Word: pippin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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King Charles, a big barrel of a king and self-acclaimed "giant in the bedroom," snorts that his son need not do anything--Pippin is much too intelligent to be a soldier. "But Louis is such a good boy," snickers Fastrada, "so considerate and brave...
...Pippin eventually decides to match his brother's bravado and joins his father's army. He cannot seem to take army life any more seriously than a game of Risk, and becomes deeply disillusioned when he sees his father and his men look forward to the Visigoth war. To top off the victory, his father announces, "We can rape the women!" Pippin is left somewhat aghast...
...seems a bit much to bear until Pippin's grandmother, Berthe, provides the necessary comic relief. Berthe, played brilliantly by Thelam Carpenter, is a vivacious, sassy old lady who gets up to sing her jazzy number after excoriating the men's war games. "Men and their wars! Sometimes I think men raise flags when they can't get anything else...
...THIS INTERPLAY of tension and relief that saves Pippin time after time just after the viewer thinks the players have gone too far. The magic of Pippin is that--while confronting you with war, sex, disillusionment, love and politics--the play has the perspective to remind its audience that, "after all, this is only a musical comedy...
Sure enough, the staid and stodgy crowd sang along--coat-and-tied respectables and young hipsters alike. The kind of involvement and interest Pippin demands from its audience is a credit to the play's success...