Word: crescendoed
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...lacks the intensity and the wicked gleam in his eye necessary to persuade us he believes in the ideology of pain he espouses. There is a moment of redemption, however, when, shirtless, he subjects himself to a beating while the prisoners thump the floor methodically in a blood-thirsty crescendo. Then, physically, we feel his lust for pain...
...uselessly, while the action seems to thunder on like machine-gun fire. This slaughters both the characters and the play. In rhythmic but nonsensical spurts, so much anger builds up in these women that they start to chant "BASTARD MEN! BASTARD MEN!" in an eery, Brave New World-like crescendo, and do it more than once. The fact that boys are made of "snaps and snails and puppy dogs' tails" is hissed visciously from the tongues of the characters, dripping with mockery. There just seems to be an eruptive release of anger in these words, with little background to justify...
...events. Unable to affect the structure of an epic, Schwartz overdevelops the plot to the point at which it collapses, losing foundation. The plot lacks any long-term coherence, for Merlyn's mission in life changes from scene to scene. There is no one clear goal, no one definite crescendo which the audience can anticipate. As a result, Merlyn's personal triumphs and defeats ring hollow and are boring...
...stupefaction from this warm and cuddly narrative of domestic tranquility, they'll be begging for gratuitous blood-letting. If tragedy enthralls us with its cathartic resonance, and comedy with the pleasure of averted tragedy, then Colwin must have hoped to seduce us with sheer banality. There's no narrative crescendo, no crisis, no risk of a crisis; in short, no plot. You can revel in the lucid, elegant prose until you're blue in the face, but A Big Storm Knocked It Over constitutes the acid-proof proof that happy stories about happy people makes for unhappy reading...
...finale, although weakly sung, is a merry crescendo of transvestism to end the evening. With all characters now in drag, and everyone happy, one has no doubt that the Adams House pool has finally found its true calling...