Word: oddness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Until now. Shepard, 42, last week unveiled A Lie of the Mind, the newest, longest (3 hours 45 minutes) and best of his 40-odd plays. Staged off-Broadway by the playwright, Lie superficially resembles yet another Shepardian slice of life among borderline psychotics of the underclass. It opens with the confession of an uncontrollably jealous man (Harvey Keitel) who has beaten his innocent wife (Amanda Plummer) and left her for dead. Before it is over, characters have been shot, pummeled, enslaved and murdered. Yet the play's real action is a coming to terms with the past...
Instead of cutting this classic Grinch material, they could have, God forbid, cut other parts more easily. The beginning part with the outlandish but stupid Who-toys with odd-sounding but easy-to-make-up names is possibly better left out. Little Cindy Lou Who who is (still) no more than two is not everyone's favorite character (too cute). And for die-hard Scrooges, the Grinch's self-righteous turn-around at the end is most unfortunate. But as this is the "message" of the story, maybe it has to stay...
...influence on Soviet policy. Witness a statement by Dr. John O. Pastore, the group's secretary: "We intend to use the receipt of the Nobel Prize to do more and actually affect both sides." This sounds great; but how to get the Soviets to listen? Lown himself experiences odd swings between proclaiming an apolitical stance ("above politics from the inception...") and admitting his desire to affect national policies. On the same day that he said the group was never intended to be political, Lown declared that he was disappointed with a lack of "success" at the summit on the subject...
When a dubious pass interference call was charged to an aggressive Cabot-North defender in yesterday's house football championship, one of the 70-odd fans screamed to the officials, "Let 'em play the game...
...great style and great charisma, even though the man is a mass of contradictions. He appears on stage as a writer who performs rather than a performer who writes, and he is much more a wit than a philosopher. Yet at the same time, there is that odd, sensitive, moment when he can silence an audience just as well as he can draw applause...