Word: plot
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...plot, which was designed to give the Magnani physiognomy a full workout, concerns a troupe of Italian actors in a Spanish colony in 18th century South America. As Camilla, the troupe's earthy and impetuous leading lady, Miss Magnani wins the love of the colony's viceroy, who is understandably bored with the elegant dullness of his court. He tries to give her his golden coach as a present, but the local nobility objects, and finally Camilla herself must save him his viceroyalty by sacrificing the coach to the Bishop, who seems to be the colony's real boss anyway...
...undertaking is nevertheless impressive, and it may be precisely the author's faithfulness to James which makes the play disappointing. Retaining almost all the characters of the novel, he in effect accepts a synopsis as his plot. The result is a heavy burden of exposition, which slows the first act hopelessly and blurs the dramatic focus of the play. More important, while the genius of James as a novelist surmounted awkward handling of dialogue, it is almost wholly from that dialogue--often stiff and opaque--that Archibald has fashioned his play. He might better have interpolated passages in which James...
...plot concerns a so-called "Collateral Campaign" to celebrate the Austro-Hungarian Emperor's 70th jubilee. The campaign grinds along like a slow bus to nowhere. Committees beget committees, pressure groups stall each other in what one critic described as the dance of rainmakers who have lost their magic. The ruling class sketched by Author Musil has lost not only its magic, but its faith in God, its fear of the Devil and its confidence in itself. It has opinions but no convictions, techniques but no principles, ideals but no beliefs. In short, its troubles may be more timely...
...presenting the clash between psychologist and priest, one of the author's favorite themes, The Living Room makes use of both dialogue and symbolic plot. Barbara Bel Geddes, as Rose Pemberton, plays a young Catholic caught between the demands of her faith and her desire to remain the mistress of a middle-aged psychologist. Attempting to influence her decision are, quite naturally, the psychologist (Michael Goodliffe) and the priest (Walter Fitzgerald...
With its bent for philosophy, The Living Room is a difficult vehicle for the cast, especially since the plot is barely plausible. Greene has added to the difficulty by placing most of his dramatic scenes in one overloaded act. The first part of the second act contains in this order: an hysterical scene between Rose and her aunts, an hysterical scene between Rose and the psychologist's wife, an hysterical scene between Rose and the priest, and finally her suicide...