Word: snideness
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...stand-outs in the rest of the cast include Jeremy Bollinger, who ably captures the self-officiating nature of Fowler, a priggish "Twenty Two" club member. David McConaughy, as Delahay, also does a convincing job with his role of a self-centered snob. His snide comments and vicious glances could make even William F. Buckley cower in his chair. Mark Kessler inspires a chuckle for his performance as the lisping literary critic. The problem with most of the other actors is that they don't play up the viciousness of their roles--they fade into the background because they...
...high comedy is to construct sitcom-like scenarios of marital tension and infidelity, milking all the lame laughter he can get out of it. In California Suite, four couples come at different times to the same suite of a posh hotel. They proceed to harangue each other, making snide remarks about their mates' sexual prowess, and to show how very un-funny California life...
Kevin Kain plays Robert, husband of Emma and Jerry's best friend. If his performance cannot be called refreshing, that is only because of the emotionally draining play, not his acting. Kain captures his character perfectly--he is cold and snide and suspicious, and real. His best moment occurs when he tries to force Emma to admit her affair to him. Kain realizes the torturing potential of his lines and brings the darts of Pinter's allusions into clear and cold focus...
Maybe the book was written before plots like this had been beaten to death by poor imitators of Chandler and Hammet, but today it reads more like a parody of snide tough-guy novels than a true milestone of the genre. Anybody who's read an old mystery novel or seen a few gangster movies will feel he's seen it all before...
Nothing in Orton's life became him like his leaving it. His lover, Kenneth Halliwell, took a hammer and smashed the snide poetry in Joe's brains to pulp, then swallowed 22 Nembutals and died. If Orton had lived a bit longer, he might have done justice in his work to the themes that informed his 16 years with Halliwell: love vs. jealousy, career vs. home life, husband vs. wife, son vs. mother. As it was, he wrote three full-length plays (Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Loot, What the Butler Saw) that subverted old genres and modern society with a cheekily...