Word: reardon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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While Paul Zindel is not on a writing par with Miller or Williams, he and his characters have a joint account, both retributive and alchemistic, and draw most of their dramatic funds from the memory bank. In his new play, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, Zindel seems to be overdrawn at the memory bank. His wacky humor is present, along with his abrupt pathos, a way he has of pulling the rug out from under the heart, and his frequently well-honed dialogue. But under it all, the plot, point, purpose and direction of the play seem to have...
PAUL ZWINDEL with his second play. And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, has accomplished what another quasi-literary rising playwright. Tom Stoppard, failed to. He has emerged from his The Effect of Gamma Ray on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds success off-Broadway last season with a phenomenally entertaining tragi-comedy about two sisters, both spinster school teachers, at war with themselves and with their hard-boiled, married and successful sister Ceil. The combination at work in this production of superb acting, smooth, carefully thought-out direction, and clever, deftly turned dialogue makes the finished product well nigh irresistible. Estelle...
That last superlative should be toned down a bit with the reminder that, whatever Miss Reardon is or pretends to be, it is not serious theater. Paul Zwindel sidestepped the lachrymose aspects of the old maid's condition, and he placed a buoyant comic balloon in the middle of this short play (presented in an hour and a half with no intermission). The arrival of Ceil for a hostile dinner with Catherine and Anna sets loose a welter of tensions and animosities. Anna, you see, has "flipped," committed a sexual act, undefined but traumatic, with an adolescent hoodlum...
...Jewish furniture dealer in The Price -and still wound up with a play soberly moralistic-Zwindel hit on a similar expediency to substitute mirth for nerve-frazzling catharsis: Fleur Stein, portrayed with knowing New York Jewish brashness by Rae Allen, shows up unexpectedly with her husband at the Reardon sisters' apartment to deliver a get-well present from the faculty to the outcast Anna. Fleur, however, has in mind a more devious mission. She knows that Ceil Adams might help her get a certificate as a regular guidance counselor if she can promise to hush unpleasant particulars about Anna...
...Miss Reardon reaches its apotheosis as entertainment during the Stein's visit, an event which at first seems so peripheral that its very prolongation, with Fleur and Bob making repeated moves toward the door, but encountering repeated delays in departure, generates a sort of comical unlikeliness. Julie Harris has her chance to pierce the vulgar invaders with insights and wit, surprisingly lucid coming as they do from the ingrown neurotic. Estelle Parsons prepares a special fruit "frappe" according to vegetarian specifications, sips her Manhattan and uses her considerable vocabulary to vent general anger and disgust. When Anna tells Fleur that...