Word: comically
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Beginning with the half-comic death of his father, in the act of urinating, and ending with his mother's death almost half a century later, Jed milks his memory for fragments of meaning. The narrative proceeds chronologically, skimming rapidly over Jed's academic career, slowing down to capture the degeneration of his love affair, and focusing finally and most persistently on his moments of existential angst. Jed's own formlessness is thrown into relief by his encounters with a cluster of well-drawn minor figures, from the cheerfully mundane Cudworths, whose very name suggests the unquestioning content of cattle...
...differing approaches of directors Rik Engelhardt and Laura Shiels are clear, so much so that the play almost becomes two works performed side by side. The first is an insinuation of the evil, suggestive elements of the play, the second a warm and spirited lunge for the comic and humane. The opening and closing scenes, and the dance sequences, bear the brunt of this first approach. The balance of the play, particularly the mischief of Puck, the play-within-a-play, and the scenes between the four lovers are superb, carefully crafted instances of the second...
...interest thin at times. The singing dialogues, however, especially the rustics', are splendid. In the end, after all the trials and tribulations of True Romance, there is a grand reconciliation when the status quo is restored. Good-humor and realism prevail over magic. At this point, the rustic laborers' comic rendition of the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe is not only a parody of human lovers' seriousness, but also of 19th century opera...
Such pyrotechnics fizzle as often as they go off, but Berger gets steady comic mileage out of built-in absurdities. Since the detective is clearly the butt of a massive finagle, nothing he meets is what it seems to be. An apparently moronic cop nabs Wren with an abrupt display of erudition: "Did you cause that man to shuffle off his mortal coil?" In the twinkling of a transition, innocent young schoolgirls become a team of orgiastic courtesans. Even when Wren finally tracks down the villain who has been tormenting him, his deduction #151;based on impeccable evidence-is wrong...
...olive-pure lingo. Francis goes into a panic of sexual ambivalence. The sister (Carol Potter) is crazy about him and Francis is queer for her brother (Reed Birney), or so he fears. What ensues, with no little assistance from some wacky neighbors, is a zinging display of comic fireworks, most of which explode underfoot...