Word: spidered
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...cobweb glistening with dew seems as fragile as it is lovely. But one day soon, predicts University of Wyoming biologist Randy Lewis, man-made analogues of spider silk will be put to an astonishing variety of heavy-duty uses, from reinforcing fibers in aircraft doors to body-hugging suits for downhill skiers. Over the past four years, Lewis has played the attentive host to dozens of fist-size spiders called golden orb weavers, housing them in Plexiglas condominiums, feeding them a daily diet of flies and, every now and then, flipping them on their backs to unravel yards of gossamer...
...bulk of the play is weighty conversation, the characters are often left with nothing noteworthy to do. Again, this could be the intention, even the central focus of the Dream of the Red Spider, but the critical flatness and distance that can lift a farce above its banal and stereotypical underpinnings never surface. The author's despair and alienation are evident, but we are never given any reason for his whiny melancholia. It is a shame that the truly complex and harrowing aspects of life under a dictatorship are not examined in depth, for instance as in Ariel Dorfman...
...dark, lonely, and savage. God is "a cold shadow," as we are informed by the surly protagonist, who moans he "could have forgiven Him for everything but not existing." Painfully maudlin commentary unfortunately comprises the bulk of this ill-fated production of Ronald Ribman's Dream of the Red Spider. If only it had been written with a sense of humor or perspective, maybe this play would have been tolerable. But the overblown dialogue, sparse plot, and half-hearted acting make this performance dull, dull, dull...
...metaphor is sustained not only in the script but also in some of the direction. Men in large white spacesuits wander in and out during set changes, accompanied by billows of mechanical fog. These creatures are the exterminators sent by the government to ward off the plague of red spiders that is reported to be approaching the city. Later, a large red spider is lit and throbbing above carnival dancers in a comical dance scene that probably was meant to be erotic. These and other elaborate ploys, while potentially meaningful, are more likely to make you giggle than anything else...
...study what is probably life's most intense emotion, is not difficult to track down. Love is mushy; science is hard. Anger and fear, feelings that have been considerably researched in the field and the lab, can be quantified through measurements: pulse and breathing rates, muscle contractions, a whole spider web of involuntary responses. Love does not register as definitively on the instruments; it leaves a blurred fingerprint that could be mistaken for anything from indigestion to a manic attack. Anger and fear have direct roles -- fighting or running -- in the survival of the species. Since it is possible...