Word: stanleyã
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Jeffery W. Howard ’08 equally hilarious in the always crowd-pleasing role of Major General Stanley??he introduces himself with the ridiculously fast, tongue-twisting song, “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General.” Howard had the audience clapping for the more rapidly sung encore before he even began to sing it. With facial expressions akin to those of Lucille Ball, Brianne Boyd is lovely as the not so lovely and slightly deaf maid-of-all-work, Ruth...
Truer is the production’s Stella (Andrea D. Leahy ’05), Stanley??s wife and Blanche’s sister. She’s not Williams’ most three-dimensional character, but Leahy interprets Stella as solidly as Williams allows. She’s a Stella who bestrides Stanley??s and Blanche’s dark worlds and somehow manages to remain a good and worthy person through it all—a Stella who contains both sensuality and sensitivity, reconciling them with a spirit of endearing fraternity...
...little else of the evening’s events can be discerned. To add to the confusion, most of the characters fail to remember the evening’s alcohol-fueled mayhem the next morning. All that remains is Lulu’s indignant sense of violation and Stanley??s chilling descent into madness...
...playwright himself believes that this lack of clarity is essential to the play’s purpose, so much so that he refused the original director’s request to add several lines to clarify Stanley??s situation. According to the program, the ART’s artistic directors feel that this ambiguity makes the play more accessible, leaving it open to a variety of psychological, political or even religious interpretations. While this may be true once the audience leaves the theater, it makes the experience of watching The Birthday Party frustrating as one tries to make...
Despite the disconcerting plot and ambiguous dialogue, the production is carried by the sheer talent of the actors. Karen MacDonald slips into the role of a cheerfully dotty old woman as if it were her own personality. Thomas Derrah overacts at times, making Stanley??s conversational lines sound like a speech or sermon. His physical acting, however, is simply magnetic, especially in the second act as Stanley??s nervous breakdown becomes complete. Terence Rigby is the play’s “straight man,” whose dry wit and easygoing manner evolves into...