Word: chapter
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...actress Marsha Mason some time after his first wife's death. Out of this painful period in his life. Simon has created a painfully effective portrait of human behavior at its most paradoxical: the man fears feeling happy, the woman's compassion threatens to kill her husband's affection. Chapter Two is a long way from the cute quarrels of the newlyweds in Barefoot in the Park. Simon's first success, based on the early days of his first marriage...
...Happily, Chapter Two is not quite as grim as its plot: characteristic Simon wit surfaces frequently. For instance, when George accuses Leo of fixing him up with a prostitute, his brother indignantly defends the girl, and then asks. "Why, did she charge you?" On the whole, however. Simon avoids his usually relentless parade of quips. Chapter Two possesses none of the slick quality that mars some of his earlier plays, which made his characters sound like professional stand-up comedians, not believable human beings. Instead, the humor approaches the way people actually talk or joke, and even helps to crystallize...
...strain, an affair between Leo and Faye abruptly surfaces in an obvious attempt to give the play a little comic relief. This humorous interlude begins promisingly: Leo's attempts to calm the skittish Faye and disentangle her from a toga-style bed-sheet provide the most hysterical moments in Chapter Two. But this farcical scene turns solemn, too. Faye admits she doesn't really want to have an affair--"I don't have a good enough reason for being here"--while Leo, the experienced practitioner of the lunch hour tryst, confesses that he detests his inability to be a faithful...
Even though director Martin Herzer maintains a brisk pace. Chapter Two is simply too long--the first act runs nearly two hours. Herzer faithfully reproduces Herbert Ross's original staging, but regrettably, he could not reproduce the original cast. Marilyn Redfield's Jennie remains disappointingly one-dimensional, never conveying anything more than her character's chipper exterior. As Faye, Jane A. Johnston delivers her lines well, but not well enough to overcome a case of physical miscasting. Jennie's friend should be in the prime of beauty; Johnston's appearance makes Fay rather frowsy...
...power of Simon's writing and Orbach's acting help the play transcend its excessive length and half its cast. Chapter Two is not a funny play; it is a fundamentally somber play with some funny lines. The man so often heralded as America's greatest comic playwright has now chosen not to make us laugh at human pain this time. With Chapter Two, Simon puts the hurts people inflict on each other center-stage, instead of allowing us an indirect glimpse through snappy one-liners...