Word: maxed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...really have the answer? The attempts of generations of scientists to find out have made Fermat's Last Theorem the El Dorado of math problems. Now, at long last, an assistant professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University seems to have broken the code. Last month at Bonn's Max Planck Institute, Yoichi Miyaoka, 38, sketched out his answer on a blackboard for fellow mathematicians...
...first scene establishes the play's mood of underlying despair and over-hanging wit. Max accuses his wife Charlotte of infidelity, disputing her claim that she has just returned from a Geneva art auction. Due to Stoppard's cunning, his ambiguous lines refer to either her new lover or her trip. "How's old Geneva then? Frank doing well?" "What?" Charlotte asks. "The Swiss Franc. Is it doing well?" They refuse to address the crisis at hand. Instead, Max digresses on apparently far-out topics which actually parallel the scene's conflict, a technique Stoppard uses and overuses later...
...following scene makes clear that the opening exchange comes from a play written by Henry (Alan Thomas). Characters and relationships overlap from Stoppard's play to the plays within: Charlotte is Henry's wife and plays her on stage; Max is Henry's friend and plays Henry himself. But this fusion of life and art deadens the characters' emotions and makes them self-conscious and evasive...
...first act features almost faultless portrayals of people who do not think but react and take the offensive gracefully. As Henry, Thomas rocks back and forth on his heels. Annie (Molly M. Hoagland) smiles coquettishly and imbues her desire for Henry in all her actions. Max (David McConaughy), the most formulated and differentiated character until then, balances a physical awkwardness with a staid demeanor. Charlotte (Leslie Powell) keeps her nose well in the air. Only rarely do the actors resort to cliched symbols of annoyance, like Powell wrenching her face or Hoagland melodramatically crossing...
...Alois built and now runs. A ski racer himself, Alois quit when a younger brother died after a ski fall, but it was he who first encouraged Pirmin to race. Pirmin's girlfriend Moni Julen, a pretty, dark-haired ski instructor from Zermatt, is a cousin of his friend Max and is accepted as part of this tight, protective mountain clan, which includes Heidi, 20, his younger sister and a downhiller on the national team. As a teenager, Pirmin spent a year cooking in the hotel kitchen, and now, during a short Christmas break, Mama Ida joshes contentedly that bookings...