Word: scripting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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ALTHOUGH THE PLAY is technically very smooth, the acting is spotty. Even when the script offers good lines--a rare though welcome treat--the delivery often falters. By far the most refreshing work is done by Joe Walsh in portraying a stereotypical ex-jock turned landlord. Walsh adds some genuine hilarity to the play's forced jokes and frustrated humor...
THIS PLAY DOES get very thin. Stoppard's script is a lot like a Historical Studies A course: very didactic and superficial at the same time. And the play seems longer than the two-and-a-half hours of its duration. For persons who don't know much about any one of the three revolutionaries, some sections of Travesties might seem very long indeed, with the humor flying overhead like distant Swiss geese...
Faced with a script that relies heavily on the juxtaposition of real horror and slapstick humor, Molotiu has taken the easy way out by emphasizing the gags and glossing over the play's dark side. In one sense, his choice was apt, for although his cast is wonderfully comic in a self-conscious way, most of the actors here seem incapable of any real depth...
DESPITE THE LIMITATIONS of the cast, the play is hilarious. Unfortunately, many of these laughs seem to come at the expense of the script, and some of them come at the expense of the cast. The set for the first half of the play is remarkable only for the number of elements in it which can be accidently knocked over, a feature which the cast makes ample use of. Also, one of the entrances is so narrow that exiting performers must maneuver through it slowly and awkwardly, usually wreaking havoc in the process. Fortunately, the set for the second half...
Believe it or not, this review is an endorsement of Macbett. Remember how funny it was when Alfalfa tried to act like a professional showman? This is the same thing, sort of. The cast isn't great, but the script is, and together they manage to work...