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| Michael Higgins, Jerry Mayer, Michael Mullins, Maureen Mooney. |
L’ETÉ
[Comedy/Animals/Childhood/Fantasy/French] A: Romain Weingarten; TR: Sheppard
Strudwick III; D: Wendell Phillips; S/L: William Strom; P: Margaret Barker; T:
Cherry Lane Theatre (OB); 4/9/73-4/18/73 (10)
Romain Weingarten’s French comedy, whose title means “Summer,”
proved a success in the Parisian equivalent of Off Broadway, but met with
strong objections in the New York press. Set in a village on a hot summer day,
it presents a foggy plot about a young brother and sister (Michael Mullins and
Maureen Mooney) and a pair of cats (Michael Higgins and Jerry Mayer) played by
actors using feline mannerisms, and dressed in suits with gloves and huge bowties. Clive Barnes thought the cats more interesting
the siblings, but still found that “Borins is the code word for the evening”
Barnes accused the writing of obscurantism,
witlessness, and purposelessness. John Simon seconded the accusation, calling L’Eté “the worst sort of precious
poeticism, the kind of thing Giraudoux might have written had he been suffering
from an upset stomach, unable to sleep six nights in a row, and nine years old.”
