spoilsofwar

The Spoils of War Belong to Nelligan

Michael Weller's "Spoils of War", which opened Thursday at Broadway's Music Box Theater, is a sprawling, messy play about even messier people. But it has what will probably go down as the dramatic performance of the season.
Kate Nelligan plays Elise, an aging beauty, socialist, alcoholic and dreamer. Sort of a communist Auntie Mame with overtones of Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf"? It's an odd combination of character traits. But, Nelligan deftly integrates them into such an exasperating but poetic human being, it's no wonder that Barbra Streisand and Faye Dunaway are reportedly interested in the film rights............ David Patrick Stearns of USA TODAY

Vanity Fair December 1988

From Vanity Fair Dec. 1988... GREAT KATE
Before "Serious Money" opened last season on Broadway, Kate Nelligan hardly worked for two years. "I was thinking," she says, "whether I wanted to act, and concluding a lot of the time that I didn't." It hasn't been all smooth sailing for Nelligan since The Times of London hailed her as "the leading actress of her generation" eleven years ago. Her film career never gathered the winds predicted by early forecasts ("It really died after 'Eleni'; it was as if I had leprosy"), and her critically acclaimed performance in David Hare's Plenty helped to brand the Canadian -raised, English-trained actress as a Brit with too much bite. "Spoils of War", now on Broadway, should change all that. In this new play by Michael Weller, Nelligan delivers her warmest and most winning stage performance to date, as an American woman with a head steeped in dreams. Concludes Nelligan, "I'm glad to be back."