Word: plot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Much better than the movie's plot are its various subplots. Jennifer Elise Cox riotously portrays Jan as a teen-ager with middle-child disorder. She steals every scene she's in. "Everything's always Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" she yells several times. Cox's bizarrely contorted face perfectly communicates the warring voices in Jan's head. At one point, she seeks help from a school counselor (played by Rupaul), who advises her to change her image. The result is Afro-sized. Every head-bouncing exit she makes draws hysterics...
While humorous and enjoyable, Translations ultimately fails to produce a memorable theatrical experience. Its lackluster stars and conflicted plot combine to touch the skin, but not the soul, robbing Friel of his poetic voice without offering a compelling narrative in return...
...plot of Gianni Schicchi turns on the engaging protagonist, a wily peasant who thwarts the rapacious Donati, a family of Florentine landowners, in order to provide his daughter and her lover with the money they need to wed. All of the opera's characters are sharply delineated, with a delicate but mordant touch of satire--the greedy relatives (the Donati), the starry-eyed lover (Rinuccio), and the resourceful swindler (Schicchi...
Both operas are helped by solid productionvalues. The costumes and props are effective,achieving a maximum effect with minimal means. Thespatial organization of the stage is intelligent.In La Rondine especially, the dual centersof action reinforce the parallel plot development...
...stripped-down accompaniment soundrepetitive, and the occasional thinness ofPuccini's idiom, denuded of its instrumentalsparkle, is betrayed in passages such asRinuccio's aria--eerily reminiscent of Sir ArthurSullivan--or Gianni's unveiling of his plot, whichsmacks of cabaret music...