Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Ron Rash's The Cove by D.G. MARTIN ture of a new and powerful anti-war novel set in the mountains of Madison County, North Carolina. Laurel Shelton is the central fea- If I made that statement to anyone familiar with North Carolina's Civil War history, I would be quickly cor- rected. "No, you've got this name reversed. It is Shelton Laurel, the place in Madison County where, during that war, a group of captured suspected Union sympathizers were brutally exe- cuted by their Confederate captors." But, they would be wrong. Laurel Shelton, the main character in Ron Rash's new novel, The Cove, is a young mountain woman who lives with her brother in a back cove near Mars Hill, the town and the college. It is 1918, and the World War is coming to an end. Ballet Classics Leap into the Crown Theatre by CHARLOTTE BLUME It's a birthday party for the prince! Prince Siegfried, that is, in Act 1 of Swan Lake at the Crown Center Theatre on April 22, when North Carolina State Ballet presents Act 1 and Act 11 of Swan Lake in the Ballet Classics. The production is Although Laurel is young and reasonably attractive, her prospects for a happy life are slim. Both her parents are dead. Her brother is about to marry and leave her alone on the farm. And, the mountain community believes that she is a witch and that the cove where she lives is cursed. Laurel is shunned whenever she leaves the farm. When she goes into town, people walk across the street to avoid contact and storekeepers discourage her patronage. A chance for happiness comes in the form of her rescue of a man in great distress, near death, and lost in the forest. He is seemingly mute. He does not speak, but he owns and plays a flute in a stunningly beautiful fashion. As the stranger recovers and starts to help Laurel's brother, romance blos- soms and Laurel finds the happiness that life in Madison County had thus far denied her. Does it sound more like a romance novel than a dark anti-war one? Here are some of its features that question the value of making war: • Laurel's brother, Hank, has come home from the war with a missing hand. Each day he faces the challenge of doing two-handed farm work with his one remaining hand. • Other Madison County soldiers are dying in battle in Europe or coming home shattered in body and spirit. • Meanwhile, recruiting Sgt. Chauncey Feith uses his position to boost his political ambitions by tracking down "pro-Hun" books and faculty members at the college and pushing for their removal. His "patriotism" is a caricature that reminds a reader of Hitler's Nazism, based on hatred of real or imagined enemies, not real patriotism based simply on unselfish love of country. • Finally, at the book's conclusion, passion and hatred of the enemy come together in a brutal, senseless, savage massacre that evokes the memory of what happened at Shelton Laurel during the Civil War. Did Rash know that he was making this "antiwar" connection to Shelton Laurel? Or was his naming of his character Laurel a coincidence? There is no doubt in my mind. He knew what he was doing. Rash was born and bred in the Carolina foothills. He teaches at Western recently Serena, become a bestseller by entertaining and entrancing numerous readers who will not recognize and will not care about my opinion regarding the book's anti- war message. D.G. MARTIN, Columnist COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com 20 UCW APRIL 18-24, 2012 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Carolina University. He is thoroughly familiar, if not obsessed, with the his- tory of the massacre at Shelton Laurel. It plays a part in an earlier novel, The World Made Straight, which features another member of the Shelton family. Rash's other writings show his familiarity and interest in Civil War events in the North Carolina mountains. If Rash knew what he was doing in creating an anti-war novel, he also knows something else. He knows how to create a gripping story of mountain people and mountain life. With its compelling ending, The Cove will, like his other books, most directed by Charlotte Blume and will feature 30 plus dancers and actors. Guest art- ists, Melody Staples Hammell and John Tabbert, dance the roles of Odette the Swan Queen and Prince Siegfried. Charlotte Blume and Assistant Director Wei Ni have staged Act 1 of Swan Lake for the first time since the North Carolina State Ballet presented a full four-act produc- tion of the piece in 1993. Additionally, Ni will present his new choreographed piece, Venus from Holst's The Planets. Completing the program, Blume has re-staged the colorful dances from the prologue of Sleeping Beauty, which will star Annemarie Strickland as the Lilac Fairy. The Ballet Classics is directed by Charlotte Blume and features more than 30 dancers. Guest artist John Tabbert is currently with the Charleston Ballet Theatre and Melody Staples Hammell was formerly principal dancer with that com- pany. In addition to Swan Lake, Hammell's many dance roles include the sugar plum fairy in the Nutcracker, Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. This is her seventh season with the North Carolina State Ballet as Odette. In Act I of Swan Lake, the prince is celebrating his 21st birthday with friends and members of the court. The Queen Mother presents him with a cross bow for hunting as his birthday gift. She reminds him it is time to choose a bride. The prince leaves on a hunting trip with friends. Act I of Swan Lake will feature Ashley Watters, Daniel Rivera and Mary Maxton Fowler in the Pas de Trois and Anne Talkington and Thomas McGill in the Waltz. Assistant Director, Wei Ni, will dance a cameo role. In Act II, the hunting party finds a mist-covered lake in the forest where they see swans circling and landing. Just as Prince Siegfried is about to shoot a swan she magically turns into a girl. She has been transformed into a swan along with the others by the evil Rothbart, who assumes the form of an owl. If Rothbart dies, the girls remain swans forever. Only true love for the Swan Queen can break the spell. Siegfried promises his love. With hope renewed, dawn approaches and the girls return to the lake. Tickets for the Ballet Classics April 22, may be purchased at the Crown Center Box Office or through ticketmaster.com. This is a military discount at the box office with ID. Curtain time is 3 p.m.