Word: serban
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directed by Andrei Serban...
Even director Andrei Serban, one of the theatrical giants of the known universe, seems to have been a bit bewildered by this piece. His usual mastry of theatrical trickery has slipped, most notably during the first scene. A woman (Lucinda Childs) wanders across the front of the stage. Behind her a piece of white scrim is blown by a wind machine, representing the white wall of a terrific blizzard. A shrill voice booms through the P.A. system, then--Riiiip!--Frau von Kessel (Elizabeth Franz) and her servant tear the scrim and stick their torsos through it. It's supposed...
...wedded high art to pop culture. Composer Philip Glass has brought the pulsating idiom of rock into the sacred precincts of the opera house, while Theater Artist Robert Wilson's slow-motion dreamscapes have influenced not only a neophyte filmmaker like Byrne but an experienced theater director like Andrei Serban. Performance art, an offbeat amalgam of music, theater, narration and stand-up comedy, has caught flight on the puckish wings of Laurie Anderson. Choreographers such as Twyla Tharp, Lucinda Childs and Laura Dean have pushed out the envelope of movement with each new step they have taken...
...this is not all wide-eyed and innocent fairy tale theater. Director Andrei Serban has thrown in his share of the hip and trampy. Brighella (Harry S. Murphy), the king's man servant, and Smeraldina (Isabell Monk), Brighella's sister, are the low-class comic duo strutting about the stage. Tramping about, dressed like a tattered peacock of a Southern belle, Smeraldina angles for the king and then anyone who will take her. And Brighella is not above telling her how used her wares...
...imaginative directing of Serban, who returns this season to direct Sweettable at the Richelieu, the set by Michael Yeargan and the original, Chinese-tinted music by Elliot Goldenthal have combined for a perfect blend of the comically tongue-in-cheek, hip, innocent and wise...