Word: factly
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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This is the piece of human garbage that Peter Lempert is given to play, and, with the exception of a number of scenes where he is just a bit too hysterical, he plays them well. Despite the fact that Dustin Hoffman popularized the role, Lempert's Zoditch is so real, with his thin face, his pointed nose, his beady little eyes, and a body and limbs that curl and twist like those of a man old before his time, that it is virtually impossible to imagine anyone else in the part. What Lempert does best is comedy, and, though Zoditch...
...small. His eminence and influence have come, really, from only four plays--the last four: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, and The Cherry Orchard. It is not correct, as often claimed, that Chekhov became interested in the theatre only in his last years. In his youth, in fact, he enjoyed quite a reputation as an actor in both professional and non-professional undertakings, which gave him a good deal of practical knowledge of the stage...
...there is another movement afoot. For a number of years now, a friend of mine--something of a neo-classicist himself--has been adamant in insisting that a New Romanticism is upon us. I've rarely argued the point with him, for one can hardly be unaware of the fact that we (the Now Generation, right?) are entering a new era (the Age of Aquarius, of course) where all we really need is Love. All perfectly obvious. The Four-Gated City, however, is persuasive evidence that the New Romanticism, properly so-called, goes a lot further than just the celebration...
...still playing the same Jamesian game of placing bets on the resolution of the future. When rational, we are, of course more skeptical. Only now we are even less inclined to pretend we are making our choices on anything like rational grounds. No, instead we accept the fact that our psychology drives us toward accepting the "irrational" as the only possible solution. Since I know little of odds-making I have no idea how probable or improbable this novel's prognosis for history is. But, as provocative reading in a new, developing genre, The Four-Gated City is anything...
...part, the answer lies in the fact that this is a time of troubles for Cambridge. Long established neighborhoods--cohesive communities with churches, bars, and candy stores all their own--are being threatened by a host of outside forces--the proposed Inner Belt highway, the new NASA center, and above all, an influx of new, would-be residents who are soaking up housing and driving up rents. People do literally get thrown out of their homes in Cambridge though, it must be admitted, how many do is not known...