The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 39

Comics C8 Television CIO FRIDAY ENTERTAINMENT The Sacramento Bee Friday July 6 1 984 'w a i I it 6 Lessons in pride prejudice and respect for life 1 niliw 11 By George Williams Bee Reviewer Movie Review SUGAR CANE ALLEY if to Cast Garry Cadenat Darling Legitimus Douta Seek Joel Palcy Marie-Jo Decas Marie- Ange Farot Joby Bernabe Director-writer Euzhan Palcy Photography Dominque Chauis Editor Marie-Joseph Yoyotte Set design Hoang Thanh At Producers Michel Loulergue and Alix Regis Released by Orion Classics In French with English subtitles Running time 103 minutes Tower Rated PG for adult themes 4fv: t- him for associating with the children of the black shacks even speak They are raising Leopold to become a member of the privileged class but when the father dies he refuses to give Leopold his family name a white he insists on his deathbed Later Leopold breaks into his plantation offices trying to steal pay ledgers that will prove whites have been cheating the black cane cutters Garry Cadenat as Jose heads an all-Martinican cast brightly talented a natural for the movies Also outstanding is Joel Palcy the brother who plays Carmen the womanizing boatman who dreams of becoming a movie star in Hollywood But it is Darling Legitimus as the grandmother who dominates Cane She seems to be holding back throughout but this underplaying with her eyes telling so much more than she speaks creates one of the most unforgettable characters in years Legitimus is a veteran of nearly 150 roles in French films For this performance she won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival The film produced with the help of French director Francois Truffaut won the Silver Lion Award at Venice and a French Cesar for Best First Film OUGAR CANE is a richly warm first film by Euzhan Palcy of Martinique a French possession in the West Indies Though Palcy is young and virtually untried you never get the feeling you are in the hands of anyone but a masterful filmmaker Based on an autobiographical novel by fellow Martinican Joseph Zobel "Sugar Cane is the story of 11-year-old Jose an orphan who quickly learns about pride and prejudice growing up in a shack of Martinique where the sugar-cane workers live Palcy dedicates her film to "all the black shack alleys of the In colors that all look like burnt oranges and browns the movie set in 1931 follows day-by-day existence as he seeks a way out of the alleys He wants to win a scholarship to a school in the Martinique capital of Fort-de-France so that he can become a teacher Jose lives with his grandmother near the shack of Medouze an aging sugar-cane worker who teaches him respect for living things Never kill anything that you cannot re-create Medouze tells him Jose learns his lessons well A Korean screen from the exhibit at the Asian Art Museum In one of the most powerful scenes Jose writes an essay about Medouze It is so eloquent that white teacher does not believe he wrote it and accuses Jose of copying it from a textbook Jose runs away from the school while the teacher finding out he was mistaken searches for him The warm vivid art of Korea CLOSEST friend is Leopold a mulatto whose father owns the sugar-cane fields parents constantly berate By Alfred Kay Bee Reviewer FRANCISCO An exhibit of Korean paintings and artifacts at fhp Acton Art Mnronm 1 hi Special to The Bee God of is an ink-and-color on paper work from the 19th century ately titled for it is filled with congenial objects and colors Even among the animals one could easily hold those tigers The flora and the fauna so prevalent on scrolls and screens serve only to make Korean life easier and safer It is believed that they protect Art Review (with the possible exception of the GIs) and have gained aesthetically There are then obvious and rewarding elements of Chinese and Japanese art to be seen in but also some surprising divergences Most important of these or so it would seem to a casual visitor is the Korean use of color The scrolls and screens are in many instances far more vivid than their counterparts in neighboring cultures Rather than the traditional muted browns the Koreans tend toward a poster brightness that attracts the eye and raises the morale homes bless bridal couples and help them get started on a family And they do so with gentle humor One wonders how this quality was maintained throughout the history of such a strategically desirable nation Korea has been called Land of the Morning and yet it has been invaded by the Chinese and Japanese the Mongols and the American GIs Wisely though the Korean people have borrowed what was best from each transient visitor See ART page C3 DesignBarbara Stubbs Wendell Frazier producer and chairman of the board of the Fair Oaks Theater Festival sits on the edge of new set construction for an upcoming play In the background from left are director Alan Stambusky and actors Jim Anderson Marty New Mary Trojan and George Beattie found a home in Fair Oaks fc Dean Huber Bee Staff Writer Shakespeare on a shoe- string sounds shabby But big doses of love talent and perseverance make the Fair Oaks Theater Festi-' val a class act no doubt a matter of the right i people coming together at the right time in the right place The festival was launched last summer with i Merry Wives of But the idea for outdoor Shakespeare here was born two years earlier A bunch of actors were sitting around backstage at the Eleanor McClatchy Performing Arts Center during rehearsals for talking theater as actors are wont to do George Beattie remembers the rap session this way: we take it (Shakespeare) out to the people? Why not do it in the 1 amphitheater in Fair Wendell Frazier Jim Goodrich Devoy White and Gene Gould enthusiastically agreed There was more talk usually during lunches But it was Frazier who got out and started the legwork He went to the Fair Oaks Recreation and Park District and found a sympathetic ear Fair Oaks attorney Alfred McKenzie board chairman promised the had the foresight to see what could be says Beattie really been a people-in-the-park sort of Fair Oaks developer Buzz Griffin was enlisted to win the support of businessmen and became cofounder A coup d'etat that would be a telling factor in the success of the Fair Oaks Theater Festival was persuading Dr Alan Stambusky to direct the maiden production Stambusky professor of dramatic art at the University of California Davis and director of the University Theater is among the most respected local theatrical professionals Now he is artistic director of the Festival and director of and the first of this two productions (The second will be With a heavy load at UCD why did Stambusky take on the Fair Oaks Festival? love Stambusky says I do it as a summer project no school" Grinning he adds had never heard of the amphitheater in Fair Frazier likes to talk about Ashland making comparisons to the nationally known festival He expects more than 10000 people at will open July 20 and from then on performances of the two plays will alternate Veteran Sacramento director Dr Gerard A Larson of California State University Sacramento will direct Night" Larson acted for two years at Ashland In 1983 he received the Elly Award for best musicalcomedy director for his EMPAC production of Types" In the fall he will direct and Cressida" at CSUS The Fair Oaks Theater Ftstival barring unforeseen calamity is here to stay Yet Frazier indefatigable in his dedication is never complacent: in our original season were a success The people accepted us The Bee named us one of the outstanding productions of 1983 We felt an obligation to the community to do the ery best we could with our 1984 very fluid very open There are several levels to it which actors like And we have several stage fights in here and marvelous for the fencing Festival regulars and volunteers started work on the stage six weeks ago bolting it together in 4-foot sections so that it can be taken apart and stored at the end of the summer if the Fair Oaks Park and Recreation District decrees Stambusky hopes they can let the stage stand Plywood was purchased but part of the stage is surplus packing crates thanks to officials at Mather Air Force Base had to move ahead and have a stage like says Stambusky with satisfaction this stage lends itself to comedy as well as and will runt through Aug 24 need a stage for the proper mounting of the productions which also helps the sight lines and gives the actors a feeling of the environment necessary tor the" plays performing says Stambusky to do and we obviously had to have a balcony" When the season opens tonight a balcony and stage will be in place the triumphant result of research ingenuity scrounging and hard work It is a reasonable facsimile of the old Globe Theater stage where Shakespeare introduced hts immortal works The technical director Charles Evans researched (scholars are at odds about the construction of the stage) and designed the festival version my purposes" says Stambusky is close enough to what the original may have been the Fair Oaks Festival this summer was in its 11th season before it had Stambusky however has a different perspective: not compare it with he interjects with a trace of annoyance consider this normal community theater I think moving toward professional status of people came over from the other side of the causeway last year we have people come from San Francisco also And I think we will draw good actors from all HOSE WHO CAME last year paid their $2 to sit on hard wooden bleachers (seating 750) in the bowery amphitheater The actors in Merry Wives of were scarcely better off They were playing on the concrete i-.