Word: nicking
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Going Ape by Nick Hall. Five doors do not a Feydeau farce make. But in this world premiére, Playwright Nick Hall, 30, must be credited with the right source of inspiration. One wishes he had stuck more tenaciously to the great French farceur and depended less on college humor and parodies of old '40s movies. However, Going Ape is truly zany. The hero, Rupert Yaeggi (Dennis Michaels), is a kind of Candide in reverse. He has decided that this is the worst of all possible worlds, and he has opted to commit suicide...
Simply put, the main action of the play is the emasculation of a prototype New England small college professor of history as performed by his wife followed shortly thereafter by her emotional annihilation. Round after round of George vs. Martha actively involves Nick and Honey, a young married couple who spend the entire evening entertained by their baffling hosts. They are introduced to such favorite American pastimes as "Get the Guests" and "Hump the Hostess". Honey hasn't the stomach for the escapades and finally curls up in a fetal position on the bathroom floor. While Nick has leapt, feet...
Colleen Dewhurst and Ben Gazzara as Martha and George leer endearingly throughout with maddening control, periodically exploding barrages of verbal fire into vulnerable areas. Their conspiratorial magic transforms metaphysical ping-pong into a cooing and spitting that is pleasing to watch. Richard Kelton as Nick embodies the American Dream to a tee and he plays it with telling emphasis on the ruthlessness of youthful ambition. Maureen Anderman handles what is probably the most difficult role in the play without succumbing to the temptation of making Honey a one-dimensional hysteric...
...They'll complement each other," senior Nick Tepe said yesterday. "Matt will provide the cool, and John will supply the emotion...
...would have been both pleasant and salutary to see a film about a good match prevailing against the odds-sort of like seeing a re-release of a Nick and Nora Charles picture. But it would have required the wit and style that informed the inexpensively made Thin Man films and other light, sophisticated romances, some of which starred Lombard herself. These qualities, once so readily found in American movies, have now vanished. A cloddish script slams at us single-entendre jokes about sex. Doltish direction hammers them home with the sweaty desperation of a bad nightclub comic whose...