Word: ken
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
FROM TITLE to finish, there's little subtlety in The End of the World With Symposium To Follow. Under glaring lights, actors hyper-project their lines. Buzzers and phones eerily ring out at startling volumes. At one point, the central character, playwright Michael Trent (Ken Howard), literally bangs a drum to pound his message across...
MANHATTAN (90): Bret Holmdahl 5-0--10; Chris Schiano 0-0--0; Pete Runge 7-9--23; Ed Lawson 1-4--6; Bill Wheeler 11-7--33; Antoine Owens 3-3--9; Jamil Adams 3-0--6; Ken Bouyer 1-1--3; John Degennaro 0-0--0; Steve Boyle...
...show's tension grows from the boring circumstances surrounding Ken's departure for Indochina and his friends departure for Europe, and the fact that Ken wants to sell the farm and get out of town. Jed, though, is as attached to the farm as he is to Ken, and Aunt Sally (Ellen Bledsoe) wants to spread her husband's ashes on the property, but won't if Ken sells...
Julia Blum's Gwen, wife of Ken's childhood friend John, is an unlikely combination '60s burn-out/Valley Girl who giggles a lot. Ashford is cynical as Ken, but little else. The character of Jed remains to be written. His few lines merely supply the plants hanging from the Old Library's rafters with an occasional dose of carbon dioxide, which is essential to their well-being...
Only Eliza Gleason and Laurence Bouvard as Ken's sister and niece seem to realize that their jobs as actors don't end after their lines are said. Both create characters of some dimension, and Bouvard is especially good as a precious 13-year old whose dream of becoming a famous artist will never come true. Neither, though, can save a Fifth of July that's about as desirable as a fifth of castor...