Word: lightness
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...seem to be simple to achieve the proper blend of technology and cynicism, gimmickry and foolishness that the conventional kind of turned-on revue demands. Citing Leven's previous hits, the Boston papers spent a month predicting the same kind of success for the new project. But when the Light Company opened on January 7th, the unanimity that resulted was of another sort. Most critics saw some future for the company, but rejected its first offering as being heavy-handed, unimaginative, and just plain not funny...
...Larry Stark. So, there it all was, right out there in front of the public. Finally, Leven ended the stalemate by accepting more of the financial responsibility. And so--in accord with all the good and noble ideals of peaceful negotiations, rational discourse, and good old showmanship-- The Light Company did go on. But just barely...
LEVEN'S approach to comedy is much more cerebral than The Proposition's frenetic mimickry would suggest. Having left behind the simplicity of his first show, Leven sought in The Light Company a "synthesis of every kind of movement in the theatre: non-objective, abstract, futuristic, surreal. We are to say--look this is a piece of stage, it is not real life. So, let's treat it in a context void of emotional restraints. Let's treat it like a cubist treats a piece of canvas. The Light Company should be a collage- type theatre, allowing a person...
...director's first mistake, however, was not to make the radical direction of the company clear. In fact, the whole project was misnamed. For Leven, The Light Company--obviously referring to its location--alluded to "Plato's whole thing about light, insight, and understanding." But to some of the public it originally sounded more like a trifle full of Gilbert-and-Sullivan freshness, just the right kind of thing to get ways from it all on a Saturday night. Leven and his backers never did figure out where those first few audiences came from. Largely in the 25-30 year...
ANOTHER problem was that The Light Company simply didn't go far enough in the direction that it did take. Leven's original cast and crew walked out in December, charging excessive demands on the part of the director. Their replacements had only eleven days of rehearsal before the show opened. Little use was made of most of the auditorium's electronic equipment. There was no one around who really knew how to utilize all of it. During its first few weeks, the show began to exploit the many available effects. They introduced polarized light; original films would soon...