Word: plays
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...fate. Hers is a willful, self-righteous strength gloating over weakness in others; hers is a puritan nature full of repressed sexuality and cankering resentments, and the conviction that what has happened is retribution for sin. Seen as a pathological figure, Margaret is valid and often effective. Moreover, the play highlights how abnormal she is by setting her against a blowzy, easygoing neighbor woman and a sane and knowledgeable neighborhood doctor. Yet, even in Siobhan McKenna's severe, unbending portrayal, Margaret seems something other than a dispassionate psychological study. Playwright Wishengrad has identified her with something in life itself...
...this leads to a lessened response toward the characters, and to a confusion of values in the play. What exactly is east, and what is west, in Wishengrad's pessimistic geography? What is pathology, and what is sin, and what is determinism? In any case, the more he tries to expand or universalize, the more special seems his story...
...fancily tragic, The Rope Dancers is nowhere facilely sentimental; it nowhere stoops to conquer. And beyond a certain feeling for character, 43-year-old Playwright Wishengrad in his first play has his own determined way of looking at things. Once he sees only what is there, it should prove rewarding...
Even the parent who decides on more conventional, nonmilitary toys will still have to deal with mechanized wonders, such as Knickerbocker's battery-powered organ ($12.95), on which a child can learn to play such simple tunes as Oh! Susanna, Noel and Home, Sweet Home. This year's line of autos includes Louis Marx's battery-driven car ($23.95) which can be ridden by children from i^ to six, and Ideal's clear-plastic model ($14.95), complete with electrical and differential systems, operating pistons and fan belt-130 parts in all for a parent to help...
Last week Goldwyn finally admitted that he had come up against some baffling opposition: a quiet boycott of the movie by what Daily Variety called "top Negro entertainers." Among Negro performers, shrugged Goldwyn, "I have found a certain fear that this play may not be good for their race...