Word: jcr
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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These transitions from the Riley home to the pub (a wonderfully dilapidated one, designed by Derek McLane), from disturbing reality to comic illusion, occur smoothly under Maddy DeLone's crisp direction. DeLone makes full use of the intimate confines of the Winthrop House JCR, organizing the human traffic with all the aplomb of a Back Bay traffic cop. A Stoppard play needs technical gadgetry: for true comic effect, Enter a Free Man should have a "Rule Britannia" clock, a few portraits of the Queen, BBC radio droning in the background, and "indoor rain." The Winthrop production manages well without them...
Thus Stoppard's extended metaphor of the decline of England may fail to carry the evening in the Winthrop JCR, but not without several moments of high comedy along the way. In the end, it is the snappy one-liners that we have come to expect from Tom Stoppard that shine through and send us away chuckling. After all, Britannia's 3000 miles away; as Linda suggests, maybe a sudden wave of loony patriotism will put a Rule Britannia clock in every home...
Martin Sheen--actor; at Winthrop JCR...