(Ben Brantley’s article appeared in The New York Times, 10/15; via Pam Green.)
Have you ever really seen a man with a glint in his eye? I always assumed that this image was only a figure of speech, or perhaps a trick of the light, until I caught Thomas Jay Ryan in the Keen Company’s charming revival of “Travels With My Aunt,” Giles Havergaal’s 1989 stage adaptation of Graham Greene’s frolicsome 1969 novel.
Portraying the title character in this four-actor genteel romp of a play, which opened Thursday night on Theater Row under the direction of Jonathan Silverstein, Mr. Ryan has a way of looking at things (literally) that gives credence to the aforementioned cliché. He’ll fix his gaze on another actor, or maybe on some hazy horizon beyond the audience, and — voilà — in his eyes there is suddenly a concentrated shimmer for which the proper word is indeed, I believe, “glint.”
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