Word: sade
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...their continuing (and futile) effort to be irreverent and vaguely humorous, the members of AFARM took the names of their "leadership" positions from the Marquis de Sade's novel 120 Years of Sodom. (How trendy, how sophisticated, how culturally elite...
This poor attempt at whimsy is not only not funny, but highly offensive. To borrow these terms from the Marquis de Sade is to ignore his extensive legacy of physical and sexual abuse against numerous innocent women...
...island of sanity in this turbulent pool. With biting zest, he shows perhaps the only real awareness of his surroundings, and thus provides contrast to the rest of his cast--he sets them up expertly, so that their full abberation can be appreciated. David Levine as the Marquis de Sade speaks in such a laggardly, elephantine voice that some of his more intelligent soliloquies of de Sade's perversions sound unconvincing. He lacks the intensity and the wicked gleam in his eye necessary to persuade us he believes in the ideology of pain he espouses. There is a moment...
...woven together some lovely contrasts: in one scene, the cacophonic screaming of 20 maniacs ceases in a split second, and a timid flute melody drifts up into the air like Bambi frightening away Godzilla. The choreography achieves an apt explication of abstract concepts when the three singers illustrate de Sade's case against equality. The "General Copulation" number, however, is a bit too fervent...
...help but wonder whether or not the asylum pretext is a license to disregard the demands of serious acting. The publicity for this show set up something of a false expectation: It's not profound, decadent perversion we get from Marat Sade, but rather sustained novelty and a few snapshots of dementia, something to smile at and walk away from...