Word: fidelia
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...near-tragic character of Fidelia, in love with the hero Manly, yet forced to conceal her feelings and her sex, has the power to make or break the play. Sarah Jane Lithgow's sensitive portrayal draws out of a potentially melodramatic part all the tragic irony of this single pure character, as she follows her rough and faithless lover through a world in which she clearly has no part. There is nothing comic in the character of a woman who is forced, in the guise of a man, to woo another woman on behalf of the man she loves...
Brad Kent, as the "unmannerly sea-dog" and hero Manly, snarls and grimaces his way through the first four acts. Rarely varying either tempo or tone, he renders the not-so-despicable hero totally unbearable. His sudden transformation into the future husband of the victimized Fidelia is, as a result, anything but credible. Both the irony and tragedy of Manly's character are lost in a flood of rage...