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| Robert Lansing, Elizabeth Owens. |
THE FATHER [Dramatic Revival] A: August Strindberg; D: Gene Feist; S: Holmes Easley; C: Mimi Maxmen; L: Robert L. Rayne; P: Roundabout Theatre Company; T: Roundabout Theatre (OB); 9/11/72-12/2/73 (97)
In The Father,
one of Strindberg’s most savagely misogynist works, a wife methodically drives
her prideful husband insane in order to gain control over their daughter. It
was given a respectable arena staging here, with Robert Lansing’s performance in
the title role set against that of Elizabeth Owens as his wife, Laura.
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| Front: Robert Lansing; rear: Dorothy Blackburn, James Mitchell, Francesca James, Fred Stuthman, Philip Campanella. |
Gene Feist’s direction was not very exciting, being
deficient in pacing and “impetus,” as Clive Barnes put it, and therefore
failing to create the explosive atmosphere required. “The Roundabout’s Father,” reported Walter Kerr, “isn’t
fully persuasive or ever truly moving.” Lansing gave a strong performance, one
that Barnes extolled as a “mannered, tortured and racked portrait” of “superlative”
dimensions, but no one else in the company, which included Roundabout stalwarts
Fred Stuthman and Philip Campanella, was up to his mark.