress.

I can't wait to see more of Donann Canin because I'm betting on the latter. where they watch him on TV doing a commercial for his store. The scene Is worth the show. Chapelle Jaffe is the lady downstairs. She looks like a discount Faye Dunaway and plays what I think is a drawback as if it was a trump, but she is not a bad actress.

Michael Wlncott Is Cole and he plays him with coiled lnstenslty, alternately winning and disgusting us with his warped psyche. By Maureen Peterson Maslc and Drama Critic CBC-TVs Front Row Centre tonight Is presenting the first TV script by Richelle Kosar. The drama, called Earthbound, was written in three months when Ms. Kosar was 24-years-old and it won her second prize in CBC's College Writing Contest in 197S. Take that into conslderaton, if you like, and It might temper your opinion of this mildly hysterical yo-yo drama that flits in and out of credibility without warning and convolutes its own theme and message so many times that by the intense finale you don't know if the story is tragic or comic Earthbound Is set In a small Saskatchewan town, more precisely, In the home of Jack and Helen Buckley.

Group of Four served a dish of jy gressed. They are the only two actors Two scenes stand out. Shaw, rpiears- ouuUeuuy-yoviig Eiia DuuliUle, becomes a real-life Henry Hlggins, lecturing and guiding his precious ward. Mur Director Gaetan Charlebols, one of the fcloUp la bwW liiUv-li lLgui) IwU w3 company was formed to present alternatives to Montreal's two main theatre groups. Tuesday evening he gave us a refreshing play which argues well for the future.

Certainly there were flaws' from both an acting and directing viewpoint, but they were relatively minor when measured alongside the enthusiasm and obvious enjoyment everyone associated with the play was showing. James Murchlson as Shaw is likeable and at times very believable, ly when he shows us the cantankerous GBS of legend. Alison Heath (another of the group's originators) was slow to get. into ner part Tuesday but Mrs. Campbell became very real as the evening pro hold the attention of the audience for almost two hours.

Dear Liar is a play for people who love theatre. Kilty's play used as a base for the recent CBC drama The First Night ot Pygmalion was written to show us something of the humanity that both Shaw and Mrs. Campbell secreted beneath their public iciness. That Shaw loved the actress is indisputable. But It was a pure love, an Intellectual love of fondness rather than a sensuous love.

Charlebols the director and his actors show this perfectly. Shaw has his side of the stage Mrs. Campbell has hers, but there Is a unity, a unity of feeling which sparks across the stage with charm and richness. 1 A Montreal theatre group, aided somewhat by the wit of George Bernard Shaw, served a dish of theatrical joy Tuesday evening at Carleton University's Alumni Theatre. The.

only sad part in an otherwise happy evening was that a mlniscule audience witnessed it Undeterred, the Group of Four a theatre company created by drama students at Montreal's John Abbott College battled onward with Jerome Kilty's Dear liar, a play which documents the love-affalr-by-letter between GBS and the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell. And at the final curtain, the company had won its battle, showing remarkable professionalism and acute perception for what makes good theatre. chlson and Heath play the scene with style and warmth. The second Is the final scene, when GBS and Miss Campbell have grown ol4 but have endured, both angry at the loss1 1 of youth.

Murchlson and Heath age nlce ly and with dignity. And it works. Dear Liar runs until Saturday at thej Alumni with curtain at 8 p.m. if you're i theatre-buff, you'll love It references tot Dame Edith, Dame Sybil, Joan CrawC ford and all. The Group of Four deserver a compliment for its courage.

And it deserves a much larger audj ence. He, UaA la the dark a while back and smashed all the windows In the local school building. Cole Is flirting with insanity, I guss, a popular metaphor in CBC dramaland. At any rate, he says he did it to hear the sound of the glass breaking. My guess is he did it because he was bored.

Judging by the company he keeps that would not be surprising. Cole Is drawn to a woman who Uves with her husband in the Buckley's basement The reason the Buckleys have people living in their basement is not clear. Jack makes such a point of being a successful general manager of a local store (it is, in fact, his only point) that it is hard to imagine him feeling good about renting out what should be his status symbol rec room. But there they are, Jpsie and Tom, and Cole seems to see in Josie a kindred spirit, someone who wants more. Josie's father we learn In.

a captivating opening sequence)' was a certified lunatic. Could this be the unspoken bond between Josie and the boy upstairs? That is never really made clear. In one dramatic scene (this is a drama full of dramatic scenes) Cole Is verbally pummellng his father, telling him nothing is like It was standard generation gap fare. Barely minutes later Cole is spellbound as Josie tells him everthing is exactly the same. The story turns like O.

Henry's The Gift of the Magi. Cole makes a deperate attempt to tability with which all of'us speak around the house. But beyond the promise shown in the dialogue, it is director Mike Newell's tender loving care that keeps us' hanging In as the fabric of the drama begins to unravel. Superb direy of a fox in a cage that is so close to plagiarism I can imagine the fox even looking like an iguana. The language of the characters saves the script for me as It seems an almost documentary rendering on the blandness and predic fighting against corruption." Ofer's widow, Shoshana, told reporters: "A number of journalists murdered Avraham Ofer.

Those who tormented him are responsible for his death. I ask you to write that certain journalists did not pction, imaginative camera work and some top-notch acting make Earthbound less clumsy than its name. Kate Reid is Mom, mediator with dlshpan hands. She fills In the blanks in the naked script to a point where her gestures and glances have more weight than words. That kind of thing works better on TV than it ever could on a stage or even a movie screen.

Gerard Parkes plays Dad almost like a sad clown, capitalizing on the cliches where Reid seems almost to ignore them. The two of them are stunning in a scene inr i i i i THIS WEEK Haddon Hall Countess Pillow Haddon Hall Service Pillow Dominion Wool Blanket '46 rolls novei Eaton Reg. 8.98 Ealon Rag. 11.9a Eaton Rag. 21.98 Approx.

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