Word: acterized
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
BLACK COMEDY is a slambang comedy-literally. The humor of Peter Shaffer's one-acter springs more from body English than feats of wit. It is based on a single conceit-agile actors in a blaze of lights behave and misbehave, bump and reel, as if in total darkness...
BLACK COMEDY is a slam-bang comedy-literally. The humor of Peter Shaffer's one-acter springs more from body English than feats of wit. It is based on a single conceit - watching agile actors in a blaze of lights behave and misbehave, bump and reel, as if in total darkness...
...first one-acter is almost a Broad way in joke. Since Marat/Sade accustomed audiences to the sight of a man's naked backside, what are the prospects for a frontal confrontation? A deadserious playwright (George Grizzard) with integrity fever wants to stage precisely that. In the opening scene of his play, a man will be offstage in the bathroom brushing his teeth. His wife, in the adjoining bedroom, calls out something. Suddenly the man appears, stark naked, toothbrush in hand, saying, "You know I can't hear you when the water's running." According to the playwright...
...cannot judge how well the play would act; it is a short one-acter and long portions are filled by two monologues. The prose is beautiful to read, though, full of salient images, like the long compounded string in the son's recited dream; it is also highly mellifluous, without sacirficing impact, as in the father's "Big fat black men of God or little black shriveled sacks with the calling still in their protruding bones"; and it achieves minor effects as perfectly as large ones, like the setting of the father's long monologue: "You know the church, Edward...
...Lesson is a real loser. Admittedly the repertory form limits expanse as well as expense, but a charcoal-black flap can make a pretty ugly stage. Still, everything in its place. The Lesson is a competent, funny production -- everything, in short, that its companion one-acter...