Word: hooping
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Throughout the show it's always hard to remember there's anyone onstage except the leading lady. She charms you in the pink hoop skirts and ruffled lace of the lady in court; she practically seduces you in the bodkin and tights of the forester; and, then, in the chaste white of her wedding gowns, she melts you. Elizabeth Bergner, in the movie, was flighty enough for the forest scenes; but Hepburn was even more light-footed and still human too. Bergner was a haughty Rosalind; Hepburn just seemed to be in love...
...Indian dancers are reasonably interesting. Tony White Cloud (sic) leads them through the eagle, buffalo, war, horsetail, and hoop dances and Tony winds up revolving four hoops at once around various parts of his body. The costumes here are brilliant, but just how authentic White Cloud and his cronies are is anybody's guess...
...about Bach than any Wellesley generation before them. They are coldly practical about some things, but will gladly dress themselves up as toy dolls, rabbits or gypsies for annual Tree Day. They are fearful of seeming too girlish, but will happily make themselves look aged 13 running their annual hoop race. Wealthy girls pretend to be living on a shoestring; grinds pretend to be ladies of leisure. To be fashionable, one must be casual...
...Iron Hoop presents itself as the story of any occupation after any war. The conquered are represented by "The Hero," an aging visionary; Bud, a sex-happy racketeer; Paul, a boy trying to do the man's work of revolution, and his sister Anna, the eternal fraulein. The conquerors include a commanding general whose rifle-cracking speech sounds borrowed from George Patton; the general's rare-do-well nephew, who keeps his wife in a nervous sweat and Anna in a little apartment, and a Congressman who bellows in public to inspect the security files, and pants...
...story moves swiftly to a climax in which Hero & friends fail, like Boy Scouts trying to crank a tank, to bring about the first sputter of a revolution. At its best, The Iron Hoop reads like a somber farce. Otherwise it has the curious distinction of being readable and interesting without evoking the slightest sympathy for any of its characters...