'EVEREST' COULD HAVE USED SOME PLOT SHERPAS.Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic IT'S SO VERY (puff! puff!) cold and pristine up here on (gasp! wheeze wheeze (hwez) a whistling type of continuous sound. wheeze v. To breathe with difficulty, producing a hoarse whistling sound. n. A wheezing sound. !) Mount Everest. The (hack! choke!) air is so (puff!) thin up at 29,000 (heave!) feet. And I know this is (choke! pant pant v. To breathe rapidly and shallowly. !) true (gasp!) because (whine! death rattle death rattle n. A gurgling or rattling sound sometimes made in the throat of a dying person, caused by loss of the cough reflex and passage of the breath through accumulating mucus. !) Mallory Falconer Falconer prison where former professor Farragut, who had killed his brother, witnesses the torments and chaos of the penal system. [Am. Lit.: Cheever Falconer in Weiss, 151] See : Imprisonment says so (pant! pant!) and she seems to be (gasp!) breathing (puff!) as laboriously (pant!) as I am. Yes, Katie Keane, who plays Mallory in Margit Ahlin's ``Climbing Everest'' does a lot of puffing and panting panting rapid, shallow breathing, a characteristic heat-losing reaction in dogs; represents an increase in dead-space ventilation resulting in heat loss without necessarily increasing oxygen uptake or carbon dioxide loss. . Which Everest climbing requires. As does heavy lifting - the kind you're forced to do when a play is as lousy with cliches and contrivances as Ahlin's is. Keane spends a fair amount of her stage time out of breath. Which is marginally better than being - as ``Climbing Everest'' is - D.O.A. You're already in a certain amount of trouble when a playwright attempting a high-altitude identity quest names two of her characters Mallory and Hillary and opens the proceedings with Mallory stranded in an ice cave
The term ice cave refers to any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to the spirit of her dead adventurer father. ``I've never known you to give up, Mallory,'' admonishes ghostly George (Tom Dugan). Right. ``Tell me what happened.'' Oh, please don't. OK, it goes like this. An unreasonably short time after losing her father, Mallory receives a goodbye cell phone call from her younger brother Wiki is aware of the following uses of "'Younger Brother":
A team must be assembled, and permits secured. Jinwu (Feodor Chin), the son of an influential Tibetan government officer, admires Mallory's quest so much that he tags along as well. Both he and Hunter turn out to be in love with Mallory, or at least to have the hots for her. And someone will prove treacherous, making the expedition go perilously askew a·skew adv. & adj. To one side; awry: rugs lying askew. [Probably a-2 + skew. . In Keane's hands, Mallory comes across as a foolhardy fool·har·dy adj. fool·har·di·er, fool·har·di·est Unwisely bold or venturesome; rash. See Synonyms at reckless. [Middle English folhardi, from Old French fol hardi : character, and not a very compelling one, but she's Hamlet compared to the sketches Ahlin has forced Mallory to encounter. The remaining Falconer family, Hunter and Jinwu exist to grease the plot, rather than enhance it. Perhaps realizing this, Ahlin leaves her heroine cold, breathless and digging for inner fortitude that we know she must possess because the playwright doesn't have the guts to kill her. Yevgenia Nayberg's scenery, a dull series of stacked papier mache ice blocks, does a poor job of suggesting one of the world's most impressive sights. Director Al D'Andrea somewhat compensates in his handling of the play's technical challenges: wind, avalanches, snow, etc. He can't do anything about the plot or character weaknesses, however. They prove too great a mountain to climb. Evan Henerson, (818) 713-3651 evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com CLIMBING EVEREST - One and one half stars Where: Colony Theatre, 555 N. Third St., Burbank. When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through May 8. Tickets: $26 to $36. Call (818) 558-7000. In a nutshell: Clunky family drama set on Mount Everest. Remain at base camp. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Ascending the world's highest peak makes a labored transition to the stage in ``Climbing Everest,'' the story of a family beset by mountain- related tragedy. |
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