Word: sussner
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Directed by Dan Sussner...
Harper computerizes Walker's voice as she reads the choral odes, and the effect (an intense metallic breathiness) is reinforced by a tandem live recitation from two hypostylized eastern figures (Alice B., who gets to sport that big trippy mask, and Daniel Sussner '00, whose turn here doesn't compare to his work in Baal last year). The three-part slam definitely commands attention (and the poetry is gorgeous), but too often has to compete with the dancing Maenads for our attention...
Oddly, Baal in this performance was played down, despite Sussner's obvious charm, power and presence. To level this fascinating bias of perspective, the other minor roles were constantly playing up their parts, detracting from the magic that is Baal...
...virtue of its grand themes but also because of its schizoid scenes and violent characters. Baal is the name of a fertility god, but this play, full of images of rotting food and flesh, charts the progression of an over-ripe and destructive appetite. The bohemian poet, Baal (Daniel Sussner '00), is an enormously charismatic man who desires to eat, fuck, experience and be everything, ultimately even death itself. He is forever yearning for the infinite "purple sky" and the "dark river" as he hurls himself through life. He despises the world of unctuous critics and bourgeois manners...
...Nikki Columbus '97), a virtuous married woman whom Valmont successfully seduces and then rejects. Valmont delights in corrupting virtue with sensual sinfulness. Cecile Volanges (Sara Boyle '00) and Madame de Volanges (Anna Lewis '99), who are embroiled in their own mother-daughter struggle over whether Le Chevalier Danceny (Daniel Sussner '00) is suitable marriage material for Cecile, also fall victim to Valmont and Mertueil's scheme. Madame de Rosemonde (Vanessa Reisen '97), Valmont's aunt, possesses the deepest understanding of the play's web of deceit. In a downhearted acceptance of the production's cynicism, she says that "to hope...