Word: absurdist
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Durang/Innaurato collaboration: four brothers, tempestuous love, life, death, etc, etc. But it doesn't take long to leave Dostoevsky in the dust as Durang and Innaurato jump full force into the whole of literature since the Book of Genesis. Durang has always been something of the Tom Stoppard of absurdist drama, but in The Idiots Karamazov he outdoes himself. Insert famous femme fatale Anas Nin, lover to the likes of Henry Miller, Gore Vidal and Salvador Dal, a few scenes from Eugene O'Neil's Long Day's Journey into Night, and references to everything from Macbeth to Robert Anderson...
...Neil, and the aforementioned Anas Nin, played with delightfully French self-absorption by Karen MacDonald. Not to mention the entire cast of characters from The Brothers Karamazov, with Alyosha Karamazov (played with effective, i.e. not annoying, wholesomeness by Sean Dugan) serving as Durang's Everyman character in this absurdist romp...
...ears, a lot of it seems "old hat." On Midnite, Beck's hats are all new--he mixes rap with rock, but he does so in a way that's unique. Midnite's songs explode in burbles of electronic noise and brassy horn-section blasts; the lyrics alternate between absurdist imagery and street jokiness. Beck isn't afraid to fail, and he sometimes does. But while other rock-hoppers adhere to a "keep it real" doctrine, Beck feels free to invent his own playful lyrical reality: "I wanna get with you/ Only you/ And your sister/ I think her name...
...Barlow Anderson as Lomov reaches feats of physical hypochondria that defy description. Parkinson's production comes dangerously close to the line between farce and sheer Vaudeville at times. It evokes laughter from the audience, but it is more of the laughter one expects at a play by absurdist writer Christopher Durang than at the drawing-room comedies of Chekov. Love is a social game in Chekov, but under Parkinson's direction it becomes a high-energy romp. It is not the most romantic view of love, for sure, but in comparison to the other plays included in Seductions, it offers...
...Jewels for Sophia showcased Hitchcock at his best, spouting cryptic, conceptual lyrics over a mix of soft acoustic guitars and driving rock riffs. Its songs ranged from absurdist character studies ("Antwoman") to a genuinely haunting love story ("Dark Princess"). There are also two sneering but comical tributes: "Viva! Sea-Tac," on which he proclaims that the Pacific Northwest has "the best computers and coffee and smack," and a live hidden track on which he tells a giggling audience "Don't talk to me about Gene Hackman/he's in every film/sometimes wearing a towel/and...