Excerpt from Ashland Daily Tidings, Roberta Kent
July 28, 2009
"Comes the Revolution!"
That old 1930s leftist rallying cry (usually said with a heavy Yiddish accent) seems to infuse Clifford Odets' "Paradise Lost," although it never actually appears in the play.
Odets is known for his left-leaning criticism of the American economic system and his gritty portraits of the working class. "Paradise Lost" is scathingly critical, to be sure, but this Odets work is an examination of the disintegration of a solid middle class family during the Great Depression. It is a portrait of bewilderment, anxiety and impotence at the loss of a way of life.
"Paradise Lost," in the Bowmer Theatre, is the last production to open in Oregon Shakespeare Festival's 2009 season. Former OSF Artistic Director Libby Appel has taken a cast of OSF stalwarts and fashioned a hard-hitting, fast-moving production that leaves the audience breathless at the end of each of the three acts.
Read the complete review.
Roberta Kent - Excerpt from Ashland Daily Tidings,