In its original form, Theatre was a celebration of life indulged in by the members of a whole village or town. It was used to exorcise demons, to con the gods into giving them a good harvest, to mock them as well as show that they weren't grovellers. Now days it has developed into an elitist "art" and has lost its role of social celebration.

But it does not have to be that way.

As a society we have many demons we must exorcise. The only way to do this is by the use of magic intonations, ritual movements, in fact the magic of theatre. We paint our faces, we don masks and through pure movement we mimic the demons, the politicians, the heros and heroines of our society and shrink them into shapes we can manipulate.

And we all can do it. A number of people who have worked in this area for a number of years are prepared to run workshops in order to share some of their hard gained knowledge, experience and sheer energy that comes from working in such close contact with our society.

Make-up is a good word to describe the art, for that is just what you do. You make-up a face that you wish to show the world. For example you choose parts of your facial anatomy that can be highlighted to advantage. You can change your make-up to match your moods, or even to completely change your external character. You can become weather-beaten, sallow, ill, old, or young. You can alter your natural colouring and create a stylisation of a king or queen, soldier, demon or clown.

Aileen has much experience in this field, having worked in professional and amateur theatre, T.V., children's theatre, improvisational theatre/ mime and clowns. Over the last year she was a member of the professional clown troupe Chameleon, and took part in "Phenomenon of Short Duration" for the University Arts Fesivall. At present she is working with Larf street theatre group.

Pure Shit

Friday 3rd. March, 2 p.m.

A new and entertaining Australian film which provides a rare insight into the sickening realities of the drug scene.

It was written and acted by a group of people all of whom were or are heroin addicts. The film owes its genuineness to the fact that all that takes place on screen is based on actual experiences of those involved in making it.

The subject alone is enough to make it a controversial film but Bert Deling the director goes further. One of the main tasks of the film is an indictment of the Government's drug rehabilitation programme involving the methadone treatment. Deling argues the treatment, designed to cure addicts, is actually a fate worse than death. His sympathetic treatment of druggies in the film annoys many people. While most people might treat the drug problem as an insidious evil in society that must be stamped out at all costs. Deling believes that drug taking and dependency must be recognised as a way of life like any other minority group activity in Western Society He believes that druggies are amongst the most enlightened and revolutionary people in society and only through listening to their criticisms can society in general make a healthy progress.

The acting is superb considering the people had not acted before. The lead actor is so good that he has gone on to become Australia's version of Malcolm McDowell.

A black comedy worth seeing.

A mask is a cover over the face, any covering at all. A pair of sunglasses is a mask. So too is a paper bag, or a down's nose. Children, when they cover their eyes, believe they are totally hidden. Behind a mask you are hidden. So you can create a mask in any shape you like. That mask then takes on the form of a fantasy image which is unchanging. Then that image can be explored.

Helen has done a lot of work in this field through her experience with children's theatre, the QE II Drama School. Red Mole Enterprises and over the last year with Chameleon and in "Phenomenon of Short Duration". She is Wellington's first down licensed to busk in the street.

Mime is a fascinating field. All you have to work with is your own silent body. But you can use it in such a way that you can create in the minds of your audience whole worlds. You are tapping directly into their imaginations, and that is where the demons, saints, clowns, fools, buffoons, kings, and prime ministers exist. These phantoms can be given reality and then played with.

With a mask you can actually cover your face with the image of one of these phantoms. You are limited to the one image but you can have a lot of fun with it. It can be thoroughly explored, especially since the fact of actually covering your face gives you a certain distance from from the image. Then your body gives the phantom life.

John has been exploring these areas since 1973, when he was part of a clown/mime troupe in Dunedin called Cerberus. Since then he has extended this work into improvisational music/ theatre, children's theatre, children's television, workshops with Theatre Action and the Canadian Mime Theatre, and done solo shows in various places throughout N.Z. Last year he came up to Wellington to take part in "Phenomenon of Short Duration" and since then has worked with Larf street theatre group.

If you feel like taking part in one or more of these workshops enrol today at the Students Association Office.

International Films

Wed. March 1.

Our Nuclear Defence A fifteen minute colour film made during the activity surrounding the visit to Wellington of the USS Truxton. A documentary of the different protests that took place intercut with satirical dramatisations of the the government in action.

East Timor A thirty minute film made by an Australian and New Zealand crew documenting the invasion of East Timor by Indonesian forces The crew were later slaughtered by Indonesian soldiers.

Thailand A thirty minute film looking at Thailand's period of democracy between October 1973 and October 1976 when it was taken over by the bloody military coup. It is the story of some women who took over a factory after the boss had run away — how they learnt about the development of productive forces under capitalism.

New Caledonia A twenty minute slide show illustrating the French domination of the New Caledonian economy.

Overseas Students A forty-five minute slide show about the overseas student cutbacks The slides include the educational situation in the students' countries of origin, the relation between New Zealand and those countries and the economic imbalance that exists, and reasons why providing facilities for further education is the best form of aid New Zealand can give.

O Lucky Man

Tues. 28th Feb. 2 p.m.

Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) begins in the film as a coffee salesman who gets posted up and down Britain and who encourages all sorts of wonderful and weird things on the way .

This black comedy directed by Lindsay Anderson and written by McDowell turns out to be magnificent satire on British Capitalism. Anderson says. "We can no longer afford the luxury of laissez-faire, and if we try, we are going to find that it is the most pernicious elements that come out on top."

The film is very much like Kubrick's A Clock work Orange with many deliberate parallels although this film is much better, more entertaining and more politically effective.

The songs of Alan Price and his group provide punctuation and a kind of commentary throughout.

Poets on the Run

Thursday 12— 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

If you haven't hear them it is time you did. Culture seldom comes in such a presentable commodity. Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick are amongst the very few that make a living from their art. Unlike anything picked up in an academic course their poetry is alive, living, and often hilarious; about us and New Zealand today.

A former resident of Bottle Creek, Sam Hunt still lives on the Paramata Arm of the Porirua Harbour in the old Death Homestead. A winding road and spring tides occasionally cut him off from Post Office General store and bottle store. A prolific writer Sam has published Between the Islands, Bracken Country, Bottle Creek, South into Winter and Time To Ride. Drunken Garden is soon to be released.

Gary (ex-school caretaker toilet cleaner postman merry-go-round operator and Truth man of the week) was once on the Porirua City Council with a majority of one vote. His first work was a joint publication with Jon Benson of Gisborne. Later came Naked and Nameless and then a play The Moon Lovers; Poems for the 'Little Red Engine is on the way.

Both poets are performers of old, having toured the country with rock bands in past years in between writing. Their appearance on campus is courtesy of Students Arts Council as part of their grand tour Poets On The Run. The lunch time concert on Thursday with Rough Justice in the Union Hall promises to be reminiscent of their past escapades, Sam with Mammal, Gary with Storm and at Nambassa. Sam, as well as performing with group members before, has also written for Mammal, so it is going to be an afternoon with one of New Zealand's top bands and two of its most entertaining ports.

Later that night (at 8p.m. on the middle floor of the Union Building) Sam and Gary will be back with wine, reading and discussing poetry; mostly their own. Everybody is invited to come and settle in for an interesting evening.

In addition, Poetry is featured on Thursday and at the Mad Hatters Tea Party on Saturday afternoon.

O Lucky Man is possibly the best wholly - British film ever made. The continual excitement and visual stimulus is overpowering with sequence after sequence of unexpected events, which range in location from an old fashioned small town boarding house to a futuristic nuclear research centre.

Rosemary's Baby

Thurs. 2nd. March, 2 p.m.

Polanski's film is much more than just a horror film or a film about witchcraft in a New York apartment block. It is a parallel of the story in the Bible where the father of Rosemary's baby is a divine figure, Rosemary is the chosen vessel, and there is the adoration of the child as the new messiah.

The film treats the myth in such a way that we are forced to accept its literal truth with evion which Christian belief is based We are forced to confront the Christian myth with the realisation that our mode of believing in Christianity is quite different from the one with which we perceive "real" things.