Word: absurdist
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...time Updike has come to his final take, "Atlantises," the need for him to take a stand, to interfere in the stricken human landscape, to rip out his earplugs, is excruciating. But Updike settles for the absurdist message of ex-family man Mr. Farnham. As he speeds down the Connecticut highway he spys a huge gray tower, used for training submarine operators how to escape from their sunken vessel by blowing oxygen out of their lungs. The image is as oppressive as the tower is tall. Worse, though, Mr. Farnham is moved by the tower's presence to utter homage...
Larry Fuller's choreography neatly underscores Eva's isolated eminence. A group of calcified aristocrats in full evening dress shuffles across the stage spewing venom at the people's "saint." In counterpoint, an army platoon in full re galia does an absurdist parody of close-order drill while scurrilously sneering at "Perón's latest flame...
...Actors' Equity alone to keep off-Broadway's Village Gate comfortably tilled for some time to come. But it does not require that much stage expertise to relish the show. Any halfway knowledgeable theatergoer will find it thoroughly diverting in its breezy mixture of barbed sense and absurdist nonsense...
...dawn, the tarantula twosome slithers, separately, into the bedroom of Malcolm and Kate, and on encountering a rickety desk that Malcolm has spent all night assembling, Trevor, with one helping touch, reduces it to a pile of kindling. Ayckbourn is an alchemist of incipient disaster, and his absurdist humor cuts through the veneer of domestic tranquillity with a serrated edge. Yet his surgery is oddly healing, a kind of revelation through copious laughter and minimal malice...
...presented an interesting and ultimately intriguing picture of feminist ideology within the confines of dramatic action. Nancy Krieger, who also directed and produced this show, designed everything to foster a sense of isolation in the audience, bringing them into the experience of the plays. She intentionally contrasted the absurdist drama of Beckett with that of Myrna Lamb, less known for theater than feminism. Unfortunately, in this production, the feminist succeeded where the playwright failed...