Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Play review - "Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole" by William and James Goldman

James Goldman went on to write several Broadway classics, his brother Bill is/was a major novelist who wrote brilliantly on theatre, but this early effort from theirs isn't much. It's a service comedy that isn't that funny. It's basically about a master sergeant in the peacetime army who needs to be educated to keep his job in the modern day service; he is helped by a nervous yokel intellectual with a gift for teaching (Peter Fonda played this on stage). That doesn't sound like a great idea and it doesn't read much better either.

The character of the sergeant is drawn well enough but his problems and dilemmas aren't that interesting - is it about putting one over the man or discovering the joy of education? It's theme wasn't clear to me. The yokel genius teacher didn't convince either. There are some effective scenes like the bit with the bayonet and the finale.

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