19 Sep 2007

The Culture: 'Samson and Delilah' and religion

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/12/DDG0S3FM1.DTL

Samson Blinded (1912) by Lovis CorinthSteven Winn [SF Chronicle, 12 September 2007]

When the third-act curtain went up on "Samson and Delilah" on opening night, someone in the row behind me at the War Memorial Opera House giggled. It was hard to blame her; I was smiling a little myself. The image onstage at that moment, of the bedraggled hero (Clifton Forbis as Samson) pushing a fantastically huge millstone around in a circle, teetered on the edge of a ludicrous sight gag. Even a slightly bigger stone might have tipped the moment into full, unintended parody.