Word: musts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Mature Chekhov is unbelievably difficult to do well in performance. Amateur productions can almost always be counted on to fail; professional productions fail far more often than not. This Three Sisters, as directed by Michael Kahn, must be adjudged a success; only one of the leading roles comes off less than satisfactorily...
Chekhov once wrote of playwriting "in which people arrive, go away, have dinner, talk about the weather, and play cards. Life must be exactly as it is, and people as they are--not on stilts.... Let everything on the stage be just as complicated, and at the same time just as simple as it is in life." This is a prescription for utter naturalism; and, if followed exactly, it would yield only tedium...
...with its illogicalities, its wandering directions, its repetitions; but he was skillful enough to infuse it with a marvelous rhythm and a sort of poetic evocativeness. (This technique strongly affected the plays of our own O'Neill, Odets, and Hellman.) The director and the players--and, indeed, the audience-- must be able to catch unspecified implications, to apprehend not so much what is said as what is consciously or subconsciously thought and not said. In addition, Chekhov has woven a host of verbal and tangible symbols into his texture, which makes the result richer than any mere slice-of-life...
...life, no energy, and no enthusiasm. Each movement was stodgy, and movements two and three positively died at the end. The cellist performed rather well. Unfortunately the violinist was sadly out of tune. The biggest single complaint I would register against the performance was lack of ensemble. Notes must not only be played in sequence linearly but the parts must line up vertically as well. The rhythmic impression stole the vitality from a piece already somewhat lacking in rhythmic interest...
...state must rely solely on the social workers to bring attention to the program. Since there have been only 1955 referrals since October--which would fill only two-thirds of the available slots--the workers have obviously failed...