Word: flash
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Acts." Act I, setting the stage, presents three characters or archetypes based upon the three sides of Davies's shifting personality. There is Mr. Black, the original altruist and vanguard of the people, who gradually is tranformed into a crazy, tyrannical despot as his power increases. Then there is Flash, a corrupt gangster-like politician currently in power, whose mere presence is a cause for alarm among the people. Finally there is the Tramp, a social dropout who acts as the detached narrator and is probably the character with whom Davies identifies most...
...until Act II that Davies allows the main plot to develop--the rise of Mr. Black and the People's Army and the fall of Flash. Mr. Black capitalizes upon Flash's fall from grace in the public eye to implement his ideal, a kind of brave new world in which all men are artificial robots programmed to run at maximum efficiency. Preservation finds its denouement in Mr. Black's ultimate behaviorial mechanization of Flash, leaving one with many of the same thoughts as did A Clockwork Orange...
...potential difficulty with the theatrical version of Preservation, Ray Davies's simultaneous portrayal of three different characters, was ingeniously side-stepped. On stage, Davies played the role of Flash, while Mr. Black was perfectly portrayed by a haunting, insidious Davies in a film projected onto the stage screen. The grotesque projection of his image and the resounding echo of his voice gave him the quality of an omni-present big-brother figure. The Tramp, though, was dispensed with entirely, an unfortunate necessity, for while his character is not essential to the story, his part included some of the best songs...
Preservation's success lay not only in its faultless presentation, but more importantly in Davies's portrayal of Flash. Flash became three-dimensional, and his characterization included a hedged but still eloquent plea for compassion for the guys with the black hats. Davies's failure to develop Mr. Black's character seemed almost intentional. Mr. Black's distaste for emotion and his calculated and scheming manner made him the perfect model for his vision of a society composed of artificial men. Finally, Davies made sure that Preservation lacked neither melodrama, as in the bit about Flash's dream...
...laugh. Lenny recalled in his autobiography "it was like the flash that I have heard morphine addicts describe, a warm sensual blanket that comes after a cold sick rejection." He was hooked...