Word: underplayers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Rather than give up a political career, Tarazi says he would underplay his homosexuality. "I don't want to lie about it, I don't want to hide it, but it's not something that defines me," he says...
...peaceable stationery salesman. But the film's many narrative obligations keep interrupting the consistent development of a lively comic-adventure pace and tone. John Cornell makes a diffident first-time director, unable to punch up a scene or a performance -- especially Hogan's. And Hogan is so determined to underplay his role that you sometimes have trouble hearing...
Hardly a glamorous task since many Brecht characters require players to underplay, tone emotion down and frequently act like robots, the Ex players do a good job infusing personality into their characters and playing up psychological conflicts. But, they probably also inject too much spirit into the characters, watering down themes outside the psyches of the individuals...
...characters underplay too far. Isenberg in the role of Viola leaves a bit too much to the script. Hailed by other characters as vivid, brilliant, sensitive, this Viola does little but throw up her hands in despair as she is mistaken for her brother, attacked by Toby and Aguecheek, adored and insulted, and made a pawn of. The play's grand denouement scene falls prey to this gradual slowing of pace, seeming just a bit too serene as a set of twins and two pairs of lovers are reunited...
Michael Cantor has chosen to underplay Astrov, delivering his lines in a folksy singsong while shaking his head and making perfunctory gestures like a small-town defense attorney, or, for that matter, our next president. This anti-declamatory approach works well from time to time, and some of Cantor's readings display wit and intelligence. But it also allows him to skip lightly over the surface of the part, taking at face value Astrov's assertion that he can no longer feel anything. Astrov feels things very deeply--his preoccupation with animals and the forests reveals a profound humanitarian urge...