Word: melodrama
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...Heiress is more broadly embraceable than James's work, the reason may be that its authors, Ruth and Augustus Goetz, have streamlined and softened a brittle, merciless story into something like exquisite melodrama. The characters, for whom James himself had little affection, have more obvious motivations (the extreme foregrounding of Dr. Sloper's grief for his wife, for example) and higher tides of emotional exclamation ("He must love me, someone must want me," Catherine yells. "I have never had that!"). Moreover, the authors don't ignore that dictum of audience-pleasing, "Let the underdog have her day." In fact, though...
...revenge melodrama that makes Hamlet pale in comparision. Set in ancient Rome, it traces the conflict between returning military hero Titus Andronicus (Padriac O'Reilly '98) and the late Emperor's son, Saturninus (Henry Clarke '00), to whom Titus cedes the throne. Trouble arises when Saturninus marries Tamora (Danielle Sherrod), Queen of the subjugated Goths, after being turned down by Titus' daughter, Lavinia, who instead marries Saturninus' younger brother Bassianus (Jesse Conrad '00). For Tamora bears a grudge against Titus and his sons for executing her own eldest son and is determined to seek vengeance. Various complications, and a great...
...what is individualistic about a Million Man March or a Promise Keepers' gathering? There is none of the melodrama to it that we associate with introspection or life-changing decision-making. We tend to think of individual choices as private choices, made in the security of our homes or in close conversation. It is hard to imagine resolving to be a good dad at a rock concert...
...subsequent controversy roiled artists, politicians, the A.C.L.U., the courts and editorial writers, who saw in it the clash of titanic forces.The villain in the melodrama was the government. It can haul you before congressional committees and ruin your career, as it did to the Hollywood Ten. It can threaten you with jail time on trumped-up charges, as it did to the Chicago Seven. It can bar you from going to your local high school, as it did to the Little Rock Nine...
...their never-a-dull-moment playing commands our astonished attention. You almost feel that if you let it wander for an instant, someone would reach out from the screen and slam you with a two-by-four. At the same time, you are aware that they are shoving this melodrama of class and manners uncomfortably close to farce and robbing the story's ending of its quietly stated force...