Word: cowl
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that no other theatrical mode dare ask. "The Jealous Moon" is whimsy in a fantastic Italian comic setting. Pierrot, Columbine and Harlequin are on the tiny stage of a travelling puppet show, and above them, in the miniature flies of the little stage, are the human selves of Jane Cowl, Philip Merivale and Guy Standing, who pull the strings of the dangling waggle-headed dolls. In the second act Peter Parrot, played by Philip Merivale, dreams all the company of puppeteers into the character and garden scene of the miniature play...
...Jane Cowl is, as usual, strongest in nonchalance. She appears almost to let the part drop out of her hands, so consummate is her indifference. Too much naturalness can lose a show as easily as chanted lines or oratory. But Miss Cowl keeps her playing in the low keys of naturalness and yet it has no moment of wavering...
...price to be paid for this kind of verisimilitude. Laughter and tears may be close to one another, but the distance between naturalness and high emotional crisis is so far that it is difficult not to lose conviction at one end or the other of the journey. Both Miss Cowl and Mr. Merivale ring a tone less true within Peter's dream than out of it. Perhaps it is a subtlety that this should be so in a dream land...
There is no place in whimsical comedy for such incubi as the three little cradles that are dragged on for the line "they're my hope cradles," of Miss Cowl. There is perhaps little more for soft epigrams like "Agenius? Someone who's always searching for something", which are five percent humor and ninety-five percent Jane Cowl. But there is something magical in the transformation of earned power that follows upon Harlequin's cool comfort of "That's life" to deserted Columbine. Miss Cowl turns her head suddenly up, and cries: "It's not; it's hundreds of little...
...Miss Cowl expressed pride in the fact that she holds two Shakespearian records: first for the most performances of any Shakespearian role, which she holds as a result of 698 performances of Juliet; and second, for the presentation of Juliet seven times a week a thing which she did frequently but which no other actress has ever attempted because of the physical and emotional strain of the role...