`ZARA SPOOK': PLAY DEPICTS CASTING FOR ANSWERS

"Who is the fish? Who is the bait? Who is at what end of the line?"

This whimsical line, spoken in near delirium by a character suffering from a snake bite, sums up the feeling many of us often have about our relationships both within our own "selves" and about our relationships with others.

"Zara Spook and Other Lures," the two-act Joan Ackermann comedy, opens tonight as the third major production of University Theatre's 1993-94 season. Curtain time in the Forrest H. Rose Theatre is 8 p.m., and the play will be presented again Saturday night and Feb. 24-26.

Actually, although "Zara" deals with three bass fisherwomen, a program note points out that "Life and fishing are both matters of casting about for answers," and although there are some very funny scenes, it's not a roll-'em-in-the-aisle laugh-a-minute affair. Rather, it's a smiling look at the human comedy in which we are all, one way or another, involved.

Craftily directed by Robert W. Dillon Jr., "Zara Spook" is the story of novice fisherwoman Evelyn's excited entry in the annual Bass 'n Gal Classic fishing tournament. Evelyn is played with much animation by Diana Mays of Oran. Anxious to have the adventure to herself, she tries to brush off the genuine concern of boyfriend Talmadge, acted engagingly by Bob Clubbs of Malden.

(Side note -- If your reviewer had not been given a crash course in bass fishing by Friend Red Williams she might have dismissed Evelyn's weaving and bobbing casting and reeling as overreactions of her nervousness; really, her "technique" wasn't all that bad!)

As planned, Evelyn is joined on the trip from West Virginia to the tournament site, Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico, by Teale, a recently divorced asthmatic bass fisher, well and realistically enacted by Kym Huff of St. Louis, and by Ramona, a Bass 'n Gal champion given an outstanding performance by Heather Lewis of Kansas City.

Unplanned, they are joined at the last moment by pajama-clad Talmadge, who just can't bear letting Evelyn out of his sight, but is relegated to riding in the back seat.

Taciturn Mel, Ramona's gun-totin' estranged husband, happens to see Ramona get into the back seat with Talmadge and assumes the worst, setting off, later in the play, one of the most hilarious scenes ever between two men, but clearing the air, eventually, for himself and Ramona and for Evelyn and Talmadge. As Mel, veteran Dan Akre of Billings, Mont., gives one of his most effective performances.

Mel is joined on the journey to Elephant Butte by Margery, who fell in love with New Mexico's wide open spaces 20 years before and has come back only to find herself at first terrified and later re-enchanted. Margery is given a fine reading by Amy Diebold of Cape Girardeau.

One word of caution -- the script includes a few (very few, for this day and age) objectionable phrases, but they are handled calmly in context by the cast, playing in a highly professional manner.

An element of Evelyn's character that may be unclear to the audience is that, supposedly as a result of her nervousness which extended as far back as her teens, she has a "typing" compulsion -- her mind (and her fingers) "type everything she sees or thinks. Mays is skillful in handling this, but in the midst of other confusions in the play it can be distracting.

Student crews carrying out the scenic and lighting design of technical director Dennis C. Seyer and meshing with Dillon's direction do an excellent job. Brandon Nielson is stage manager, Amy Stenson assistant director, and Mays doubles as costume coordinator. The set and lighting are deceptively simple and very effective, especially in the scene in which nearly simultaneous conversations are being carried on in two on-stage "automobiles."

Oh, so many good lines -- we hope you miss none of them:

"... Love is hard to get over, but hate is so much harder; takes a lot longer. When you do finally let go of hate you are stranded in a loneliness that is deathly still."

"Killing is as close as a man can come to giving birth. It's as close as he can come to putting his hands on the life force."

Mel's question: "How is it the same fish'll bite the same lure twice, three, four times, even after it's had its mouth all cut up? Bloody. Ripped to Shreds." (And how many of us, indeed, in our own way, do the same thing?)

Ramona's penetrating insight that "when you shut the world out you shut yourself in."

Evelyn's poignant attempt to make Talmage understand -- or at least accept -- her need for independence: "Just because there are times I don't need you doesn't mean I don't need you."

So -- we make our Zaras or whatever lures we're using "walk the dog" across the water or send them plumbing the deep dark places in which we and others hide, and every once in a while there's a moment or two of illumination and joy (and maybe just plain fun) that keeps life such an adventure.

University Theatre's fishing expedition in "Zara Spook and Other Lures" helps make it clear that if it's really a matter of "fish or cut bait" we'll choose the challenge of fishing any old day! And even if at some point we have "wallpapered our world" we can always strip and scrape off the wallpaper to find that whole vastness of shining stars beyond. And for THAT allusion, you have to see the play!