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From: render@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.tv
Subject: Re: "Master Harold and the Boys"
Message-ID: <12300045@uiucdcsb>
Date: Wed, 20-Nov-85 20:52:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.12300045
Posted: Wed Nov 20 20:52:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Nov-85 00:59:13 EST
References: <2236@umcp-cs.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:umcp-cs.UUCP:2236:uiucdcsb:12300045:000:1597
Nf-From: uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU!render    Nov 20 19:52:00 1985



Written  9:39 pm  Nov 18, 1985 by leeper@mtgzz.UUCP:
> I think that it was more effective as a television performance than it
> would be as a stage play (heresy, I know).  I think that you would lose
> much of the facial expression seeing it as a play.  I saw SWEENEY TODD
> twice on the stage and once on cable.  It was best on the cable for
> the same reason.

Not having seen this particular play, I agree that television does seem to 
serve as a better medium for portraying certain types of plays than does
the stage.  While on the subject, did anyone other than me see the televised
version of "Death of a Salesman" with Dustin Hoffman?  I thought it was 
incredible, yet no one else even mentioned it to the best of my recollection.
I would hold this up as one example of an excellent blending the power of
the close-up for isolating and intensifying a scene's emotional impact along
with the stage technique of using the limited backgrounds for abstracting 
the visual quality of a scene.  I wonder how much the tone of the play would
change, however, given that all the dialogue must be spoken loud enough to
reach the back of the theatre?  Perhaps someone who has seen the play on 
stage as well as the televised production could comment.

                                Hal Render, a non-supercomputing Illini
                                University of Illinois
                                (It ain't much to look at, but it sure is flat)

                                {pur-ee, ihnp4} ! uiucdcs ! render
                                render@uiuc.csnet     render@uiuc.arpa