Word: sound
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Roland Tec's music, composed for this production, tends to work against the play's attempt to evoke '20s Chicago. Though jazzy, it sounds too much like '40s bebop. The scat singing between scenes is clearly not spontaneous. Not that Tec's music should sound like frequent Brecht collaborator Kurt Weill's, but it adds little and even detracts from the atmosphere...
That's just what Chin's play is all about--vital characters who say what they ought to keep to themselves, characters full of sound and fury, but lacking in sense...
...someone else will tell you that it wasn't a scream, it was a kettle whistle; and no one will be sure if there ever was a scream, until a body lies in evidence. How is the citizen-listener to react? Rush wildly through the corridors until the sound is unmistakable? Push open some stranger's door to confront some stranger's scream? Much courage is required for that. Much recklessness as well. The helplessness you feel in such situations is dizzying; and even when you act, someone in power can let you down. You could be wrong. Foolish...
...will react at first. You will freeze. Your head will snap like an alarmed bird's and your eyes will swell, long before any practical choices begin to form between hiding under the bed and leaping to the rescue. You will freeze because you will recognize the sound. It comes from you; all the panic and the pain; all the screams of one's life, uttered and quashed, there in that dreadful eruption that has scattered the air. All yours...
...Western as Bourguiba, Ben Ali may discover that his promise to restore political freedoms will be difficult to keep. His main challenge will be Islamic fundamentalism, the chief opposition movement in the country. Ben Ali displayed sound judgment when he reportedly intervened to prevent mass executions of the militants convicted in September. "He recognizes the danger of going too far," said one Western diplomat. An acknowledgment of limits will be an asset if Ben Ali is to succeed as the second President of the troubled North African nation...