Word: arnolds
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...nine scenes which Director William Hillier had adapted from Feiffer's cartoon strips proved entertaining enough, but they lacked the color or movement of Crawling Arnold, the one act play which was conceived explicitly as theater...
...Bernard Kessel and Edward Higgins cleverly explored the depths of thestock-types they presented. Dean Gitter was good when he wasn't reverting to Willy Loman. And Hillier should be praised for the atmosphere of smooth informality in which he knit the scenes together. It was not until Crawling Arnold, however, that he seemed confident with his material, and didn't feel impelled to superimpose dramatic trickery...
...uproarious, perceptive play about a man of 35 who finds genuinely childish behavior the logical response to a hypocritical, senile world, Crawling Arnold invalidates the praise Feiffer once received--"your people speak just like real people; put them on the stage and they'll sound just like real people." His cartoons and his theater share not the tape-recorded quality of real life, but the synoptic terseness of drama. His dialogue is not literal chatter, it is a precis of real conversation that takes into account the encumbrances of colloquial speech. And while real people can lie successfully, Feiffer...
Before the presentation of Crawling Arnold, the author helped explain the play, and emphasized that his writing is intended for children because they assess life in moral terms. Children, Feiffer said, want to know if killing is bad, but adults will only answer in terms of political circumstance. Children will ask if love is good, and adults will insist that they define their terms. Children will regard good as good and bad as bad, but adults know that bad is good when We do it (because They have forced it upon us), and good is bad when They...
...satirist will probably discuss his striking respectability in a speech this Sunday, accompanying the Poets Theatre production of his one act play, Crawling Arnold, and their dramatization of his sketches. The apparent ease with which these cartoon strips can be translated into dramatic skits does not offend Feiffer the artist. Although his subtle, deceptively fine drawings will not come into play, his terse dialogue can well stand alone. And neither writer nor artist begrudge the other any success...