Word: magically
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...play. Besides imbuing the queen with the characteristics usually assigned to her--pride, haughtiness, allure--McEwen's Titania is also marvelously ferocious: the actress adds an unabashed sexual aggressiveness and a cuttingly sarcastic sense of humor. Burke, in a less flamboyant but perhaps more richly-textured performance, works similar magic with Oberon. As the proud, ironic, fiercely stub-born and dangerous fairy king, he is also able to laugh at himself--a trait which, besides adding depth and likeability to this too-often-stodgy character, also opens the way to much humorous stage inter-action with his mercurial messenger, Puck...
...production is also quite successful in creating an atmosphere of beauty and enchantment in its scenes of fairy magic. This is due in large part to skillfull staging and choreography, but much credit is also due to the graceful work of the minor players in Oberon and Titania's court. Nick Parrillo '99 gives an intriguing performance in the key role of Puck, the fairy messenger of Oberon and the meddling instigator of much of the trouble in the wood. Puck, who also serves an important narrative function in the play, is usually portrayed as a mischievous, high-powered figure...
...harassed "director" of his unruly band of actors. But the leader of the group, Becca Lowenhaupt '99, gives what may be the play's most brilliant performance in her side-splittingly funny portrayal of Bottom, the headstrong and histrionic weaver who accidentally becomes ensnared in the web of fairy magic permeating the forest and winds up with the infamous ass's head...
...spontaneous, and it is unmatched in human life. Relationships, however, start with a tension--if we weren't initially related, how did we become so?--and represent a struggle ever after. They are a constant fight to "work things out, to talk things over." There is no magic, and there certainly is no lasting impression on our lives. There is only tidiness, which our generation apparently desires more than passion...
...This At Home. The Harvard Magic Society provides entertainment "not appropriate for young children." Tickets: $5, students, available at Sanders Box Office. Agassiz Theater...