Word: dullness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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John Clafin's set was adequate, with few props that served many purposes without becoming distractingly dull. The juxtaposition of Confederate and American flags, for example, conveyed a timely and potent message of racism. But the blocking in this show was extremely stiff. In several scenes the actors appeared to be glued to the stage, and their movements were often jarring. Anna Banks and Cinque Hicks provided a notable exception to this rule with their lively choreography for the Fourth of July sequence...
...loud at her just when tension should have been mounting. The other problem is Thuy, Kim's cousin and her betrothed from her village days. In London he was a scary communist zealot. Now Barry K. Bernal makes him an expedient turncoat whose only zeal is for Kim -- a dull, soap-opera diminution...
...Short bursts of orchestral music which punctuate the vocals are invariably marred by sloppy entrances and exits. The players are tentative on softer passages and overpowering on louder ones. The off-stage chorus, microphoned in, is almost always off-balance and off-sync, and the vocal "jazz trio" is dull and lifeless...
...plan on a long life. As a boy, he toyed with suicide, employing, among other means, a dull knife, hay-fever drops and a mild overdose of aspirin; he also survived several sessions of Russian roulette. Grown older, evidently in spite of himself, he left his native England as often as possible to court danger and disease, wherever and whenever they might prove most virulent: Africa, Mexico, Indochina, Cuba, Haiti, Central America. None of these places killed him; instead they furnished material for many of his more than 50 books, including novels, short story collections, travel writings, plays, essays, autobiography...
Mulford's production hints at the creativity which could have made Hamlet exceptional. Unfortunately, the abandonment of these ideas early in the play renders the remainder dull and leaves the audience wondering why a truly innovative staging...