Word: berger
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...MARILYN BERGER, 41, joined NBC last winter after a decade as a diplomatic reporter for Newsday and later the Washington Post, and last summer became the network's senior White House correspondent. The transition to television has not been easy. "I'm a loner, and TV is very much a group art, with a camera crew and a producer," says Brooklyn-born Berger. She dislikes being "pinned at the White House" for staged events when she could be out developing stories. Says she: "If I had the chance, I'd like to have my own half-hour...
Still, this play's saving grace is Berger's witty, terse dialogue. One masterful confrontation occurs in Celeste's apartment, when she tries to seduce Leo (or rather, to encourage him to seduce her) with the help of wine and her pocket Freud. Berger shows the calculations and machinations of his characters. If Leo acts like a sexual automaton (he places his hand on Celeste's leg; she asks sharply, "What is that?"), Celeste reacts coldly with banal psychology in her analysis of Leo's childhood. Employing a more experimental approach, Berger tries his hand at Joyce an stream...
Just as these monologues delineate his characters' isolation, so do the musical numbers. Except for a few company arrangements, the songs are solo exercises in the actors' self-examination. Additionally, Berger separates his music and dialogue; all of the numbers come between scenes. Most of the lyrics deal with life's enigmas, which Berger compares to items ranging from a leaf to a television set. While many verses contain cliches and predictable rhymes, "Next Time" and "What Do They Mean?" exhibit more interesting imagery. Though less memorable than the lyrics, the music, also written by Berger, maintains an agreeable tempo...
...down the action. Restricted to only one living room set and street clothes for costumes, the show becomes even more dependent on its actors. Genovese's clothes seem particularly incongruous, unless her white raincoat is intended to make an ironic comment on her lack of purity. In addition, Berger blocks clumsily; his actors often seem unsure where to position themselves. Evidently, because he authored the drama, he fails to separate himself from his characters...
...While Berger's problem stems from his lack of distance, the characters barricade themselves from the audience. They never show their true faces; even the poster for Passing Strangers reveals only their silhouettes. Since they cannot communicate with themselves or others, they finally turn up emptyhanded and brokenhearted. The play's shallowness causes the audience to lose all empathy for it; herein lies the true tragedy of alienation...