Word: legging
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Enter Mr. McGrath, with his production of Richard's Cork Leg, a bawdy, bizarre drama of Irish humor and politics. Richard's Leg should have been the foot in the door for a mass audience at the Loeb. To some extent it succeeds, but like a badly coached team, Leg trips over the basics...
...first misstep was choosing Beckett's Play as a filler piece. Richard's Cork Leg is a short play, but a more conventional stopgap than Beckett's artificial attachment might have been found for the Mainstage. Play uses a mere 10 square feet of the vast stage for 30 minutes. During this time, the only action is the motion of a followspot which reveals three actors mysteriously entombed in urns. For no apparent reason, they address the light as if it were in the process of tormenting them. Although the scenario is funny and somewhat chilling the first time through...
...therefore understandable why the lead actor from Richard's Cork Leg lurks outside the theater trying to cajole us into remaining seated through the agonizing performance of Play. Charles Puckette sits and smokes his cigarette, then as the lights dim he sings a song and invites us to sit awhile before he comes on. The fact that he commits numerous theatric no-no's, like talking to the other performers as they wait in the pit, is easily overlooked by the needed hints that he provides of things to come...
...does succeed in making it through Play (and not everyone does), the first act of Richard's Cork Leg is a real treat. The urns from Play are transformed into an old Irish cemetery, soon to be peopled by a very talented group of actors. In the lead role of Cronin, Charles Puckette steals the show, mellowing his character's crass politics and sexuality with a devil-may-care Irish charm. Laura Gonzales, who plays the prostitute Rose of Lima, sings and moves with the sensuality of an Irish Kate Bush. And the song and dance team of Bonnie Prince...
Karpov and his colleagues also hinted at some new flexibility on strategic weapons. Only a month ago they were insisting that no new weapons be added to either nation's strategic arsenal. But now the Soviets have indicated that they might agree to one additional new weapon in each leg of the strategic triad (land-based, seabased and airborne), which would allow the U.S. to proceed with its modernization program...