Word: susman
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...does it is by having one character, John (played tremendously by Bill Donnelly) as a crackpot psychic who is, or maybe he isn't, aware of the fraudulent nature of his powers. He is being goaded by Charles (Michael Stone) to steal the Miss A'.s (Alexis Susman) inheritance money...
...seems encyclopedic, but unfortunately, he sounds that way, too, Like most of the female characters in Mamet's plays, Miss A. is only half, if even that much, of a person. We can see this even in his naming of her without a real name but only an initial. Susman shows the skeptical, yet innocent and naive side to the character as best as is possible with such a fraction of a human being. To Mamet Miss A. exists only as a plot structure to instigate the play. What we learn about her is mere hearsay and projection from John...
Unfortunately, the staging, only allowing us to see the actors' silouhettes, does not show us the full extent of, say, Susman's emotional portrayal...
...while Berenger goes on for pages and pages struggling with the invasive political disease that threatens his humanity. Ionesco's script is extremely challenging, yet well-executed by both cast and crew (despite a few slow set changes). For two and a half hours Goor, Ben Davis and Alexis Susman admirably sustain all the energy and intensity their frantic plight requires as they try to stave off the advancing rhinos. But Berenger's ambiguous triumph in the final is delayed by excessive monologue that returns again and again to circular questions already addressed throughout the play...
...Adding a tinge of frustration and self-pity to his portrayal, Rouse gives the audience something to which they can relate, allowing us to feel for and sometimes even root for a man capable of murder and deceit. Dressed like an Olympic coach from the former Soviet Union, Alexis Susman as the Dutch psychic Helga Ten Dorp, delivers the play's most amusing lines with appropriate timing and sense of mock seriousness. Benjamin's slick, swaggering and sleazy charm make him a convincing pretty-boy writer and conspirator...