Word: sergius
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...never apologize," says Sergius in Arms and the Man. Neither, apparently, does Mr. Andropov. Why? It will not do to pin it on "Communist morality," or the lack of it. The People's Republic of China shot down a British airliner on July 23, 1954, killing ten of the 18 passengers. The Chinese took responsibility for the incident, explained that they had mistaken the airliner for a Taiwanese military aircraft, and offered compensation. Why couldn't the Soviets do the same...
...light rain is falling upon the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius in Zagorsk. The monastery stands behind a fortress wall, half a mile around and 50 ft. thick, that protects the weathered stones and ancient relics of Trinity Cathedral. It is graduation day at the most important of the Soviet Union's three surviving Russian Orthodox seminaries. The 78 graduates, clad in black tunics and trousers, take their places in the cathedral before the ornate screen, hung with treasured icons, that separates the sanctuary from the congregation. Hundreds of candles shimmer against the gold and silver on the walls...
...Sergius is an awesome assertion of a man with an uncompromising attachment to his heroic and romantic fustian. Rather than concede that his "higher love" for Raina is just or that his battlefield maneuvers are empty-headed, the idealist Sergius breaks down and crows cynically that the world is a hollow sham and life a farce. As Sergius, Timothy Cunningham and his perpetual scowl of a face execute the finest performance in the Loeb production. Cunningham brings to the role a pair of eyes that the properties manager could only have obtained from a ping-pong table...
...leads life "sensibly," or as Raina says at first, "with a low, shop-keeping mind," without staking itself to any lofty principle. Fifteen years of experience in war has taught Bluntschli that the most important principle is to save one's skin, and when the mortally offended Sergius ("Our romance is shattered") demands to meet him at sundown with his sabre, the Swiss submits bluntly that he will bring a machine gun. Clark plays the chocolate cream soldier competently if monotonously, as a debonair impostor. He is forever raising his eyebrows to convince the audience of his nonchalance...
ANOTHER SHAVIAN hero here is the shrewd servant Louka (played convincingly by Roberta Dahlberg) who without pondering irrelevantly about higher love, cashes in on Sergius's moral earnestness to gain a betrothal. Stephen Kolzak turns in a priggish performance as the servile servant Nicola. The casting that sets the tone for the production, however, is that of hulking Tom Shea and lisping Lois Pike as Raina's parents. They are real bulls in the china shop...