Word: angeles
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Shepard would have been disappointed if he had staved around Harvard long enough to see the American Repertory Theatre's staging of his play Angel City. It's a classic example of wasted potential an accomplished director and cast took on a superb modern play then backed down when the going got tough The play criticizes stale, warmed-over fare posing as art, and that is exactly what the A. R. T. has dished up. Their production, while competent, lacks the vitality and even the horror central to Shepard's vision, and it lacks anything remotely like courage Shepard...
Angle City presents a view of Hollywood and the American movie industry where greed and ambition have destroyed the last vestiges of artistic integrity Shepard says he wrote Angel City after a bad experience in an office in Hollywood and his cynical pessimism shows through every line of the script Each character in the play has a dream Lanx wants to be a boxer, Miss Scoons wants to be an actress. Tympani dreams of owning a diner And each has sold out, abandoned his integrity in order to try and claw his way to the top Money is the driving...
...both inspiration and courage, neither of which are provided by director David Wheeler. Two seasons ago. Wheeler directed a truly inspired True West (also by Shepard) at the Hasty Pudding, since then, he must have run out of steam He too readily exchanges the anguish which is central to Angel City for cheap and easy humor The audience is entertained, but never moved...
...extraordinary talent of Ben Halley, Jr., so fully and wonderfully exploited in Big River shines very little in Angel City As Tympani Halley rolls his head wildly, concentrating on his quest for the perfect rhythm. But his energy is dulled, pulled down by the production's lethargy, John Bottoms as Rabbit is the worst offender, however, in the category of torpid A R T actors. I'm after power, "he whimpers, but the audience knows that all he needs is a good night's sleep...
...October 1980, a talented cast and director staged Angel City in the Loeb's Experimental theater. In the claustrophobic confines of the Ex they exposed the message of Shepard's play in all its horror Chances are good that no one in the A R T company saw the Ex production Too bad--they could have learned a lot The undergraduate Ex production had much of the courage and the presence that the A R T's play so badly lacks...