What Is Woodruff's Critique Of Britannicus

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Three different reviewers watched, analyzed, and created their own interpretation of the play Britannicus that was directed by Woodruff. These reviewers, Louise Kennedy, Frank Rizzo, and Thomas Garvey all put forth their opinion on how Woodruff decided to have the play acted out. Each one of them had their own bias assessment of the performance. What differentiated their reviews from one another was their viewpoint on the performance of the script. Their critiques on the performance varied from praise to disapprovals. Kennedy’s review starts off with immediate appraisal for the production of Britannicus by stating, “With a profoundly intelligent, complex, and impassioned interpretation of Jean Racine’s “Britannicus,” Robert Woodruff has turned …show more content…

From the very beginning of his review, Rizzo’s critique is not based purely on his bias opinion. In paragraph 3 Rizzo claims that, “Reality – and perceptions of it – are entirely relative in a Woodruff production” (Rizzo, paragraph 3). Unlike Kennedy, Rizzo doesn’t base his review solely on pure opinion. As he proceeds to evaluate the production of Britannicus, Rizzo implies that, “In these circumstances the performance style is heightened to the extreme: Characters are stunned into apoplexy, wild with grief, anxious with apprehension” (Rizzo, paragraph 3). Alongside this, Rizzo also affirms that, “Racine’s focus is on the increasingly unstable Nero as he tries to free himself from his mother ( Joan MacIntosh), his advisers and the possible threat of Britannicus. But for Nero it is the dominating mother problem that’s most troubling and – for the audience – most juicy” (Rizzo, paragraph 5). These two quotes that came directly from the critique, accurately displays how Rizzo was able to pull apart aspects of the script from the performance. Alongside that he was also able to keep a consistent positive tone throughout the review. Both Rizzo and Kennedy had positive toned reviews, but Garvey on the other hand dabbled in both a positive and negative

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