Word: leni
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...recordings for the "crabs" who will judge mankind in the thirtieth century. He sees no one, and refuses an interview with his father, whom he associates with the family's Nazi background. Even time is kept out of his attic world. The only one who can see him is Leni, his sister, who brings him his meals and loves him incestuously. To keep Frantz for herself, Leni refuses to tell him that his father is to die of throat cancer in six months and wants...
...father takes advantage of the subservience of his younger son, Werner, to free his older son. His first step is to make Werner swear to stay in the family home to take care of Frantz if something happens to Leni. But Johanna, Werner's wife, has seen Werner crushed by his family environment, and she is forced to help the father free Frantz; for only in that way can she free her own husband from the imprisoning commitment...
...what the father doesn't count on, is that Johanna also falls in love with Frantz, believes in his "crabs" more than he does, and perpetuates his isolation. The father then switches alliances, and tells Leni that Johanna has been seeing Frantz. That's when it really hits the fan: Leni tells Johanna of Frantz's past as a torturer; Johanna abandons Frantz; Frantz sees his father and they commit suicide together. Leni takes Frantz's place in the attic...
...have, then, five condemned people: Frantz to his attic and guilt; Leni to her incestuous love; the father to death in six months; Werner to his inferior position as unfavored son; and Johanna to an impossible choice. And they live in a world polarized by the existential isolation of Frantz's attic and the mundane world below. Frantz, to escape his war-time guilt, has tried to assume guilt for all. His rejection of ends-justifies-means ("evil was our only material... Good was the final product. Result: the good turned bad") is almost a Camus-esque rejection of political...
...expected Condemned to be over the actors' heads. Happily, this was not the case. Tom Rosqui is most impressive as he chills the audience with the power and insanity of Frantz's explosive moods. Priscilla Pointer deftly handles the shifts between the confident conniving, insecurity, and subservience' that is Leni. Edward Winter is pathetic enough as Werner, the play's only shallow character. And George Coulouris (not a regular member of the Company) is convincingly imperious as the father...