The Canterbury ales Come to Life Mio PAAKKONEN CONTRIBUTOR The world of Geoffrey haucer’s Canterbury ales comes to life this December, presented by he very talented junior heatre Company, PGSS heatre Arts. This year he Company has a brand-new director and brand new actors. I, my- self in that company for seven years, am glad to elcome everyone new to put their own stamp on something I treasure. Kevin O’Brien, who is mew to the company, lhas decide to put his. own mark on the theat- trical world. However, he’s not alone with cre- ating the Canterbury ales, he has enlisted ee students, Owen Selkirk, ‘Carly Legault land Jessica Rud. Owen sn’t an amateur when it comes to theatre. I have worked with Owen ince he was in grade 9 land just starting out, and mow he has three direc- orial positions under his belt as well as many acting roles, including aston in Beauty and the Beast and playing e lead Danny Zuko in IPGSS’s production of Grease this past June. ose of you who had oO miss out on Grease missed an amazing show! Carly Legault is ino stranger to the world of theatre, as she played he very stern Marilla in Anne of Green Gables. his is the first time that essica Rud has been ithin PGSS and she is finding it a wonderful experience. SARA TIMBERLAKE CONTRIBUTOR Tsotsi is truly a peculiar, yet at the same time remarkable film. This movie is about a ruth- less young killer who seems to have no consciousness of what he does to people. However, he accidentally kidnaps a baby, and the true pathetic helplessness of the baby transforms this murderer. This film is set in Soweto, the township outside of Johannesburg. There is poverty and crime and despair in Soweto. Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) is destined to be a criminal and killer. The viewers don’t even get to find out his real name until later in the film. In basic terms ‘read the The Canterbury Tales, known to every English Major and Minor, is a collection of satirica tales. However, this ver- sion is kid-i-fied! The tales have been com pressed into four, with a more kid feel. Thi does not mean that yo should avoid the sho out of your duty to onl: Canterb Tales in that beauti: ful Old English. The show is stacked wi amazing young actor: and actresses including} Cassi Thompson, who one might remembe as the evil Mallificent in Sleeping Beauty and Rizzo in Grease; Durae Wilson, whois no stran ger to anyone: a powe house singer, she ha: charmed audiences a Mrs. Potts in Beau and the Beast, Aurora in Sleeping Beau and Marty in Grease} Fyson Storoinski, who is comparable to Jim Carrey, has captured attention as the grease: Kinickie in Grease and Cat in Sleeping Beauty. These veteran acto have teamed up with the newer bread of talent and say it’s a pleasure working with everyone on a project which is so incredibly different from past shows. The Canterbury Tale: will run the first week of December 2007; fo more information, con: tact the PGSS Office aif 562-6441. OOK {0 the oKy ALAZAR SHAAM SEMERE Manacine Eniror On a scalding stretch of Texas sand, and not long before the second war that was sup- posed to end them all, there stood a wither- ing cornfield, doing all it could to battle the drought and the locusts. Not far from this field stood a shack that had been worn by the dust and the sun, a worn and decayed house that would be claimed by the black blizzards long before the banks would get a chance. Near the edge of this field sat a five year old boy. His name was Jacob. He was playing with a wooden-horse, the only toy his parents had been able to afford him, and the only pastime he had to distract himself from the monotony of his daily life. Every night, he would sweep the dust from the front porch, accompanied by a night sky whose stars had long since lost their beauty and mystique. Every day, he would help his father tend to the same animals and the same field, and then ride in the truck to the nearest market so their labours could be pawned off for a pittance. He would pass the trip away by looking up at the sky from the truck’s window in hopes of seeing something more than the occasional wisp of a shapeless cloud to distract him from the blue monot- ony and glaring sun. He imagined that even the sun eventually got bored with no clouds to keep it company, nothing to bounce off of or weave between, nothing to hide the un- changing desert for even a second. Eventually, Jacob gave up on looking at the sky, and instead, had trained himself to watch the horizon for a blowing black wall, and to run for shelter whenever the wind picked up and blew dust past his ears. His father had told him of grown men and their little sons who had perished in the black bliz- zards because they did not run fast enough, so Jacob practiced running, from the edge of the cornfield to his bedroom, every day. At first, when a breeze picked up and died back down again, Jacob ignored it and con- tinued his play. But when dust blew past his ears and the light of the sun grew dim- mer and dimmer, Jacob took off without hesitation. He darted between the swaying cornstalks and leapt over the dead ones; he was so proud of how fast his little feet were carrying him. Then suddenly, he and his pride came to a crashing halt as he tripped over the remains of a fallen scarecrow and went tumbling in the sand. As Jacob pulled himself to his feet for the second leg of his run, he saw that no wall of dust was stam- peding towards him. His eyes scanned the horizon, and as they did, they passed the sky. And there, they saw something new. Clouds, dozens of them, of every shape and size. Clouds, darker than Jacob could ever have imagined, rushed together to blot out the light of the sun. Then these clouds stretched out to each other and sealed the OVER THE EDGE November 21-December 5, 2007 cracks until not a trace of blue could be seen. These somber clouds looked down on the little boy and released a single tear. It hur- tled down on a beeline, and splashed against Jacob’ cheek. When it struck him, the sur- ptise was enough to send Jacob tumbling over the scarecrow again. He wiped the tear from his cheek and licked it off his fingers to taste it. It was water! Jacob had only seen water come from a pump; he couldn’t re- member ever seeing water fall from a cloud before. As he pondered his discovery, he was struck again, then twice more, and then, as Jacob rose, a flood was loosed upon him. To Jacob, it seemed as if all the water that lay in the oceans so far away was be- ing given to the desert. He started running again, with the speed of angels, to find his mother and father, and to tell them what he had found. When he came upon his home, he found his parents in a greater frenzy than he was. His mother hustled out of the house, carrying pots, bowls, jars, and cups. She laid them on the ground, made sure they began to fill, and then dashed back to the house for another load. Jacob’ father muscled the trough away from the wall until it was fully immersed in the storm, then rolled an empty barrel out of the barn just as Jacob’ mother dragged the washtub through the front door, anything to capture as much of this strange blessing as possible. Jacob looked towards the sky, and did so just in time to see it lashed by a wickedly jagged strand of light. And the sound after- wards! It sounded like a thousand giants beating on drums the size of mountains. Again, the sky was bullwhipped by a strand of light, and again, again, again, the drums sounded their defiance. For a moment, it re- minded Jacob of the lion tamer he had seen when a traveling circus had passed through a nearby town. The bravest man who ever lived was dressed in a bright red jacket and a black top hat, and he stood, taunting and almost sparring with “The Biggest Lion in the World”. With each crack of the whip, the tamer had dared the beast to attack. Each time, the lion accepted the challenge, roar- ing its mighty roar, and swiping at the man with its mighty paw but the tamer stood undaunted, and bullwhipped the lion again, daring him to attack. Thoughts of the lion and his nemesis left his mind, and Jacob now stood rooted to the ground, between the brimming washtub and overflowing pots. He stood; his eyes fixed on the droplets falling from somber clouds, and tried not to blink before a strand of light snaked its way across the sky. He stood, ears anticipating the mighty drum roll of the giants. He stood, and filled his lungs with strangely scented kind of air that he had never known to exist. And he stood, hair, skin, clothes, and tongue all welcom- ing this glorious onslaught from above. He Movie Review-Tsotsi of a killer is overturned into a sensitive and pathetic boy. “tsotsi” means “thug” and that is all he is. Tsotsi is a gang leader, and he and his gang shoot, smash, and kill people in order to get ahead stood because he never knew if he would see something like this again; the memories could never fade. From a window, Jacob’s mother watched the storm and thought about how maybe some water could be spared for laundry. It would be so nice to have clothes that weren’t caked with dirt, sweat, and sand. Jacob’s father watched the storm while leaning on the porch railing and sighed in relief. Now the desert wouldn’t be so un- bearably hot, and the crops and animals would have a fighting chance against the otherwise brutal conditions. And Jacob. Jacob now ran about with all the madness and excitement of a dragonfly. He jumped into the pools the downpour had made and tried to catch the water before it fell back to the ground. He saw the sky lashed with a strand of light, and this time, Jacob tried to trace it back to its roots. He waited for those giants to pound their mono- lithic drums, and when the rumble echoed across the desert, Jacob dove to his belly so he could see if the sand trembled from the ground. He let the wind wrap around him, and he imagined he was being swept up to- wards the clouds. He stayed out in that storm until the last drop had fallen, until the sun began to pry gaps between the clouds and force its light through, one shaft at a time. As the clouds slowly began their long journey away from the sun, and Jacob began his somewhat shorter journey home, he saw something so grand that the smile left his face and all thoughts fled his mind. Some invisible artist had been at work while Jacob had been at play, and he had called upon every color to paint an arch over the desert. He walked closer to the arc, side- stepping pots and jars and tubs his parents had laid about. Jacob could not see exactly where it sprang from the ground, or where it touched down, but he saw it stretch across the dark, wet sand. He bent down to pick up a brimming jar and took a sip of the water it held, and he gave the arch a long look, intrigued by this new mystery and content to leave the last one unsolved, at least for the moment. He thought of the arch, and of the strands of light, and the dark clouds, and mighty drums and falling drops. Jacob took another sip of the storm water and set the jar back down. When he swallowed, he felt the tingling sensation of the icy water flowing down his back and out to his fingers and toes. Jacob eyed the painted arch once again, and smiled a smile of ambition and mystery and mischief. And once again, he started to run. Presley Chweneyagae’s acting is superbly done. His character is multifaceted and you really get to delve deep into the inner workings of him. This actor brings a raw and undeveloped, yet still brilliant, talent to this character. I don’t think anyone else could have done this role as well as Chweneyagae did. No one can even compare to him when it comes to this type of character. Tsotsi is an extremely unique and profound film. It gives great insight into the world of a killer and what he has to do to simply survive in a harsh and cruel environment. Tsotsi is not justified for his actions, but the viewers can understand, at least on the surface, his reasons for killing and stealing, and being as what we depict as a horrible human being. The film is just exquisite, and there is really nothing more to tell than just to say, this movie is awesome and in life. He and his gang do everything from stabbing a man to harassing an old man in a wheel chair. Eventually, Tsotsi accidentally kidnaps an infant and all of a sudden, the cold harshness deserves two thumbs up.