Word: showing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...seems pretty obvious that in any discussion of the various methods whereby the crafty student attempts to show the grader that he knows a lot more than he actually does, the vague generality is the key device. A generality is a vague statement that means nothing by itself, but when placed in an essay on a specific subject might very well mean something to a grader. The true master of a generality is the man who can write a 10-page essay, which means nothing at all to him, and have it mean a great deal to anyone who reads...
WNYC, the New York station that at first had agreed to sponsor it, has now decided not to air it. And although another station has promised to show the documentary sometime in the fall, that will be nearly a year after the film's completion...
Cottingham's first-act sarcasm is brutally funny, and the show moves along nicely under Brent Eller's direction. The plot is perfectly symmetrical. Will Susan choose reality with a family that doesn't love her, bland Marsala wine and a black lunch table? Or will she opt for the illusory world of dreams, champagne, a family that treats her like a goddess and a pristine white table with fine china? We feel for Cottingham, who has captured Susan's despairing loneliness and repression behind her cynical facade...
...Murphy, John Ducey and Valerie Mulhern, who play the imaginary husband, brother and daughter respectively get funnier as the show loses its comprehensibility. Their comic timing is especially good in the puppeteer scenes, where these apparitions induce Susan to do their bidding...
However, Cottington's refined dramatic skills and subtle comic timing hold the show together as she edges towards full-fledged paranoia...