Theatre review: The Importance of Being Earnest
Wilde wit comes alive with a contemporary twist on the dialogue that makes it more accessible to the average sense of humour
Energy runs high in the Arts Club production of what is considered by many to be Oscar Wilde’s funniest play. Oversized props and set decoration popping with colour creates a surreal aesthetic in the late 19th century setting.
The Importance of Being Earnest is a clever satire on Victorian high society, marriage, class, and wealth. Two wealthy young men, Jack Worthing of the countryside, and city boy Algernon Moncrieff, both assume the alias of Ernest in order to behave as they please without ruining their important reputation. Both with very different personalities and outlooks on life find themselves in a rather sticky situation when they run into each other pretending to be the same person, with their respective love interests by their side. Confusion arises and tension builds as the two conjure up ways around this mess.
Ryan Beil, who has a long history as an improv comedian and goofy trainee in A&W commercials, lived up to his quirky persona as Jack. As Algernon, Charlie Gallant’s delivery of Wilde’s language is pitch perfect and his comic timing is flawless. The chemistry amongst them all is superb as they feed off of each other’s energy from line to line, gesture to gesture.
Those more attached to Oscar Wilde’s raw version of Earnest might be critical of director David Mackay’s liberties with Wilde’s humour, throwing in vulgar jokes here and there, adding in shouting and food fights where there was none in the original script. While it does allow the dialogue to be more relatable to everyone, regardless of whether they own a monocle, and most will be laughing from start to end, one has to wonder whether Mackay’s addition of his own subtly vulgar puns was written specifically to broaden its appeal with a contemporary audience. Judged apart from its context as a play written for 1895, stellar comic performance, creative direction, and production value gives Earnest an ubiquitous appeal for the young and hip, as was evident in the demographics of the opening night audience.
The Importance of Being Earnest runs at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage until April 15.
SFU students to participate in Mongol Rally 2012
By David Dyck
The expedition will take them from Eastern Europe, down into the Middle East, and back up into Russia, before arriving at Mongolia
This summer, four SFU international studies students will embark on a trek that will take them from Prague to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. This is a distance of approximately 16,000 kilometers on the most direct route, but these students will be taking the road less travelled, through 13 countries in the Middle East including Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.
The students are taking part in the annual Mongol Rally, in which teams depart from cities in Europe to journey across Europe and Asia. The teams have few entrance requirements, and almost no outside help as they navigate their way across deserts, forests, and mountain ranges.
The team is made up of Alli Cano, Kaisa Hartikainen, Reid Standish, and Jacob Lennheden. They’ll be leaving on July 15 on the trip that they expect will take them about six weeks.
The idea came to them while eating Mongolian barbecue at a monthly International Studies Student Association dinner. Originally there were more than four IS students interested, but “once they realized we were actually serious about it, they either said ‘you’re crazy’, or ‘I wish we could do it’,” laughed Hartikainen.
One of the few rules that exists is that registered teams must use a vehicle with an engine size of approximately one litre. Other than that, the teams all leave from Prague, and have no official help in reaching their destination in Mongolia.
The teams are also required to raise £1,000, half of which goes towards the official Mongol Rally charity, which changes annually. This year, the money will go towards the Lotus Childrens’ Centre, a Mongolian charity that helps care for orphaned or abandoned children. The other half will go towards a charity of the team’s own choosing: Schools Building Schools.
None of these funds count towards the money they will need for travel expenses or a vehicle. In order to pay for the car, the group is putting on a pub night this Thursday. With a prize raffle and ticket sales of five dollars, the group hopes to raise the $2,000 to $3,000 they’ll need.
Although some of their parents are concerned that they’re going to be going through politically volatile countries such as Iran, the group said that they’re not worried about that aspect of the trip. “One, I don’t think there’s going to be a war. I think it’s a lot of political tough talking. Iran, Israel, and America are all doing it. Two, I think there’s a lot of misconceptions. People think that the ayatollah is in charge, Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map, and everyone in Iran is crazy,” said Standish.
The group argued that any route they took would take them through some part of the world that is going through some degree of political upheaval. “The more you travel the more you figure out that there are things to worry about and there are things that you read about in the Western media that people get scared about that doesn’t really reflect the situation on the ground . . . Terrorist attacks and robberies? I’m more worried about us breaking down in the middle of the Karakum and not being able to fix the car,” said Lennheden.
Lennheden’s worldview, which the rest of the group agreed with, is simply that if you just be nice to people, they’re usually nice to you. But the group has the travel experience to back it up, and Cano has lived in Turkey before. “Everyone I met in the Middle East was falling all over themselves trying to help you,” she said.
Yet there’s no question that the trip isn’t a safe one. In 2010 a British participant died in a car accident while travelling through Iran. The group also said that they applied for SFU’s international mobility award, but were turned down on grounds that the endeavor was too dangerous.
The group sees the experience as an adventure, and look forward to going off the beaten path. “We’re going to pass five mountain ranges, three deserts, some of the scenery there is going to be absolutely stunning, and we’re going to be going places where very few westerners go,” said Lennheden.
Hartikainen said that she was looking forward to getting some experience seeing the places that they’ve spent their time studying at SFU. “I’m doing my honours thesis on Kyrgyzstan, and it feels really funny. I’m doing all this academic work, but now I actually get to go there and see what it is like.”
Clan softball falters against Saints
Just when it looked like the Clan were going to keep their strong play going, they began to falter. Coming into their four-game series against Saint Martin’s University, the Clan were hot, winning four straight against Northwest Nazarene and outscoring the Crusaders 24–3 in the process. The team crushed the SMU Saints in their first matchup 9–0, but the bats quickly dried up. Three consecutive losses dropped the team into third in the conference.
Last week, Clan ace Cara Lukawesky pitched her first career no-hitter and was named GNAC pitcher of the week for the second time this season. She continued her impressive run by pitching six shutout innings in the first match, helping the Clan mercy the Saints.
However, the Clan could do no right in game two of the first doubleheader, as the Saints rebounded with an 8–0, five-inning victory. Textbook double plays went awry, the team couldn’t hit the ball — it was an all around write-off for the Clan. Knowing that, Lukawesky and the Clan were ready to put it behind them and move on.
“We weren’t focused in the second game,” she said. “We need to rebound quickly and come back with a vengeance.” Unfortunately, they didn’t.
Looking to bounce back, they instead struggled in two straight losses. Just as they had in game two, the Clan struggled to put their bats to the ball in games three and four, losing the two by a combined 12–4 score. Lukawesky, normally a rock on the mound, also struggled, allowing seven runs (four earned) en route to an 8–2 loss. While it was only her third loss of the season — compared to nine wins — it was nonetheless an uncharacteristic performance from one of the best pitchers in the conference. However, if her performance from the week prior is any indication, she has a knack for bouncing back in a big way, and that will be key as the Clan figure out their batting problem.
The final game of the series started the same way game three ended, with the Saints’ bats hitting hard. They scored two runs in the opening inning, and while the Clan bounced back in the second, it took just until the third inning for the Saints to go up for good. Much like Lukawesky in the previous game, Hawkins struggled in the matchup, allowing three runs (all of which were earned), and lasted just three innings. The main concern, however, remains the batting issues.
“We had a lot of opportunities, but we couldn’t capitalize,” said junior infielder Lauren Mew. “We’re just not stringing together hits right now.” However, it’s not lost on the team that they need to play better in all facets of the game.
“We need to be good in all parts of the game to really be successful,” added Mew.
For the second time this season, the Clan dropped three out of four matchups in a single series. However, the last time they did, they rebounded with five straight victories. They have the experienced personnel and coaching staff to turn the ship around before it starts to sink. The team is still in third in the GNAC, so the iceberg is pretty far away, but it doesn’t hurt to change course before it hits.
Clan recruit four more
After the Clan finished their 2011 season ranked as the best team in the NCAA Division II, the team set out to improve their already talented roster. Having already recruited four local products last month, the Clan inked four more talents, and dipped into the international pool to do so.
The four new recruits are Alex Rowley and Jason Van Blerk, both B.C. products, as well as Glendale’s Colby Liston and Brazil’s Renan Rebelatto.
Rowley and Van Blerk both participated in the Vancouver Whitecaps residency program, preparing the duo brilliantly for elite collegiate soccer. Rowley comes to SFU with the reputation of being a tenacious, persistent midfielder, and brings quite a resume with him: he was an integral member of the B.C. provincial program between 2006 and 2009.
“Alex is a blue-collar midfielder. He is willing to do a lot of the dirty work to help the players around him, but he also has the finesse to get us playing,” said head coach Alan Koch. And as key as Rowley will be on the offensive side of the ball, his Whitecaps teammate will look to be a rock on the defensive end moving forward.
“Jason is a versatile defender who can play centrally or as a full-back,” added Koch. “He is a tough, uncompromising defender that has the size, speed, and strength to be a major player in the NCAA.”
With these two joining the four earlier recruits, the Clan will have a distinct British Columbian feel in the coming seasons, but that’s not to take away from the international talent the team has recruited this year.
Liston was the captain of his Phoenix College team last season, and the big forward potted 14 goals along the way, earning all-conference honours in the process.
“[He’s] a big intimidating striker,” said Koch of Liston. “Not only does he have the physical attributes, but he scores goals and has the ability to play other players in. He is a similar type of player to Carlo Basso and I look forward to seeing them compete and feed off of each other.”
His international counterpart Rebelatto, while a defender, is very offense-oriented as well. The left back, the now-former captain of Western Texas College, scored four goals last season en route to being named the local defender of the year.
“Renan is an attack-minded full-back,” said Koch. “He is technically sound, has a tenacious spirit, and already has two years of college soccer under his belt.” The Clan have graduated just four seniors this year, but with a bunch of new faces, hat collegiate experience shared by both Liston and Rebelatto will prove invaluable when more players move on from the program. With any luck, the two will have their success rub off on the newcomers. They won’t be the only ones relied on for that however, as they will take some adjusting themselves. That said, the Clan have the pieces in place right now to be successful short term and are clearly on the right track to maintaining that reputation. That said, these four recruits will likely be given every opportunity to be part of that success right off the hop.
“We have truly strengthened this recruiting class with these four young lads,” said Koch. “All of them are able to come in and compete for playing time immediately. We have addressed some positional needs and added some much needed competition for certain positions.”
Any time you can improve upon an already deep and talented roster can’t be seen as anything but a positive.
Around the school
The sports never stop at SFU. You’re busy, and it’s hard to keep up with all that’s going on. In that regard, here’s a quick update on everything else that happened in the world of Clan athletics this past week.
Wrestling
The Clan wrestlers continued their strong season, performing well at the Canadian Wrestling
National Championships in Ontario. Their strong showing
was the clear continuation of what’s been a strong program for a long time — the Clan’s success at the event was only surpassed by that of a couple of SFU alumni.
Justina Distasio led the way for the women’s side, competing in both junior and senior events, in the 72-kilogram weight class. She won gold in the junior competition, and bronze in the senior. The rest of the junior competitors performed strongly as well, as Ashley Topnik and Darby Huckle both won gold medals in the 59-kilogram and 44-kilogram classes, respectively.
The senior 48-kilogram bout was a clash between two SFU alumni in Ashley KcKilligan and Carol Huynh. Unsurprisingly, it was the Olympic gold-medalist Huynh who won that bout, while two more SFU alumni, Danielle Lappage and Stacie Anaka, also medalled.
On the men’s side, sophomore Jessy Sahota was the only Clan athlete to earn a medal. He took home a silver medal in the 120-kilogram class, but was defeated by fellow SFU student Sunny Dhinsa — an independent wrestler who more than once has taken out his schoolmates.
It’s becoming commonplace for the Clan to bring home
a handful of medals, but it speaks even louder volumes about the program when a number of SFU alumni are leading the way in the senior divisions.
Golf
Three members of the men’s golf team finished in the top-10 at the Cavalier Classic in Washington, earning the team a third-place finish. Meanwhile, the women’s side finished an equally impressive fourth.
Michael Belle was the most consistent golfer for the men, and his three-round score of 224 (eight over par) earned him a tie for seventh place. Not far behind was John Milikotic, who shot a final round of 73 (just one over par), and moved himself into a tie for ninth overall with a total score of 226. Just two strokes behind Milikotic was Calum Miller, who rounded out the top-10. No one from the women’s side was able to crack the top-10 however, though Nicole Jordan led the way with an 11th-place finish.
It was one of the Clan’s best outings of the year, and
one they’ll no doubt hope to improve on moving forward.
Graham James’ sentence as awful as his crimes
After sentencing former minor-league hockey coach Graham James to two years in prison, Manitoba provincial court judge Catherine Carlson said, “There is no sentence this court can impose that will give back to Mr. Holt and Mr. Fleury that which was taken by Mr. James.” Although she may be right, isn’t it worth a shot?
Retired NHLer Theo Fleury and his cousin Todd Holt fell victim to hundreds of acts of sexual abuse by James, his actions robbing two trusting teenagers (as they then were) of their youth and their innocence. It almost goes without saying that the assault goes well beyond the physical aspect, and deep into the emotional and mental ones; Fleury has battled alcoholism his entire life, which eventually forced him out of the NHL.
James was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for a similar case of sexual abuse, again against two young hockey-playing boys, including former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy. The assaults ran into the hundreds, but the punishment was brief: of the 42 months he was sentenced to, James served only 18 of them.
This time however, for the countless cases of serial abuse, he was sentenced to just two years.
In other words, his crimes are apparently worth no more than a slap on the wrist.
To be fair to judge Carlson, she seems to appreciate the gravity of James’ crimes. “Mr. James could essentially do what he wanted to do to [his victims], and could rely on their compliance and silence, because he controlled whether they would get the chance at what they really wanted,” she said. “He could make or break them. He told them that.” If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, not much can. But, you can’t blame the judge for the paltry sentence; it’s how the Canadian justice system works, and perhaps that’s the real crime here. After the first six months of his sentence, he’s eligible for passes and day parole, and full parole after eight months.
Given that two of his victims went on to become NHL stars, this case has become one of the most notorious and most publicized sexual abuse cases in Canadian history. If that’s not enough for Canadian courts to take this case seriously, it’s hard to imagine what it would take. Clearly, they didn’t and handed out a laughable sentence.
Holt called the punishment a “national travesty” upon hearing the verdict, and in many ways it is. This is bigger than Fleury and Holt, and easily transcends the hockey world.
“This is not about me anymore,” Fleury, the former Calgary Flame star, said just hours after the verdict came in. “This is about doing our utmost to eliminate the biggest epidemic we have on the planet . . . I have kids. What’s important is that not one more kid has to go through what I did. What Sheldon [Kennedy] did. What Todd [Holt] did.”
Does a two-year sentence accomplish that? Not even close.
James’s own lawyer said he felt his client was treated “fairly and with respect”, during the trial, ironic given that his client felt no need to show the same to his young players. The Graham James of the world can take solace in the fact that they will be looked after better than their victims. And that is just as wrong as the crimes themselves.
2012 SFSS Executive Election Candidate Interviews
The following are interviews with various executive candidates running in the 2012 SFSS election. Only the candidates that allowed themselves to be interview have links to their section in the video.
Click on the links beside the names to skip to specific sections throughout the video.
PRESIDENT
Lorenz Yeung
Ashleigh Kolla – Intro – Job Description – Platform – Weirdness – Vote For Me
Kayode Fatoba – Intro – Job Description – Platform – Vote For Me
EXTERNAL RELATIONS OFFICER
Meaghan Wilson – Intro – Job Description – Platform – Weirdness – Vote For Me
Nate Larsen – Intro – Job Description – Platform – Weirdness – Vote For Me
James Hankinson – Intro – Job Description – Platform – Weirdness – Vote For Me
Stephanie Boulding
TREASURER
Michael McDonell
Kevin Zhang – Intro – Job Description – Platform – Weirdness – Vote For Me
MEMBER SERVICES OFFICER
Humza Khan – Intro – Job Description – Platform – Weirdness – Vote For Me
MEMBER AT-LARGE
Linda Chen – Intro – Job Description – Platform – Weirdness – Vote For Me
Arian Noei Aghaei
Ashleigh Girodat
Michael H. Hejazi
Karanvir Singh Thiara
UNIVERSITY RELATIONS OFFICER
Jeff McCann
Aleks Besan
INTERNAL RELATIONS OFFICER
Craig Pavelich
The Peak has no candidate affiliation and therefore does not endorse any one specific candidate in this election.
Don’t sink the SUB, just this one
By Kim Burgess
When I started at SFU in January 2009, there were whispers of a student union building — undefined, and uncertain, but the possibility did exist. It was something that the student society was thinking about, but nothing was anywhere near to a decision. Then three weeks ago, seemingly out of nowhere, comes the Build SFU initiative, with architectural plans, a funding outline, and a stadium all set up and in place. The news of a SUB for SFU is not unwelcome, however I have two major problems with the Build SFU project as it stands now: a lack of student consultation and the stadium.
The list of documents on the Build SFU website would lead you to believe that a comprehensive study has previously been conducted by the SFSS in regards to a new building. A review of these documents shows that this is not the case. The 2008 student consultation by past president Joe Paling spoke to approximately six students and asked the single question of (and I quote) “What kind of stuff do y’all want to see in a SUB?”
The 2009 food services consultation focused exclusively on a SUB building placed in Convo Mall, not in the athletics building, and this holds true again for the preliminary architectural sketches from Bing Thom Associates. Space committee meeting minutes from 2008 to 2010 are linked online, but have restricted access (something that doesn’t fill one with confidence for a transparent process). The consultation that was supposedly conducted by the current board has never been released.
Finally, the Build SFU site does provide a link to a comprehensive consultation process — one used by UBC’s Alma Mater Society.
The UBC process involved a student advisory committee to oversee consultation, a preliminary consultation of over 1,000 students, and more than a month of themed consultations as to what should go into the space — before any architectural drawings were created. It is easy to see how the current board has drawn inspiration from the UBC plan — the referendum and the tiered funding structure. The giant piece of the puzzle that the SFSS is missing is student consultation.
Build SFU is not a consultation process — it is about creating buy-in for the project as it stands now. Students are being asked what they would like to see included in the building, sure, but are not being asked what their priorities are. The current process will only generate a list for organizers to pick and choose from. A web survey that visitors to the Think Tank are being encourage to fill out, called “What do YOU want in your student union building”, contains nine questions — five of which are focused on collecting demographic data. Of the remaining four, three ask specifically about your interactions with the Build SFU brand — have you gone into the Think Tank and visited the website? What did you think? The final question gets around to asking your opinion: “Any comments? Ideas? Suggestions? Jokes?” The SFSS may have been talking about the project for long time, but they haven’t been talking to students. For anyone to say that they ‘just know’ what students need is paternalism at its worst.
The major thing missing from this review of past SUB documents has been any mention whatsoever of a stadium. The stadium does make a brief appearance in the 2010 Burnaby Mountain Development Plan — prepared for the university, not the student society. This brings up the major question of why the student society is planning to pay for the building of a new sports stadium instead of the university? A brief search through the student society website shows that clubs centering around sports and recreation are not administered through the student society at all — they are specifically directed to the SFU recreation department.
Call it SFU federalism if you will, but the separation of power between the university and the student society is very specific. The SFSS covers all matters wherein students govern themselves: clubs, department student unions, issues, and advocacy. The university governs everything else. While students do have input into university governance, final decisions and responsibilities lie with the university. This is the case with athletics and recreation — funding, facilities, teams, and equipment.
Having the student society build a new stadium creates a dangerous precedent at SFU by making students responsible for the construction of amenities. The student society didn’t pay to have the track refurbished last year and they didn’t pay to redo the Southwest AQ washrooms. What happens when there is a need for more space in the library? Will the SFSS fund that too?
I have decided to vote ‘no’ on the Build SFU referendum question. This does not make me a scrooge, or a Debbie Downer; this is not the equivalent of me taking my ball and going home. I support the idea of a student union building — more space for study and for clubs is something that I believe is needed at SFU. But without consultation, and without the removal of the stadium I cannot support moving forward at this time. The SFSS executive should take a cue from the university in this matter and seek to engage the student body in a meaningful way.
Voting ‘no’ on this referendum will not kill the SUB. Voting ‘no’ will send the message that SFU students deserve to be consulted extensively before we hand over $65 million for a project that is outside the scope of the SFSS’s responsibilities. This referendum is the first time that SFU students have been asked how they feel about the SUB — and I am voting ‘no’ to show the executive that I deserve a proper consultation.
