TEN minutes after the matinee curtain came down at the Neil Simon Theater in New York on a recent Friday, Harvey Fierstein was backstage, face scrubbed and bereft of his character Edna Turnblad's penciled-on eyebrows (indeed, of any eyebrows at all), holding court.
According to early Vedāntins, the real is bereft of all character since its nature is non-differentiated consciousness or Brahman.
This series has been somewhat bereft of the characters and witticisms of previous offerings (nothing yet to rival Sugar's Stradivarius/bongos simile of last year, nor the revelation that he used to be trainee bugler in the Jewish Lads Brigadee) but Sugar continues to preside and crow over his crop of obsequious lumps like an angry teddy bear who has watched too much Blackadder.
The book contains his personal perspective on the local history and heritage, but being bereft of his characters and creations, it misses his enjoyable narrative.
Once the Farley lobby is renovated with an arching glass roof, it would be just the tonic for Amtrak's beleaguered customers — who now scurry through underground rooms bereft of light or character.
We have a White House bereft of intelligence and character, and a Congress bereft of morality.
Surprisingly few movies pass this test of gender bias, revealing a mainstream cinema dominated by male-centric story lines bereft of strong female characters.
Darden is almost something of an innocent, a character bereft of ego because he was plucked out of a windowless office and thrust into the Trial of the Century primarily due to the color of his skin.
Moreover, not only are the people (I am not going to call them characters) bereft of names, but they also lack physical characteristics, and we do not even know what Jose looks like.
"Without being too precious," Mr. Andrews said, summing up the show's core, "all of our characters are bereft of something, whether it's sanity, good sense, prudence, a loved one, strength; we're all bereft in some kind of way.
