Word: trent
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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FROM TITLE to finish, there's little subtlety in The End of the World With Symposium To Follow. Under glaring lights, actors hyper-project their lines. Buzzers and phones eerily ring out at startling volumes. At one point, the central character, playwright Michael Trent (Ken Howard), literally bangs a drum to pound his message across...
Thus with The End..., we watch (listen carefully) a play about a playwright trying to write about a play about the nuclear issue. In the first moments, Michael Trent is approached by a very wealthy mystery man named Philip Stone (Jeremy Geidt), who has devised a brief dramatic outline concerning nuclear war. He offers Trent a huge commission to base a play upon it. With stern eyes and a solemn bearing, Geidt is wonderfully menacing as he compels the confused playwright to take on the task. As Trent, Howard displays a suitably messy mixture of opportunism, hesitation, and curiosity...
Kopit's central metaphor is that of the playwright as detective. Soon enough, Trent's curiosity defeats his hesitation. In a Philip Marlowe trenchcoat, Trent dutifully goes to Washington to search for clues. But the confusion only gets worse as he tries to discover the logic of nuclear policy, as well as why Stone has chosen him for the commission...
...than the hurriedly drafted anti-drug bill. When public opinion polls showed rising concern over drugs, both Senate and House members wanted to pass new laws that would sweep "crack" off the streets and help the legislators keep their seats in November. "This is war," said House Republican Whip Trent Lott, using the preferred metaphor. But war is expensive, and as much as the lawmakers wanted to go to battle, they could not find...
...Spokesman Robert Sims: "It is a bad precedent to use the Army as a police force." Other critics said the amendment would hurt military preparedness and questioned whether soldiers could be properly trained as law enforcers in 30 days. Proponents dismissed such caution. "This is war," declared Mississippi Republican Trent Lott. "If this isn't defending the shores, I don't know what...