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POOR BEHAVIOR last night

Posted by: NeoAdamite 01:41 pm EDT 08/06/14

By the end of the first scene the setup of this two-couple dramedy is pretty clear: one more or less normal couple, and the other composed of a paranoid and a psychopath.

Most of the laughs land, but your liking for this will depend on your interest in watching the psychopath operate, what someone else here referred to as "cat and mouse." Personally this was not my cup of tea.

Much of what goes on in the crazy couple comes off as a riff on Strindberg's DANCE OF DEATH (or maybe Durrenmatt's comic retelling in PLAY STRINDBERG!), but without the feeling that a larger social critique was being made.

Cuts are needed in the first sequence, an unnecessarily long pseudo-philosophical argument, and a similar lengthy yet meaningless speech in Act 2. It's possible they could be made more comic, but they still make their point long before they end.


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re: POOR BEHAVIOR last night

Posted by: WestchesterCommuter 02:18 pm EDT 08/06/14
In reply to: POOR BEHAVIOR last night - NeoAdamite 01:41 pm EDT 08/06/14

Nice analysis by NeoAdamite. I liked the play somewhat more, though it's no masterpiece.

Though Brian Avers' "psychopath" was no monster, I viewed the play as a nice riff on the Twilight Zone classic "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street."

A side note on incomprehensible foreign accents, which I deplore in plays produced in New York: Brian Avers' accent was very slight indeed. In fact, it disappeared from time to time.


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re: POOR BEHAVIOR last night

Posted by: twocents 12:59 pm EDT 08/07/14
In reply to: re: POOR BEHAVIOR last night - WestchesterCommuter 02:18 pm EDT 08/06/14

In fact, it disappeared from time to time.
It's either feast or famine with accents sometimes. I hate when they disappear after your ears get accustomed.


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