Word: bolkonski
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...women, what drama there is in the adaptation, first performed in 1955 in Berlin, must be released in a series of stunning special effects simulating the horrors of war from above. The peculiar predicament of characters adhering fiercely to free choice in a determined world--of Andrei, Prince Bolkonski who gets sucked into the wars, of Natasha Rostova, his young fiancee who does not manage to remain faithful, of the Bolkonski serfs who incite an abortive revolt--all positioned so carefully in the novel, collapse beneath the weight of the simplistic anti-war statement of the play...
Peter Wirth's Old Prince Bolkonski is static at the other extreme, delivering each line with the dry rigor of orders given in battle. "Orders cannot be changed; order is order forever, un-changeable," Wirth pronounces with a monotony that characterizes all his tones and actions. It is as if the dead delusions of historians have triumphed in a way greater than even this part demands...
...PEACE. Tolstoy's genius grips the Phoenix stage in an alternate offering with Man and Superman. Allowing for the preposterous difficulty of shrinking an oak back into an acorn, the result is surprisingly dramatic. Rosemary Harris as Natasha and Sidney Walker as old Prince Bolkonski inspire the cast with performances of finesse and authority...
...PEACE. The life force of a great novel surges through this APA-at-the-Phoenix rendering of the Tolstoy classic. The tone and thematic intent of the work have been preserved, and Sydney Walker as old Prince Bolkonski and Rosemary Harris as Natasha are supremely good...
...performance of flinty authority, Sydney Walker plays the old Prince Bolkonski, an aristocrat who tyrannizes his nearest and dearest and who paradoxically loves and is loved by them. His dying words to his daughter, "Put on your white dress. I always liked it," have the poignant impact of mortality that only the greatest writers achieve with the simplest of sentiments. His son, Prince Andrei (Donald Moffat), has the ache of desolation in his face, a man who goes off to war because death has already claimed his heart. As Andrei's love-tossed, love-lost Natasha, Rosemary Harris...
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