“Puck” – 1975

Review Excerpts

“’’DREAM’ CALLED THEATRICAL TRIUMPH’….Randall Duk Kim as Puck is a darling, clever little devil, scampering and uttering weird sounds”
               –Henry Gould, OUR TOWN NEWS (10/3/1975)

“…Randall Duk Kim’s Puck is that rather dark and partly malicious little imp that lurks inside most of us, and is just yearning to get out and cause trouble. It works, and works wonderfully….”
               –Bruce Henderson, NEW HAVEN REGISTER (10/5/1975)

“…Randall Duk Kim is a perfect Puck. His energy is boundless; he is ever in motion, the personification of good natured mischief; as agile as a monkey; apt, ingenious, comic, spontaneous.”
               –W.F.G., MORNING RECORD (10/6/1975)

“’THE YALE REP’S RECURRING ‘DREAM’’….Philip Kerr is a snakey Oberon. He crawls on stage from nether recesses to rule his forest kingdom with the help of Randy Kim as Puck, a coy, cooing. Mewing goblin whose grimaces, growls, and Cheshire-cat grins give evanescence to the character. Kim is at once endearing and uncanny….”
               –Rod Downey, YALE GRADUATE PROFESSIONAL (10/8/1975)

“’ONE NOT TO BE MISSED/’DREAM’: IMAGINATVE, WELL DONE’….Puck, played by Randall Duk Kim is extraordinary, and more animal-magic spirit than person. He has a great face and grimaces under his make-up for a real Puck look….”
               –Grace Helm, MILFORD CITIZEN (10/9/1975)

“…The character of ‘PUCK’ is presented through the artistry of Randall Duk Kim and shall not be forgotten for some time….”
               –Donald Keller, WEST HAVEN CITY NEWS (10/9/1975)

“’DREAM RECURS AT YALE REP’….Randall Duk Kim is the new Puck, and he is splendid. His witty, skittish, fleet-footed Puck, horned and befurred, is part human, part fairy, part animal, part bird, with a generous dollop pf Pan. Bravo!”
               –Markland Taylor, NEW HAVEN REGISTER (10/9/1975) 

“…THE INTERPRETATION THIS YEAR BY Randall Duk Kim is far more satisfying. Mr. Kim, instead of stressing Puck’s meanness, plays up the mischievous aspect and thus captures more fully the nature of the character. True, he goes growling and hissing and squirming about the stage, but one is constantly aware that his actions are far from spiteful; they’re playful. So there’s one big plus….”
               –Robert M. Isaacs, MILFORD CITIZEN (10/9/1975)

“…Randall Duk Kim is, for this playgoer, a quite different Puck. For one thing he is got up as a faun and nips about the stage emitting small animal noises along with conventional human speech. This is a Puck whose traditional mischievousness borders on the malevolent, yet at all times is he outrageously funny. Kim is a fine actor, who uses his body as a super tool of his trade….”
               –Jeanne Davis, WESTPORT NEWS (10/10/1975)

“…The new Puck is Randall Duk Kim….There is a rather weird note that does infect this Oriental actor’s approach but it has entity and force and makes the revels more than palatable….”
               –Edgar Kloten, WEST HARTFORD NEWS (10/16/1975)

“…As the linchpin for it all, Randall Duk Kim’s Puck emphasizes the streaks of cruelty and caprice in this legendary character. Duk Kim is marvelously mischievous, acrobatic and animal-like. Enthusiastically, he toys with and even forces some of the rhyme in his lines. And his closing, feline, self-satisfied grin is quite suitable yet unexpectedly downbeat….”
               –Joan Fleckenstein, TORRINGTON REGISTER (10/18/1975)

“’MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S HODGEPODGE’….Puck—played by Randall Duk Kim—is a faun, with hairy legs and little horns: impishly charming but never overcute….”
               –Julius Novick, VILLAGE VOICE (10/20/1975)

“’DREAM WORLD’…Randall Duk Kim makes Puck a touching blend of an elfin Nijinsky and a junior Pan….”
               –Jack Kroll, NEWSWEEK (10/20/1975)

“’YALE RE-STAGES A FUNNIER MIDSUMMER’….THE MOST important spirit, of course, is Robin Goodfellow, better known as Puck. He is Oberon’s first mate—a Peter Lorre playing to a Sidney Greenstreet. Puck’s change of actor is the most fortunate for the entire play, for Randall Duk Kim makes it look like Shakespeare wrote the part for him. Mr. Kim retains in Puck a touch of the animalism of the other fairies. He’s sly and crafty—both in the ‘cat’ sense and the human sense. Under Mr. Kim’s skillful playing, Puck becomes a semi-tamed, mischievous pet who has quick wits and operates on a human level much of the time. In one word, Mr. Kim is extraordinary….”
               –Joseph Pronechen, TRUMBULL TIMES (10/23/1975)