Word: comic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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David Smith and Thomas Page as El Dancairo and El Remendado, respectively, provided a saving grace for the production. Although their voices were not overpowering, they expanded their roles beyond mere singing with their superb comic improvisations and harmonizing...
Bookends succeeds only when it maintains its comic focus. As a serious exploration of relationships or paranoia it is on less reliable footing. With judicious cutting to emphasize its strong points, Bookends would be a solid comic work rather than a mismatched amalgam of ruminations and jokes...
...Dorf's comic sense serves him much better than his philosophical nature. From the opening line of the play, "I killed the reference librarian," Dorf displays his absurdist flair. Scott Schwartz's direction aggressively matches that sensibility...
Left to this framework, Bookends would succeed as a darkly comic romp. However, the script's multiple flashbacks aim for a wholly different style of comedy. Rather than the absurdism of the central scenes, the flashbacks try to be witty and biting. They unfortunately fall far short of the rest of the play. More serious than the rest, they interrupt the over-the-top momentum of the hostage scenes...
...idea of writing a comic strip simmered in my head for quite some time. I needed the merchandising money. Unfortunately, after this initial burst of misunderstood creative ingenuity, my brain went numb. It was a nightmare: all my creativity had slowly seeped out of me, leaving me a dry, lifeless husk totally incapable of inventive conversation, let alone producing a daily, witty, critically acclaimed, award-winning, ego trip of a comic strip...