Word: acted
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Lovers' quarrels provide the root of the bedlam backstage in Act II. Lejune is madly in love with Otley and is angry, suspecting that she and the bumbling Frederick Fellowes (Steve Petersen) are having an affair. Barton's Lejune storms around backstage begging Gunn's Otley to take him back, yelling at her for having an affair and plotting to kill Steve Petersen, who wonderfully portrays the innocent Fellowes...
After the belly-bursting laughter of Act II, Act III pales by comparison. While there are some interesting moments as Dallas' cast stumbles through one mistake after another, desperately trying to get back to the script, most of the bumbling becomes tedious...
Thoreau is, of course, the play's focus, and all the other characters seem to exist merely as his foils. Emerson (Elijah Siegler) is portrayed as a well-meaning, pontificating old man who is, at the end, rather pathetic because he does nothing to act on the ideals that he inspires in Thoreau. Other characters such as Thoreau's brother (David Javerbaum) who shares and makes corporeal Thoreau's ideals, and the man from the school committee (Ted Caplow) who attacks Thoreau for not sticking to the established texts, are also well portrayed...
Becky, Hoss' girlfriend, is played by Susan Levine. Relatively unexciting during the first act, Levine makes Becky shine in the second act, even though she has considerably less stage time. The tense scene in which she struggles alone against an imaginary, lust-ridden boy reveals Levine to be an actress of unflinching talent...
...Blackstone undertakes the role of Crow, Hoss' rival, in the second act, during which he dominates the dialogue and stage. Disconcerting and annoyingly weasel-like at first, Crow grows on the audience throughout the second act. By the end, Blackstone completely eclipses Preven, who meets his demise, both literally and in his ability to maintain the audience's attention. It is especially difficult to take one's eyes off Blackstone's Crow during his duel scene with Hoss in the second act, an emotional moment that showcases superb acting and choreography as the two main characters engage in a battle...