Word: butley
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Rhinoceros, 2:30, 6:10, 9:50, Lovers and Other Strangers, 4:15, 8 p.m., tonight only; Butley, 5, 9:45, Women in Love...
...Butley was reviewed in yesterday's Crimson. An ambitious production that carries through a very high proportion of a very funny play. Wry humor about a professor whose life is falling apart with--considering the unhappy surface of the plot--and amazing number of laughs...
...Butley takes place entirely with in the small and crowded office of Ben and Joey. In an exhibition of dexterity that nearly matches that of their word-play, the two lecturers manage to avoid with a graceful and familiar ease the various chairs, desks, book cases, and lamp cords that clutter the stage. Director John Greenwood has taken his actors and put them in a confining (and potentially dangerous) set, that serves only to accentuate the petty and bitter world of Ben Butley's academia. The direction is totally unobtrusive--which is exactly as it should be in a small...
FORTUNATELY FOR Eisenberg, Jeremy Gordon as the disillusioned disciple, Joey, presents an equally accomplished performance. Joey was at one time one of Butley's students; now, he is an assistant lecturer worried about his promotion who shares who both office and apartment with his mentor. He is also a homosexual. Watching these two English scholars as they struggle their way through their forensic and clearly intimate friendship is a delight. Early in the first act, Ben badgers Joey with questions about his new found friend, Reg, a brawny football and cooking enthusiast from Leeds, commenting. "My natural force plays excitingly...
Author Simon Gray has produced a story that can't fall far from home. As we watch Ben Butley lose both his wife and his best friend in a single day, it becomes clear that he is a brilliant, captivating man who has failed his promise. At the end of the play, he turns to Joey, reminds him of their past creative relations, to which Joey replies. "I know. But those were in the days when you still taught. Now you spread futility, Ben." And Butley's importance lies, ultimately, in its subtle ability to lend an understanding of this...