Word: comically
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...Phillip, Longmuir delivers many one-liners to great comic effect. Occasionally his childlike wonder seems contrived, and several of his more emotional lines fall flat: "Now I know where I am," he says dopily, clutching the map of Philadelphia that Harold has given...
There's ample comic material here, and directors Matthew Pakulski and Sonnenschein make full use of it. They are working with a small space in the basement of Leverett E, but manage to transform it into several different sites with an economical use of props. The directors have also made skillful use of the cramped space in their stage direction. Maxine and Jim's exchanges occur on a couch in their apartment, and their placement becomes significant: when the power balance between them shifts, they switch places on the couch...
...play is full of comic character types, allowing the cast to show considerable talent and style. Jenny Davidson really rings the audience's bell, snorting her way through the production as the hobbling, grunting Luxurioso. In her monologue climbing the stairs at the end of scene 13, she transcends mere stereotype to take command of the whole theatre: the audience is rapt...
Damage was directed by Frenchman Louis Malle (in whose country the film is waggishly tagged Dommage); Peter's Friends was co-written by U.S. comic princess Rita Rudner. But these films are British to the bone. They take the dry approach to very wet issues: mad passion in Damage, nearly every other brand of designer angst in Peter's Friends...
...infest Marie's nightmare are purposeful robot- rats circling her with unblinking orange eyes. The various outbursts of sibling rivalry are pursued with a ferocity that prompts youngsters in the audience to pinch the overdressed child in the next seat. For the parents, Morris, 37, and his visual collaborator, comic-strip artist Charles Burns, also 37, offer heavily freighted tableaux -- how it was, way back when people wore bell-bottoms and leisure suits, and how it is now, when the wish for a perfect family Christmas collides with the need to knock back some extra holiday cheer...