Word: deadpan
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...George Bush seemed in an upbeat mood as he met with TIME Correspondents Robert Ajemian and David Beckwith in his White House office. Halfway through the discussion last Friday, the Vice President excused himself to take a call from his campaign chairman, James A. Baker. On his return, a deadpan look on his face, Bush declared he had called on his executive skills to "straighten the new kid out." Excerpts from the interview...
...sketchbook romance between two losers who share a fierce sense of their own integrity. Other notable reprints include Michael Gilbert's Young Petrella (Harper & Row; 222 pages; $15.95), a collection of magazine stories from the 1950s and '60s that display his trademark Scotland Yard detective with a deadpan precision of mood worthy of Simenon, and A Double Life (Little, Brown; 246 pages; $17.95), short gothic chillers by Louisa May Alcott...
...confusion is understandable. While "Errand" is full of Chekhovian touches--surprises delivered in a complete prose deadpan, methodically thorough detail, small paradoxical moments that reveal character--the touches sound contrived and unnatural in Carver's hands. If "Errand" were akin to Harold Bloom's apophrades, a return from the dead of an old literary influence, the styles of Carver and Chekhov would merge without seams. Instead they...
...actors do well with this deadpan satire. Standouts are Cate, whose Mommy is both childishly petulant and sexually aggressive, and Bledsoe, whose delivery punctures Albee's pretensions as well as those of the other characters...
Especially strong are the performances of Laurence Thomsen and Maria Catherine Troy, who play the befuddled Dr. and Mrs. Zubrisky, leading citizens in the small Russian town in which the play is set. Thomsen is a clever actor, deftly mixing deadpan and ham. Similarly, the utterly natural theatrical poise with which Troy plays her part is admirable...