Word: comic
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...this is precisely what the U.S. is doing-to Sihanouk's mounting irritation. His vanity was particularly hurt when Bobby Kennedy failed to drop in during his recent trip to Malaysia. The temptation to write off Sihanouk as a temperamental dilettante and his country as a Far Eastern comic-opera setting is strong. To many, Sihanouk appears so eccentric that, as one Western diplomat puts it, "everyone wants to be his psychiatrist." Various theories have been developed to account for his moods, including the fact that every so often he goes on a crash diet; U.S. Foreign Service dispatches...
...ironic line like, "My mouth is not full of fancy talk--only teeth." Still, the Theatre Company of Boston deserves applause for carefully avoding all "fancy talk." They play In the Jungle of Cities as literal Brecht, vintage of 1924, complete with staccato speeches and as consistent tragi-comic flippancy that fits the dialogue perfectly. Among a dozen fine performances, Penepole Laughton is outstanding as the delicate Mary Garga, who slips into prostitution after Shlink rebuffs her. Dan Morgan creates a fittingly inscrutable Shlink, and John Lasell acts as harried and erratic as a man in George Garga's situation...
This may be, as one critic triumphantly observed, linguistically impossible, but it approximates the author's viewpoint. Despite some hilarious episodes, The Wapsot Scandal is not, in the end, a comic novel...
...merciless lilywhite factory stacks; "The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Welcome you to Tchula;" grinning, barefoot, ragged black boys skimming along the highway on a pickup truck; Tall, gaunt, stooped, tobacco chewing, strawhatted farmers--black and white. Neat brick middle-class American homes...Troopers and policemen everywhere, fat comic opera sherrifs in stenciled boots and stetsons. "K.O. the Kennedys!--Vote Rubel Phillips (Rep)" billboards, "Maintain White Democratic Solidarity--Vote Paul Johnson (Dem)" billboards, Kiwanis! Rotary! Order of the Eastern Star! White Citizens Council...
...ever, the girls are better. Like for instance Meg Meglathery, the undisputed star of the show. Miss Meglathery hams the part of Mistress Sentry the Maid to wonderfully comic proportions, endearing herself--and the play--to the audience at every entrance. Patricia Hawkins is another charmer. She and Madeleine Fischer deliver wordy, nonsensical lines with great spirit and some success. Like everyone in the play, they are beautifully costumed. Kay Bourne moves handsomely through the difficult role of Virtue (Lady Cockwood) in a bawdy house...