Word: orton
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Parts of this album evoke aspects of other acts: the clear, warm vocals of Sarah McLachlan, the techno-folk of Beth Orton. Dido even looks a bit like Jewel. Dido's strong, throaty singing, however, distills her influences and makes her sound singular. Her lyrics could be a bit more pointed: "I just want to feel safe in my own skin/ I just want to be happy again" go the rather bland words to Honestly OK. But the real energy in Dido's songs is in the rhythm, in the smooth collision of genres and in the emotional details that...
Nonblack performers are increasingly drawing from rap. Beck expertly combined folk and hip-hop. Hanson's hit MMMBop included deejay scratching. Portishead refashioned hip-hop into ethereal trip-hop. Singer Beth Orton, whose enchantingly moody album Central Reservation is due out in March, blends folksy guitars with samples and beats. Doug Century, author of Street Kingdom: Five Years Inside the Franklin Avenue Posse, studied hip-hop culture as he documented the lives of gang members; he predicts white acts will eventually dominate rap, just as white rockers pushed out rock's black forerunners. "It's possible that in 15 years...
...bizarre events of Orton's true life and death, however, pale in comparison to the plot of this fantastical play, where the line between sanity and psychosis is blotted out past all recognition. It begins with Dr. Prentice (David Waller, '00), a country-sanitarium psychiatrist who attempts to seduce his naive secretary (Kate Taylor, '01) with such subtle lines as, "Take off your stockings; I wish to see what effect your stepmother's death has had on your legs." An unexpected entrance by his nymphomaniac wife (Stephanie Smith, '98) leaves the doctor flustered and the secretary undressed. It is soon...
This tasteful display provides a directcontrast with the outrageous antics occurringonstage. Indeed, this production of Butleris explicitly clear about conveying Orton'soffhand trivializations of incest, alcoholism andbrawny naked men. The characters become undressedas spontaneously as they walk onstage and wheneverthey do manage to redress themselves, it is alwayswith someone else's clothing, and that someone isalways of the opposite sex. This focus on theroaring sex drives of the usually staid Britishgives the audience a voyeuristic thrill inwatching the play. In addition, the number ofphallic jokes that abound in this play are enoughalone to give Freud reason for existence. Withfrenzied movements...
However, by concentrating so much on the sexualdeviances of the characters, a further dimensionof intellectual social commentary beyond thesubject of sex is lost. Orton's play, whileadmittedly poking fun at society's ridiculousapprehensions towards sex, also engages on a levelof social, democratic and metaphysical discourse.This plane is too easily lost in the muddle ofsexual farce as entertainment. But despite theirnarrow focus, the Loeb Ex production of Butlerclearly succeeds at least on this level--it istruly a hilarious and frolicking show.CrimsonLinda S. CuckovichNaked hi-jinks abound in Orton farce...