Word: delfina
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...second act of the play, the set is turned into the set of a talk show: the audience in the theater becomes the studio audience. The host is Delfina Treadwell (Randy Danson), an unholy combination of Ricki Lake and Oprah Winfrey intent on getting at her guest's deepest, darkest secrets. Her guests on this occasion are Michael and Livia Majeski. "What are you hiding in your heart?" she asks Michael. A series of revelations ensue when she doesn't believe Michael's story, necessitating a major reinterpretation of what has transpired...
...cast uniformly shines. Paton brings a wonderfully deadpan delivery to the character of Michael Majeski, sounding strangely like a sedated Garrison Keillor, while Hall is wonderfully neurotic as Livia. Danson and Derrah, as Delfina Treadwell and her assistant are guilty pleasures--the most cartoonishly satirical elements in the story...
...media, however, is ultimately empty: it cannot save Michael, and, ultimately, destroys him. Michael gives the media everything: he holds nothing back. But the media is an insatiable god: after every detail of his life has been brought to life, Delfina turns on him, reading between the lines of his story, in the hope of bringing to light an even bigger story, but there's no glory to be found at the core of Michael Majeski's story, just a broken life. Valparaiso is, at its heart, a Death of a Salesman for a radically changed world. While the world...