Word: plot
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...demonstrate that he was working in a methodical way. Each study room at the Institute is equipped with a large blackboard for equations and theorems; Eliot's was always blank. So he gave each character in his play a Greek name, Alpha, Beta, and so on, charting the plot on the board. If the resulting formulae baffled Einstein, so much the better. Eliot left his handiwork on the board for the rest of the year...
While the milieu of the novel commonly attracts readers by its elegance, it must appeal to a novelist for the neatly tailored setting it provides for any plot. Financially and socially secure, its inhabitants are free from drearier worries and can afford to find their problems solely on the intriguing plane of personal relationships. This is the focus of Love Is a Bridge, showing the barriers of pride, frustration, and selfishness which isolate one person from another. Separating each individual, Mr. Flood seems to say, there is a natural gap which only the warmth and understanding of love can bridge...
What saves Ratoons' mechanical plot is Novelist Rooke's sense of scene. Among the book's vivid ones: a sweaty Hindu midwife charging across a hut head down and butting her patient to speed delivery; a band of Zulus chanting a hymn of hate for Hindus: "Who is it that takes our land? The little coolie, the skeleton. Who is this rat that walks like a lion amongst the Zulus? . . . Rise, O Zulus, kill...
...plot of Escapade is a whips about a Pacifist whose three sons flee boarding school, steal a plane, and fly to Geneva with an adolescents' peace petition. The play proves above all that children must be seen if the audience is going to hear abut them all evening. Icarus, the eldest son, is constantly discussed but is never on the stage. By description, he seems so colorful that it is curious for playwright Roger MacDougall to waste time with the boy's parents...
Since Escapade is such an unsatisfying combination of silly plot and sledge hammer dialogue, the cast can be praised for just keeping the audience in the theatre until the final curtain. Roger Livesey and Ursula Jeans, as the distraught parents, are well together; his gruff and her grace are both engaging. Melville Cooper is excellent in the last scene when his stock, pompous headmaster reveals his individuality...