Word: manically
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NONE of Prascak's productions have been marvels of polish--their appeal has had to do mostly with manic humor and risk-taking. In Orphee, the small stage in the Kronauer Space not only limits the action, it also limits the actors. On opening night, at least, the players showed some awkwardness maneuvering around the table and chairs. It didn't help the smooth flow of the show that guardian angel Carleton, due to unfortunate (and bizarre) circumstances, had to hop about in a cast. The handicap did, however, contribute to the dramatic tension--will...
There are a few living American artists whose latest show one would always feel eager to see. Susan Rothenberg is high on the list. At 42 she has survived the cultural gorge-and-puke of the early '80s, the manic starmaking and the pressure on immature talent -- all due, presumably, to wither in the hangover from the bull market. Rothenberg's anxious but unhurried cast of mind was somehow fortified in the pressure cooker. Her current show at New York City's Sperone Westwater gallery (through Nov. 14) is in some respects her best...
...doesn't overdo her star quality, either, avoiding the seductive trap of a 1940s melodrama performance. Even lines like "We're all in hell. And the madhouses are the only places where people know they're in hell" aren't too offensive coming from her--she has a sincerely manic edge to her that justifies her triteness...
...naming his pieces: Ruckus Manhattan, Ruckus Rodeo. His tableaux fairly burst with riotous energy. In them, Jean Dubuffet's idea of making an art raw enough to stand up to the chaos of the street comes home to roost. Every Grooms surface pullulates with caricatural figures, each impacted with manic cartoony verve, rendered as layered plywood cutouts, as silhouettes, as stuffed dolls, as shadows. The detail is never hard to read, and one does not get lost in it, because Grooms sticks to the things everyone has heard of -- the cow that started the Chicago fire, Little Egypt gyrating, Cyrus...
...physically and sexually, living it up on her earnings while denying her even a mirror because it might make her vain. Yet Duke, 40, forgives them because they also made her an actress -- the craft that sustained her through four marriages, unwed motherhood and repeated suicide attempts triggered by manic-depressive illness that remained undiagnosed until her middle 30s. She looks back not in anger or self-pity but with generosity of spirit...