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Roberta Maxwell
Aloysius J. Gleek:
Here's something ELSE I missed--damn!
(I'm so glad, though, that Roberta is being properly acknowleged!)
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/09/14/theater/reviews/14meta.html
Art Is Sometimes Easy, but Life’s Another Story
Julia Gibson in "The Shape of Metal."
By CARYN JAMES
Published: September 14, 2007
Roberta Maxwell is so magnificent as an aged sculptor in “The Shape of Metal” that it’s easy to see why she would have been drawn to this ramshackle work by the respected Irish playwright Thomas Kilroy. As Nell, she sits rooted in a chair at the start, in tattered clothes that make her look like a bag lady, except for the flourish of a brightly colored head scarf. Her body seems diminished, but her voice remains fierce as she goes into verbal battle with her angry daughter Judith (the equally powerful Julia Gibson).
Judith begins to clear away the empty food containers cluttering the studio, dominated by Nell’s monumental stone sculpture of a woman’s head. And as she does, the women confront messy questions about the past and about Nell’s older daughter, Grace, who disappeared — who escaped or was driven away — when she was a young woman, more than 30 years before.
As the first act goes on, it flashes back those 30 years, and when Ms. Maxwell reappears as the energetic, middle-aged Nell you appreciate how subtly she conveyed the physical and emotional effects of aging without conspicuously acting old. Together she and Ms. Gibson are so potent that they move beyond the clumsy device of Grace (it doesn’t help that Molly Ward plays her so awkwardly, in dreams and flashbacks) and bring life to the unoriginal issues beneath all that anger. Nell is a great artist who is about to be given her own room at the Museum of Modern Art in Ireland. But she has been an emotional monster as a mother, ambitious and sexually free and selfish about what her freedom and ambition have cost her daughters.
Given the promise of Act I, it’s shocking that Act II falls apart so completely, with a resolution so perfunctory and predictable that you can almost see Mr. Kilroy dusting off his hands as if he can’t wait to be through. There are terrific contributions to the production, including Lex Liang’s set design, which gives credibility to the artist’s studio and a sense of space to the tiny stage.
Yet nothing, not even Ms. Maxwell’s extraordinary performance, can prevent the unsatisfying feeling that arrives at the end and undermines the entire experience.
“The Shape of Metal” continues through Sept. 30 at 59E59 Theaters, 59 East 59th Street, Manhattan; (212) 753-5959
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: jmmgallagher on September 09, 2008, 10:23:22 pm ---Here's something ELSE I missed--damn!
(I'm so glad, though, that Roberta is being properly acknowleged!)
--- End quote ---
here, here!! Thank you once again, friend John!!
Aloysius J. Gleek:
Thank you again, Lee! And thank you Amanda and Paul--really terrific information on Roberta!
Also:
--- Quote from: shortfiction on September 09, 2008, 01:02:39 pm ---I'm coming in here rather late..........
If you folks haven't seen Maxwell in the Canadian film Last Night, do check it out. She has a small but strong role as the mother of a man who has chosen not to spend his final hours on Earth with his immediate family. Her delivery, tone, gestures, and expressions are perfectly chosen, just as they were in BBM.
--- End quote ---
Now I want to get a copy of Last Night--thank you, shortfiction
(the reviews seem really, really good)!
Last Night (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156729/
Penthesilea:
Just wanted to add a picture I found somwehere on the net. The other woman is some sort of writer; I found it on her homepage. Her name is Ann ... (forgot the last name).
southendmd:
Here's a link to Roberta's IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) page:
http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=51946
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