Word: machina
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...perform ballet steps. As Cinderella, Larissa Ponomarenko embodies innocence and beauty in their most graceful forms. She maneuvers through intricate steps and pirouettes with great spirit and energy. Equally graceful is the Prince (Patrick Armand), whose powerful leaps and emotional style lift him above the one-dimensional deux-es-machina role that he usually plays in other versions. Both the Dancing Master (Robert Wallace) and the Fairy Godmother (Kyra Strasberg) perform their roles with grace and dignity. Each of the Four Seasons and Cavaliers also dance with a deft combination of stunning beauty and breath-taking strength. In particular, Pollyana...
...have a thinking machine is to invent a definition of thought that fits whatever it is that your machine does. Then, if this definition is too close to what humans do, you have only to invent another, safer definition of what humans do. This sort of deus ex machina should ease the philosophical anxiety surrounding the whole argument...I think. STAN SEARS Los Angeles...
...examples of such genuine, integrity-destroying evil, he offers racism and genocide. Thus the Nazi operative couldn't be a man of integrity, no matter how much "discerning" he engages in, because genocide is just, well, over the top. But evil, in Integrity, seems a pretty makeshift deus ex machina. If, for example, racism is such a self-evident no-no, then why not sexism--including any attempt to restrict women's reproductive choices? Or, a pro-lifer could argue, if genocide is evil, then why not abortion? This is where the handshakes end and the howitzers come...
...story line remains basically the same as that of the classic play: four star-crossed lovers run away to a forest inhabited by fairies. Thanks to the Fairy King's mischevious helper Puck, the mortal lovers become even more discombobulated and frantic until the deux-es-machina ending. Meanwhile, the Fairy King squabbles with Queen Titania over custody of their child until Puck's spell causes the queen to temporarily fall in love with Bottom the Ass, a man with the head of a donkey. Once all the confusion subsides, however, a very happy ending ensues...
Despite a few amusing gags, Martin's invention flags midway through Picasso. The play waits for a deus ex machina. And it gets one in Elvis, who materializes as a spectral time traveler come to discuss the shape of the 20th century with the people of Paris. What follows--the culmination of the play--is an enchanting vista, as Einstein and Picasso and Presley stand contemplating the stars. Where are we headed? The heavens are dark; the light is supernal; and the unlikely trio brings a pair of provocative messages. One: the old order is doomed; everything we live...