Word: secret
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...know the answers, because the facts behind the confession are secret. Which would be fine, if we could trust the Administration to keep secret only that which should be secret. Then we could take the confession at face value. But we can't, or at least shouldn't, and two recent cases show...
...characters were impetuous and emotional, and they followed an inscrutable logic, but their strange dialogues belied a sophisticated self-consciousness of the artistic enterprise in play throughout “The Secret Lives of Umbrellas...
...dialogue of “The Secret Lives of Umbrellas” often evoked the banter between Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” full of rapid-fire exchanges and comic misunderstandings. But where Beckett took on themes like salvation and the human condition, Benjamin’s play sidestepped anything too poignant...
...consciously rejecting any strong, global, unifying factor, and in refusing to humanize its characters, “The Secret Lives of Umbrellas” made it impossible to empathize with the characters of the play. Effectively, it condemned itself to frivolity. This fact was not exactly a defect—it seemed to be a fundamental characteristic of Benjamin’s vision—but she has still curiously prevented her work from attaining a sense of depth...
...defiance of traditional theater aesthetics, “The Secret Lives of Umbrellas” took a lot of risks—which on balance was quite admirable, especially for a student-written work. But the play’s spectacle of amusing incoherence was certainly not for everyone. At times the characters even seemed to acknowledge its radical sense of humor, explaining, “Anyone can say anything. You should...