Word: babe
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...Babe's Pelican, then, is both an excellent and a significant production, significant in that it comes close to being a perfect realization of one of the ideal uses of the Experimental Theatre. Taking full advantage of the surplus building supplies in the Loeb shop and the furniture in the prop rooms, The Pelican proves that a low-budget Ex show can look as professional on its own terms as a show on the mainstage...
Unlike most Ex directors who put props on the floor for a set and use the moveable black flats only to separate the playing area from whatever wing space is necessary, Babe and designer William Schroeder have built a small raised stage in the theatre, a rectangular room open to the audience on two sides. The Ex's seat-wagons are placed directly in front of the two open sides, so that the audience becomes in effect the two missing walls, and The Pelican thereby achieves intimacy and involves the audience. The conditions are close to ideal for Strindberg...
...Schroeder's set is subtly off-perspective, and the slight distortion in the walls and the floor reduces the depth of the set and makes it appear almost two dimensional. Since the set is small and the viewer's eye tends to see it as an entirety, Babe is able to use the 2-D effect and to stress perspective distortion in his blocking...
...perspective: at one point when the mother crosses from the chaise-longue upstage ten feet to a chair, the shadow on her face never changes, and it looks not as if she has walked toward the audience but as if she has enlarged in proportion before our eyes. Babe moves the characters effortlessly in this fashion, almost as if he were editing a film on stage. Never allowing the confines of the set to interfere with his blocking, he doesn't hesitate to have a character circle a table the long or illogical way, if it gives needed visual emphasis...
Vocally, the play builds in volume and intensity as it progresses. Babe has wisely chosen to have his actors underplay, forcing them to perform with self-discipline. The acting is amazing, considering that four of the five east-members are usually employed on the Harvard stage as comedians, and the fifth as a dancer. Emily Levine gives a spine-chilling performance as the mother, easily her best to date, and not once does she lapse into any of the mannerisms that have marked her last three performances. Susan Channing plays the daughter. Her sheer technical skill is amazing...