Word: shrike
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Macy's and Neiman-Marcus, Fiat and Hitachi. Yet Canton is no showcase. The Cantonese do not radiate the physical vitality of most urban Chinese; many are poorly clothed. There are more people milling aimlessly and noisily around than in other Chinese cities. The Pekingese call the Cantonese "shrike-voiced barbarians...
...Eagles, the newest, fastest (top speed: Mach 2.5) and most agile U.S. fighter. Israel's other combat planes (principally F-4 Phantoms and the Israeli-designed Kfirs) are being outfitted with the latest electronic gadgets to aid in night flying missions and foil antiaircraft missiles. The Shrike air-to-surface missile has been deployed to knock out the radars on which antiaircraft batteries depend. In addition, Israel is receiving "smart" bombs, which can be guided onto targets. Still on Jerusalem's shopping list are American RPVs (remotely piloted vehicles), which can counter the Arabs' Russian-built SAMs...
...weak Miss Lonelyhearts tilts the balance of the play in Shrike's favor, and Lorenzo Mariani as the sharp-talking features editor makes the most of it. Poor Miss Lonelyhearts never really stands a chance. Mariani's magnificent presence and resonant voice dominate the stage, as he enunciates West's vision in a way that mixes cynicism with sense. Especially fine is Mariani's handling of Shrike's monologue, in which he relentlessly demonstrates to a bed-ridden Miss Lonelyhearts the futility of traditional means of escape...
ALSO FINE is Margaret Downey as Adele Farnum, Shrike's target. Aided by apt makeup and costuming, she fits comfortably into the '30s atmosphere, capturing well the archness of the classic tease. Miss Lonelyhearts' newsroom colleagues also do a more than adequate job. Derek Pajaczkowski as Ned Gates, "The failure incarnate," swings adroitly between hope and bitterness, and Brian Foley as "Flash" Goldsmith excels at wry faces. Less convincing is Brooke Davida Waxburg's Mrs. Shrike, more fluttery than seductive, while Holly Blatman as Betty--"the typical American girl, well-scrubbed and soft as steel"--labors courageously with the worst...
...this Miss Lonelyhearts succeeds in evoking the supreme negativity of West's vision, Teichmann's occasional soppiness notwithstanding. Because of the peculiar balance of this production, however, we don't even need to wait for the final curtain to experience the onset of despair. When Shrike, shrill as the song of the bird he's named for, tells Miss Lonelyhearts to "Get off this milk of human kindness bit," we wish the misguided kid would take his advice...