Word: brechtian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...play. Performed as part of the A.R.T.'s CrossCurrents initiative, an ongoing attempt to "create and sustain a body of new music theatre works," The Idiots Karamazov intersperses cabaret-style singing with its mad dash through practically all the Western fiction and drama worth reading. But an experiment in Brechtian musical theater this is not. With love ballads about the loss of Christian morality that come across as even more depressing than Tom Stoppard's musings in Jumpers and show-stoppers about the benefits of being a male nun, Durang's songs are more bizarre than his scripts, if that...
...Venus. The true story of a 19th century Hottentot woman shipped from Africa to England and displayed as a freak was turned into a chilly but gripping play by Suzan-Lori Parks. The social commentary was kept at arm's length by her neo-Brechtian stylization; director Richard Foreman's deep-space staging (at New York City's Public Theater) made it haunting...
...true? Shanley, in spite of his wonderful ear for that which is funny, has unfortunately bought into the Hollywood writing formula--the work produced is pleasurable but ultimately does not tackle any meaty themes. For an evening of merriment, "Four Dogs" is a good bet. But if a Brechtian intellectualized theater is what you're looking for, it won't be found in this dog-eat-dog farce...
...Bloody Five's hysteria is the cool and calculating Widow saloon, who handles Bloody Five with nerves of steel and a hunger for money. Catherine Steindley's portrayal of Begbick is campy and shrill, but at times she reveals a vulnerability and sense of loss which, though not strictly Brechtian, is a welcome respite for the audience...
Hainsworth commissioned Roland B. Tec '88 to compose the music for the play, which in true Brechtian fashion is not exactly atonal but has musical elements to it. Tec, who has worked with mainstage productions in the past and whose opera Stained Glass was produced at Harvard last year, says he researched Chicago jazz before write the music...