Word: benedict
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...sharp, funny one-act play, written by Slawomir Mrozek and translated from Polish, Charlie deals with three characters and one problem. The characters are an oculist of rather flexible moral convictions (Paul Benedict), an old man with a loaded gun and bad vision (Edward Finnegan), and his solicitous, direct grandson (Richard Shepard). These last two are country people, and they see the problem as a simple one: Grandpa wishes to kill something named "Charlie"; he needs some glasses to recognize him. The doctor has difficulty understanding, though...
...lone representative of middle-class moralism, the doctor takes a series of questionable positions on this problem. Mr. Shepard and Mr. Finnegan neatly present their doggedly simple, suspicious characters they provide the perfect backdrop for Mr. Benedict's gorgeous moral acrobatics...
After that crisis, Wife amiably describes how a fighting-trim bachelor becomes a fat, happy benedict. Lemmon's lady smothers him with love and stuffs him with pasta until he has rings under his eyes and a bulge over his belt. Dragging his paunch through the men's-club swimming pool, he makes the mere act of floating seem a wry comment on the leaden responsibilities of marriage. Even Bash Brannigan evolves into a folksy domestic series called The Brannigans. Finally, Lemmon rebels. Both he and Bash decide to dispose of their mates by dumping them (Brrrp! Blasp...
...Harvard, Dr. King chose not to analyze issues. Instead he spoke eloquently, with the rhetoric of the preacher and politician, and interspersed platitudes with references to William James, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Thoreau, Gordon Allport and a score more. His speech here was not very good. In another context--e.g., the dramatic setting of the Washington March--he can be magnificent...
Whether the Supreme Court agrees with Colopy or not, he stands a good chance of eventually seeing his children outside the monastic confines of St. Benedict's. Ailing and embittered, Father Feeney has broken off contact with nearly all of his old clerical friends, has yet to induce one canonically ordained priest to join the Slaves, who regard themselves as more Catholic than the Pope. And without a spiritual leader, say other churchmen who have followed the tragic history of Father Feeney and his believers, the center will surely collapse. "They really need a priest," admits Colopy. "Those people...