Word: comical
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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With such novels as Wise Virgin (1983) and Scandal, or Priscilla's Kindness (1984), English Author A.N. Wilson has won increasing renown as a satirist in the classic mode, a chronicler of lofty ideals and comic, mortal diminutions. His name has been mentioned in the same breath with that of Evelyn Waugh; comparisons to Barbara Pym have not been lacking. Readers aware of Wilson's reputation will naturally turn to Gentlemen in England expecting some laughs and intelligent fun. They will not be disappointed, but they may be surprised by the range of humors that arise in the course...
...nowhere near the half of it. We haven't mentioned the cockroaches that crawl out of a wound in Harry's chest, the sardines that drop from between the legs of his philandering wife, the elephant that sits on his car -- or the wild cinematic verve that alchemizes each comic grotesquerie into images as vivid as a bad trip. But Bliss is no mere catalog of surrealist gross-outs. It yanks astonished laughs from the viewer to ease the way along a modern pilgrim's progress, one that finds salvation in the doggedness of obsessive love. Harry tracks his recalcitrant...
...flip side, Papageno, played by George Shepherd, stole the show with his energetic and comic display of Falstaffian humor. Shepherd's rendition of Mozart's comic bird catcher with a heart of gold kept the audience howling with his playful comedic routines and impish humor, making up for his mostly inadequate voice. On the whole, his playful antics and spirit added greatly to the production which tended to drag on as the hours progressed...
...actors playing Joyce and Lenin are completely wrong for their roles. What their actual talent level is I don't know, but it isn't high enough to make their characters believable. Perhaps the intent was comic incongruity between historic image and actual person, but it doesn't work...
Faced with a script that relies heavily on the juxtaposition of real horror and slapstick humor, Molotiu has taken the easy way out by emphasizing the gags and glossing over the play's dark side. In one sense, his choice was apt, for although his cast is wonderfully comic in a self-conscious way, most of the actors here seem incapable of any real depth...