Word: absurd
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...expect all the flimflam to be swept away is, of course, absurd. Pressagents and windup plastic starlets are as much a part of movies as acetate; in one way or another, they always will be. And no matter how actors and actresses play themselves down, their films play them up. Movies are wide-screened, stereophonic and 30 times larger than life?so are actors. What is important is that many of the young actors can separate the reflected face on the screen from the original in the mirror...
...chin from a 1948 Chevrolet, the hooded eyes from a stuffed hawk. Even the voice seems assembled, an oboe with postnasal drip. It all appears a shambles?until it begins to work, stunning audiences with articulate force. His current comedy, Jimmy Shine, is a mere vaudeville of the absurd. But within it is the vortical power of Dustin, pulling in the laughs, the cast and the audience. He growls like Durante, drones like W. C. Fields, shambles like Groucho Marx, and dances like a good-natured puppy. Yet the elements are his own?so much so that other performers...
Frontal Attack. Superficially, BSN's attempt looked absurd. Saint-Gobain produces 22% of the world's plate glass, has extensive interests in chemicals, nuclear energy, cardboard and paper. The company has annual sales of glass and other products totaling $1 billion, almost five times BSN's. But Saint-Gobain's current reputation glitters less than its history. Under the presidency of Count Arnaud de Vogüé, 64, the company lagged behind BSN in adopting the float-glass process that revolutionized glassmaking a decade ago. On the other hand, BSN, which was formed when two firms...
Ionesco's Maid to Marry shares the second act with Apple Bit, and director Mary King Austin chose just the right juxtaposition. Its eminently civilized lady and gentleman are quite absurd. They sit on a 1950's park bench and vacillate between violently tearing up the Times and making profound comments on professions, future, past, ungrateful children. Not a wild west thriller by any means. Still, the patter's amusing...
...sequential logic of permissiveness to anarchy to tyranny may be questioned and is a trifle too methodical, but it is far merrier than the plotline suggests. Mrozek has a playful, astringent intelligence and a vision deeply colored by the theater of the absurd. One delightful sequence has Arthur trying to goad his father into surprising his wife in her lover's arms, while the father theorizes why he should not. Unfortunately, stilted direction robs this off-Broadway production of rightful humor, and the actors seem to admire the play without enjoying it. The translation into English is somewhat awkward...