Word: raphaels
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...cast does fairly well in demanding roles. Prascak's script calls for difficult switches between disparate modes--such as clever word play and campy melodrama--and the actors always maintain their composure. Especially good were Bader and Adam Hyman, who played Raphael, Death's assistant. Although the procession of scenes was somewhat disjointed and hasty, an intervening week of rehearsals has probably smoothed many of the difficulties...
...rare to find a large cast show that works," says Charles H. Raphael '88, who plays the title role in this show. Raphael, who was on the mainstage earlier this season in Lie of the Mind, said this production was one of the most fun he had ever worked on. And he credited this to Hainsworth and the producers "for setting a friendly yet serious tone for the show." Many other actors agree...
...production. Hainsworth has worked hard to create the atmosphere of Chicago in the roaring twenties. To bring the cast together and to help people get into the period, the director screened gangster movies and Third Reich documentaries in his room every week. And he worked closely with Raphael to get the actor to emulate Hitler's mannerisms...
...then there are the requisite Shepard characters. There is Jake (Chad Raphael), the Violent Drifter, who has just beaten his wife, Flighty But Passionate Beth (Heather Gunn), so mercilessly that he thinks he has killed her. Their respective families run to their aid. On Jake's side there's his Loyal But Timid brother Frankie (Daniel Hurewitz), his Embittered sister Sally (Diane Paulus), and his Oedipally Overnurturing Mother Lorraine (Susan Schwartz). Their counterparts in Beth's family are her Vengeful brother Mike (Sam Sifton), her Death-Obsessed Hunter father Baylor (Jon Tolins), and her Fearful And Self-Deluding mother...
...only thing that mars these otherwise solid performances is the actors' tendency to adopt a certain gesture or mannerism and repeat it over and over, as if Director Fred Pletcher had told his cast that nervous tics make characters more human. As a result, Raphael slicks his hair back, Hurewitz stammers like James Stewart, Paulus taps her foot, Bader walks around with her hands folded in her lap, and Tolins picks the wax out of his ear with his pinky and bellows, "Hehhehhehheh," like Jackie Gleason snapping at Audrey Meadows. All this becomes annoying quickly...