Word: satanic
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...would be unjust to leave Milton without speaking of his greatest work--and of a marvelous capsule analysis of the motivations of one of its characters. "Satan in Paradise Lost," one exam perceived, "is what Milton would have liked to have been if he hadn't gone blind." But then, this bit of biographical lore doesn't seem so bad when compared with the identification of Hogarth as Beowulf's grandfather...
Tynan's indictment of the play itself was forcefully seconded in The Village Voice by Jerry Tallmer, who added a few salvos of his own. Said he, "It is, in the kindest of all possible considerations, a big windy non-drama about God, Satan, and Job retold rather in the manner of such movies as Since You Went Away and The Best Years of Our Lives," and "written in what is also a sort of Hollywood verse." His reaction to the production, furthermore, was only lukewarm. Henry Hewes (Saturday Review) dismissed J.B. as "just an inconclusive effort...
...roles of God and Satan are currently taken by Raymond Massey and Christopher Plummer, respectively. Each of them has one of the most glorious voices of his generation, and each uses it with optimum effect. They are both on stage from beginning to end, though they remain silent for long periods of time. But they know how to project their presence even then, for they are both masters of what Ethel Barrymore has called "perhaps the highest art of an actor--the art of beautiful listening...
...also a restatement of it, and, in a double sense, it is a theater piece. The action takes place inside a night-lit circus tent where a sideshow Job has been performing. Two out-of-work actors, Mr. Zuss and Nickles, toy with the Biblical masks of God and Satan they find lying around, and try speaking the roles. Suddenly they are aware of a voice from outside them, are caught up in a story near at hand...
Hingle (as J.B.), Raymond Massey as Mr. Zuss (the balloon salesman who plays God), Nan Martin as J.B.'s wife, and Christopher Plummer as Nickels (the popcorn vendor who portrays Satan) are all excellent. Boris Aronson's set is magnificent; Miss Ballard's costumes catch the proper blend of the gaudy and grotesque; David Amram's music and Tharon Musser's lighting lend almost surrealistic overtones to the drama. And Kazan ringmasters his menagerie with the genius which has earned him his reputation...