Word: senelick
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Director Laurence Senelick's fine staging against designer Franco Colavecchia's gray gauze castle walls follows closely Strindberg's instructions but with an updated and perhaps too colloquial translation. David Gullette's swaggering Captain seems too much a continental officer to have to resort to such declasse words as "bullshit." But on his own time Gallette never falters and strikes matches with such extraordinary virtuosity it is surprising he has such a difficult time with his cigar. Darcy Pulliam does nearly as well as Alice and perhaps it was only an echo from the medieval decor that gave some...
POPE BROCK as Jack Sheppard is excellent. He is self-assured and at the same time suitably wide-eved and innocent. David Gullette as the Thief-Taker General scowls meanly and reads his lines with precise meter and intonation. Senelick is good at developing expert character actors; Dribbling Wilf ("a criminal mastermind of the first water"), played by E. Mackenzie, has remarkable facial control and an admirable ability to salivate. The Incredible Porty McFigg (Lawrence F. Uhl) cats glass, strangles rats with his teeth, roars and grunts and pounds in his pornography-painted chest, all with considerable glee...
...honest account of his life is available only from Applebee's, Two entrepreneurs discuss the advertising possibilities of a pair of Sheppard's pants. But this production relies not on satire but rather on slapstick and exaggerated characterization for most of its comic effect, Through gesture, expression, and phrasing, Senelick pushes his stuff up through the curtain call...
...Will Be Tuisted is no exception. It is an entertainment experience in and of itself, demanding little prior knowledge and no future reflection. It does nothing more than allow the audience and cast to have fun. Such an approach to theatre is by its very nature limited. Senelick and his cast are intensely aware of these limits, and for the most part stay within them. The production only falters when it attempts to ascend to purposeless artiness or descend into calculated spontaneity...
Making people laugh for the sake of laughing is easy. Sustaining it for an entire evening is a neat trick. Senelick and his cast perform it admirably. Welcome back, HARPO, it's good to see someone around here who doesn't take himself so seriously...