penny-plain

He makes no excuses for presenting Pictures at an Exhibition in its penny-plain piano garb, and never tries to find ways of compensating for the lack of orchestral colouring; as in his live performances, he omits the final Promenade so that the sequence of pictures builds inexorably towards the climactic Great Gate of Kiev.

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition; Debussy: Estampes; Liszt, etc 2010

Unlike Mr. Martin, Mr. Cromer let Inge's penny-plain dialogue speak for itself, and his cast kept things spare and simple, rightly assuming that in a well-written play, laughter will come of its own accord when a scene that is true to life — even when it's so true that it hurts — is played as straight as a stick.

A Staging Too Heavy-Handed by Half 2010

Since "The Glass Menagerie" is an autobiographical memory play narrated by Tom Wingfield, Williams's alter ego, Mr. Edelstein sets the action in a single playing space designed with penny-plain restraint by Michael Yeargan that doubles as the tenement apartment of the Wingfields and — here's the surprise — a grubby New Orleans hotel room to which Tom has fled in order to write the very play that we are seeing.

A Masterpiece Made Manifest Terry Teachout 2010

Since "The Glass Menagerie" is an autobiographical memory play narrated by Tom Wingfield, Williams's alter ego, Mr. Edelstein sets the action in a single playing space designed with penny-plain restraint by Michael Yeargan that doubles as the tenement apartment of the Wingfields and — here's the surprise — a grubby New Orleans hotel room to which Tom has fled in order to write the very play that we are seeing.

A Masterpiece Made Manifest Terry Teachout 2010

Since "The Glass Menagerie" is an autobiographical memory play narrated by Tom Wingfield, Williams's alter ego, Mr. Edelstein sets the action in a single playing space designed with penny-plain restraint by Michael Yeargan that doubles as the tenement apartment of the Wingfields and — here's the surprise — a grubby New Orleans hotel room to which Tom has fled in order to write the very play that we are seeing.

A Masterpiece Made Manifest Terry Teachout 2010

It is, like all of Inge's major plays, a tale of disappointment and frustration set against a shabby, penny-plain backdrop of ordinary middle-class life -- you might be watching an Edward Hopper painting come to life -- and much of its impact arises from the patience with which the author deals his thematic cards, waiting until just the right moment to throw down his hand and fill the stage with pain and sorrow.

Return of a Master, William Inge 2008

What would that penny-plain - and-twopence-coloured bogey, the Nonconformist Conscience, make of such a story if it were blazoned through the land.

The Beetle Richard Marsh

"The Pilgrim's Progress" and "Old Moore's Almanac;" its scenery -- which had cost me weeks of research -- an apparent attempt to sum up in the language of a local guide book the leading characteristics of the Garden of Eden combined with Dante's Inferno; its pathos of the penny-plain and two-penny-coloured order.

Paul Kelver, a Novel 1893

Ildebrando d'Arcangelo was the best thing about the evening - his easy, generous, resonant bass and amiable personality are a nice fit for the ambitious manservant - and although I find Aleksandra Kurzak's soprano on the penny-plain side, she is a good musician who made a conventionally pert and resourceful Susanna.

Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph Rupert Christiansen 2012

Cromer let Inge's penny-plain dialogue speak for itself, and his cast kept things spare and simple, rightly assuming that in a well-written play, laughter will come of its own accord when a scene that is true to life-even when it's so true that it hurts-is played as straight as a stick.

WSJ.com: Law Blog 2010