PARADISE FROM THE DIVINE COMEDY

Heathcote Williams is a British actor and playwright noted for AC/DC, a pair of paranoid and profane dramas that teetered between insanity and genius. Unlike his manic, sensationalistic theater pieces, his reading of the "Paradise" section of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY seems laid-back to a fault. Though apparently striving for the beatific, he manages only to sound bloodless. Annoying mouth noises, sometimes louder than his voice, deepen this impression. Instead of the vision of an inspired poet conducted through the glory of heaven by his saintly love, we get a sleepy tourist escorted through an academic library by a bored docent. Y.R. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]