Eugene Weekly: Special Features

Performance
The Holiness Way: Faith and forgiveness take center stage in Handler.

Tradmarks
Mechanical Mysteries: What's not under the hood on the Audi A4.

The Holiness Way
Faith and forgiveness take center stage in Handler.
BY ARIA SELIGMANN

Ashlands outdoor Shakespeare season opened on Summer Solstice with The Winters Tale, followed the next night by Titus Andronicus. Opening weekend theatergoers were also treated to the West Coast premiere of Handler by Pulitzer-Prize-winning (The Kentucky Cycle) playwright Robert Schenkken in the New Theatre. Unfortunately, Macbeths long run and improper scheduling mean Handler wrapped on June 30, but because its the play everyones talking about, I thought it important to review it here. (Reviews of The Winters Tale and Titus Andronicus, both wonderful shows, will be posted soon.)

It was a hot Saturday afternoon when the audience entered the New Theatre to witness Handler. The stage was set in an avenue configuration, which meant the audience was divided in two, facing each other, with the action taking place on a wide stage in between. A three-piece combo playing enthusiastic strains of what we used to call øBible BluegrassÓ back in Virginia immediately sucked the audience into the revival going on at the Holiness Way Church of the Living God. Here, the faithful gather, sing, clap their hands and stomp their feet, letting the holy spirit infuse their bodies as well as their souls as they offer praise to the Lord.

Here, the parishioners handle poisonous snakes -- rattlesnakes -- as testiment to the profound belief they have in God. (Mark 16:17-18) They have faith the Lord will protect them, even if they get bit. And they do get bit.

Against the backdrop of this small rural but big holy southern congregation, praying their way through a hot, humid, swampy summer, the love of two downtrodden souls also encounters the test of faith.

Geordi (Jonathan Haugen) has just been released from prison; his wife, Terri (Robynn Rodriguez), picks him up and takes him home. The two are obviously estranged. As the play progresses, the audience learns why Geordi was imprisoned and why Terri finds it difficult -- near impossible -- to forgive him. Meanwhile, Geordi must find a way to forgive himself.

Terri is a faithful Christian. Geordis not. Terri has handled snakes since she was a child. Geordi never has. Until one day, all of a sudden, while the rest of the congregation is holding snakes and dancing with them (fake but eerily life-like), Geordi picks up a huge rattler and dares it to strike him. ¥Work your will on my flesh, he says. He doesnt want to live, anyway. What a way out.

He dies. Its hot. The preacher (Kenneth Albers) wants him embalmed and buried before he starts to stink. Terri says no to embalming. But she agrees to move up the funeral date.

She wonders why Geordi did it. Why hes such a sinner. Why to lots of things. The preacher admits he doesnt know. øI dont knowÓ is said a lot in this play. Its about faith.

During his funeral, Geordi suddenly comes to life, stepping out of his coffin and immediately becoming a media megahit. Divine intervention has caused him to rise like Lazarus, to be given a superhuman second chance.

Divine grace also enters Terris spirit. Shes able to forgive Geordi, taking a leap thats almost beyond human comprehension. But now Geordi must venture on his own journey. He goes through a dark night of the soul, shown in the play through a trip to the deepest darkest woods. There, he confronts his most egregious inner demon, a devil-like sinner, drinker, racist, child molester (Armando Duran). He offers Geordi, whos been tentatively sober since prison, a shot of rotgut. Geordi takes it. Offstage, he spews it.

Purged of his demons, now ready to talk about his journey to the other side, Geordi faces his wifes outstretched hand. øLove isnt enough,Ó she tells him. øBut its all we have.Ó Through Gods grace Terri has forgiven Geordi; through Gods grace he has lived again; now its up to Geordi to exercise his own free will -- forgive himself and take her hand -- or not.

The direction by Bill Rauch was superb and phenomenal performances were turned in by Rodriguez, Haugen, Albers and Duran. Awesome original music by Michael øHawkeyeÓ Herman accompanied by Mike Fitch and Bruce McKern added to the wowiness of this play, along with impressive stagecraft (a church wall is turned into a forest with cut-out trees). There are some weaknesses in the script during the second half. Schenkkan takes some easy-way-out roads and overwrites some scenes between Terri and Geordi, but with some script editing and a little leeway, this would be a great play to produce in Eugene.

Mechanical Mysteries
What's not under the hood on the Audi A4.
BY JIM MOTAVALLI

I am in no sense a Luddite. Technology fascinates me. I download MP3 files, watch DVDs, write everything on computers. But automotive technology lost me somewhere around 1972, when cars with carburetors started to disappear from American highways. I love what today's cars can do; I just can't fix them anymore. Where once dwelled generators, starters and master cylinders, there is now tightly packed electronics and mysterious boxes. On cars like the Porsche Boxster, with a mid-mounted engine under a nearly inaccessible cover, it's plain that the idea of owners taking a wrench in hand is verboten.

I was thinking about this while driving the new 1.8-liter Audi A4 turbo with continuously variable transmission (CVT). Here is an absolutely marvelous car, an engineering tour de force, and yet if it strands me without a cell phone I'll be completely out of luck. I might be able to spray some WD40 around, but that's the limit. I can, however, drive it, and no technical degree is required for that.

The CVT, first seen on the Subaru Justy in 1989, may leave me baffled, but it's a great idea, dispensing with straightforward gearing and saving fuel that would be lost during up- and downshifts. Instead of the traditional cogs, it uses a special rubber belt, a hydraulic pulley and the usual arrays of microprocessors and sensors to make decisions. In practice on the Audi, it's as smooth as butter: an automatic that seemingly never needs to shift. With CVT, the A4 can get 29 mpg on the highway.

The A4 has many other advanced features, including a 170-horsepower, turbocharged four-cylinder engine, anti-lock brakes, Electronic Stability Control and advanced head-protection airbags. To fix it, you need a white lab coat and the type of advanced diagnostic computer.

But, what fun to drive it! The A4 is an extremely well-balanced little sedan, and it just loves to be thrown into fast-breaking corners. The jewel of an engine unwinds like a coiled spring. Americans have, for the most part, given up on four-cylinder engines, but this one shows just how far turbo boost has come since its heyday in the 1980s. Like the best turbos, you won't even know it's there.

Maybe because I am forever touting the benefits of the gas-electric hybrid in this column, readers often send me e-mails detailing how much they love their cars and how much money they're saving. Not being a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight/Civic owner myself, I have to take all this good will on faith. The customers are happy!

Alas, I can no longer claim uniformity of opinion. I'm in receipt of a lengthy diatribe penned by a Connecticut reader who asked that I call him "Gregg James." James had a lot of trouble getting his car fixed under warranty. His car, "Heidi," was involved in a minor front end fender-bender. He says the repairs were supposed to take two weeks and cost $3,000, but actually took six months and cost a whopping $8,000. James also had trouble with the special tires on the Prius, with the water pump and the hybrid inverter. His request to be compensated for lost use of the vehicle through an arbitration process was denied.

One problem is that the Prius, Insight and Civic Hybrid are built in very small numbers, hence low parts availability. Though Honda and Toyota dealers are certainly aware of the hybrids in their midst, they don't fix them every day. Toyota's Tom Seneca said in the company's defense, "This vehicle is not mass-produced, therefore parts for it are also not mass-produced, which causes a delay." The problem is real enough, but it should dissipate as more hybrids hit the road in the next few years.

Awright, Im a city guy, I dont hide it. Far as Im concerned, camping is for cowpokes and cattle and other critters who do their business outdoors. Kats always been with me on this, considered camping a nap by the pool. But our pals Peter and Sandy tricked us into the wilderness of Central Oregon.

Three couples in three canoes slid almost soundlessly over the dark blue-green waters of Crane Prairie Lake in the looming gleam of snow-draped High Cascades -- Diamond Peak, Three Sisters, Broken Top, Bachelor. Temperature hovered in the low 80s; a light breeze rippled the lakes glittering surface. Into the clear, deep blue sky thrust silvered spears of pine snags, their feet still buried in the rocky bottom; on several of these perched whole villages of cormorant nests where full-fledged adolescents lifted long yellow beaks and cried to their black-bodied parents slicing through the crystal air, bearing to their young the catch-of-the-hour. A single bald eagle slowly circled above us, thick dark wings, bright white head, lofting effortlessly on thermals. Osprey soared and dipped suddenly to the water. Great blue herons glided into the rookery hidden in tall pines. A line of geese drifted leisurely across our bows as we cut through shallows to beach on Eagle Point.

We spread our blankets under ancient Ponderosas, amid the last bloom of wild roses, opened our coolers, laid out our lunch, pulled corks, poured slightly chilled white wines. Assorted cheeses -- aged reggiano, fresh goat cheese -- crackers, a bowl of cubed honeydew and cantaloup, slices of cold beef marinated and grilled, fillets of smoked salmon, fresh figs wrapped in paper-thin prosciutto.

We toasted the solstice with Gruet Blanc de Noirs ($16), a sparkling wine made by an old French Champagne house with vineyards in, of all places, New Mexico; a blend made primarily from Pinot noir yielding full flavors with a citrus/toast tinge, just delicious. We chased the bubbles with Brancott Vineyards 2001 Sauvignon Blanc Reserve ($13). New Zealand, especially in the Marlborough region, is producing world-standard wine in this varietal, and this example is a crisp, dry white with pretty herbal notes balanced by a citrusy zing and scents of white flowers. Shared between six of us, the wines seemed to evaporate from our glasses. We quickly opened Tualatin Estate 2000 Pinot Blanc ($12) -- its pale gold color disguised a burst of flavors (ripe pears and lychee fruit), creamy texture, a tingle of sweetness (maybe a half-point of residual sugar). Pinot Blanc is such a versatile wine, and Oregons winemakers are creating new styles with every vintage; try these any chance you get, especially those from Bethel Heights, Amity, Cameron.

Slathered with mosquito repellent, we lingered, comfortable in the cool shadows of the great trees, until mid-afternoon, finishing our fruit with sips of Jean-Paul Brun 2000 Beaujolais Blanc ($10), all chardonnay grapes from the Beaujolais region of France, with bright fruit flavors not saturated in and buried under oak, just clean and fresh, with notes of apples, melons, flowers.

Sated and mellowed we rowed to our campsite and in the copper glow of low-slanting sun built our cooking fire, gathered around in the rapidly cooling evening air, sipped on Foris 2000 Gewurztraminer ($10.50), Alsatian-style, dry but bursting with round fruit flavors of sweet grapefruit and spice, perfect with nibbles while the wood burned down to cooking coals.

Onto the grill we laid marinated tri-tips, baby Walla Walla onions with their greens; fabulous scents arose in the mountain air. We set the table with breads, chipotle rice-stuffed tomatoes, morels and shiitakes sauteed over the open fire with garlic and olive oil, corn pasta salad with veggies. Three wines scored big: Bridgeview 2000 Blue Moon Pinot Noir ($14), ripe berry flavors and hint of pepper; Pietra Santa 1998 Sasso Rossa ($11.50), a blend of grapes yielding a mouthful of flavors of dark fruits, soft and round; Pepperwood Grove 2000 Syrah ($6.95), huge bargain for inky dark wine, aromatic and flavorful of black currants, plums, cherries, cedar, big dose of black pepper -- wow.

The sun had dropped suddenly behind the ragged crest of mountains and plunged us into profound darkness. There is no longer a real night in the city; here, away from the firelight, the night wrapped around us like a black velvet cloak. Above us flowed an ocean of stars, spilled diamond dust.

All the food, all the wines tasted incredibly delicious. We tucked in ravenously, raising sighs and moans, punctuated by spontaneous bursts of laughter ending in goofy smiles. I checked Kat often; she was blissed, her cheeks and eyes glowing. Later, with nowhere to go but to bed and sleep, we sipped slowly on Eugene Wine Cellars 1999 Pinot Noir ($13), light in body but lovely with cherry/raspberry notes, smooth texture.

When we returned home the next day, I wondered how Kat would now react to the idea of camping. I knew shed had something like an epiphany when shed discovered that the public restrooms were clean and largely odorless, with locking doors. I was writing when I heard her truck rumble into the carport. I rushed out to help her unload: a new tent, air mattress, Coleman lantern, propane cookstove. Well be reporting more on wines for the Oregon outdoor life of high summer. See you in the woods.