Word: descent
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Bennett's play is Shakespearean in its scope and reach; A straightforward account of the king's descent into and recovery from madness becomes a political and social commentary through Bennett's devastating use of language: Doctors feud over whether blisters or induced vomiting is the most effective treatment, politicians conspire over the raving body of the king--the twenty odd characters in The Madness of George III are involved in so many different intrigues it's a wonder that the audience can see straight...
...moments of lucidity, Bennett's king embodies the "Farmer George" image. Plainspoken, fair and with a sense of humor (he calls the Queen "Mrs. King"), George III is nonetheless indisputably in charge. "I am the verb, sir, not the object," he tells a subject. But following the descent into madness, Hawthorne must spew the random gibberings of a man who has lost all control...
...thing Pitt is passionate about is cutting waste--at times he almost sounds like Al Gore in his plea for efficiency. Yet Pitt, for all his faults, is one of the more sympathetic characters in the play. Incessantly goaded about his loss of America and his father's own descent into madness, Pitt retreats further and further into himself, carrying the audience with him. When George III returns to sanity, the corresponding success of Pitt is one of the reasons the audience cheers...
...Topos" at 7 p.m. A woman gives birth and dies.As in a dream, the protagonist's descent intounconscious begins, while images deep in memoryrise to the surface, and the protagonist is tornby the demons inhabiting...
...acting, too, begins a precipitous descent. On each successive appearance, Matthew Bakal, as King Ferdinand, becomes increasingly wooden. Jennifer Breheny interprets Queen Isabella as a Marie Antoinette-Queen of Hearts hybrid, gleefully discussing mass executions in the off-with-her-head mode. Kitt Hirasaki portrays the severe Master of the Order of Santiago like a spoilt schoolboy, ready to stamp his feet with frustration...