Word: basement
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...shaping adult occupations. Take Gary Larson. As a youngster growing up in Tacoma, Larson collected lizards, snakes, frogs, salamanders and one monkey. Aided by his older brother, he regularly flooded the backyard to create swamps. Once, for a change of pace, the Larson boys hauled sand into the basement and built a miniature Mojave complete with horned toads. Throughout it all, Larson's parents remained remarkably serene, even that day when Dad, a car salesman, came home and found his son's 8-ft. boa constrictor curled up in the sewing machine...
Something analogous occurs in Drrdla. While working in his basement, a man discovers an almost starved and totally feral cat. Saving and taming the creature becomes first his project and then his obsession: "What it all came down to, in Walter's opinion, was the emergence of life from darkness." His wife makes fun of his efforts and then, he becomes convinced, conspires against them, making as much noise as she possibly can in order to frighten the animal. She sees things differently: "If just her living in the house disturbed his little rodent, perhaps she should think of taking...
...SQUARE, Blue Velvet is nightly revealing the dark underside of small town life. Down in the basement of Mather, an even darker underside is being exhibited. Lunge, Grip is the nightmare play of every Harvard-Radcliffe student. It's the world of "incestuous" collegiate relationships brought to the stage. Though never stated explicitly in the play, Kaplan has clearly drawn upon the Harvard experience for this production...
...characters desperately lust and lunge after one another, and all parties succeed in ending up thoroughly frustrated. In Act Two, the characters seize on to relationships and grip the life out of them. The staging is as sparse as you can get--amidst the heat ducts of Mather basement, the audience gets caught up in the claustrophobia...
Though Lunge, Grip is Harvard's romantic version of No Exit, there is in fact an escape from the Mather basement. So, grip the first half of this play, then lunge for the door. Half a good, original play is better than nothing...