Word: swordplay
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...only serious technical flaw is in the trying matter of accents in an American production: the lead characters ought to agree on a degree of approximation to the Queen's English and on a pronunciation of Bolingbroke. Otherwise, the Loeb has poured its professional competence freely: there is much swordplay, adequately trained; Donald Soule's stolid set suits the play superbly; the devices on shields are undoubtedly authentic; perfectionists designed the costumes. Not much less, it must be admitted, should surround this Falstaff...
...slash away-again, again, again-steel against steel for 15 minutes. The noise, astonishingly, is deafening. When steel slashes flesh, a doctor rushes in for repairs. Everyone happily retires to toast the prize: a fine Schmiss, or scar, the old Teutonic varsity letter. Not since the 1930s has student swordplay been so fashionable in Germany. About 40% of all male students at West Germany's 18 universities now belong to 800 fraternities, including about 380 that practice the dangerous art of "the sharp weapon...
...Nagata Kings pantomime a superb slapstick parody of baseball. What was missing from the start, by Vegas standards, was a satisfactory supply of nudes. But by week's end a number called Kyoto Doll was turning nightly into a rousing scene of near rape and samurai swordplay. Naturally, before the fight ends, all the girls get their kimonos ripped...
...finest male performance in this production is Jack Bittner's Tybalt. He plays Capulet's war-mongering nephew with brio and brimstone. Though physically very short of stature, Bittner is, by the time he is slain, fully one foot taller. Incidentally, all the swordplay in the production is splendid; arranged by Raymond Saint-Jacques, it is a far cry from the usual mamby-pamby skirmishing...
...recent evening, Japanese at their 14-inch TV screens watched breathlessly as a topknotted samurai disarmed his opponent after some ferocious swordplay. The cowering loser awaited the death thrust; instead, the victor tossed him a bottle of tranquilizer pills, shouted the manufacturer's name and advised: "If you took these regularly, you wouldn't get into such...