Word: amalgamator
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Umabatha, the current revival of the 1970 play by South African playwright/director Welcome Msomi, is such a remarkable amalgam of widely different cultures, goals and modes of performance that it's difficult to know how to approach an assessment of it. Enacted entirely in Zulu by performers in traditional Zulu attire, Umabatha* is at once a history lesson, a dance-and-music spectacular, a celebration of Zulu culture and--last and, theoretically, most important--a reworking of Shakespeare's famous tragedy Macbeth...
...festival is an amalgam of an ancient Aztec ceremony celebrating the death of emperors, and All Saints' Day, which was brought to the Americas with the Spanish conquistadors...
...rest of the cast lends excellent support to the star's one-man show. Clarence Williams III (The Mod Squad's Linc) does a fine job, considering that he is saddled with the film's silliest part: Archie, the black servant who represents an amalgam of all the black people Wallace has ever known. And Mare Winningham is convincing as the loyal first wife Lurleen, who runs for Governor when the law prevents Wallace from succeeding himself...
...amalgam of clever references never really comes together, and it's hard to figure out what Parker and Stone are using their show to say beyond the fact that eight-year-old boys are silly and the world is filled with many useless celebrities. Unlike The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-head, South Park is devoid of subtext--it isn't really about the emptiness of suburban life or the ugliness of youthful nihilism or the perniciousness of popular culture. Nevertheless, it can deliver many funny moments, and Parker and Stone may very well grow up someday...
...backlights her act with a implicit desperation that gnaws away at one's core. Even her act feels tragic as such: like a dreamy teenager, she rattles off to Mrs. Stilton her favorite movie stars and their birth places, and we begin to think she herself is merely an amalgam of all the brands of scrappy newspaperwoman bravery she's seen on screen...