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THE OLDEST BOY Tonight

Posted by:	sergius 11:27 pm EST 11/22/14

This is admirable, interesting work, but it's not affecting enough. I'm not sure if it's the writing or if it's the direction, but the play isn't rending and it should be. Given the Buddhist context, a certain degree of detachment seems appropriate but, conversely, a central theme here pertains to the opposite, i.e., the depth of the attachments between children and their parents and, most especially, teachers and their students. There's a beautiful scene in the middle of the second Act when this subject, the importance and the meaning of tutelage, is not only being discussed but enacted, too. Suddenly, Ruhl's ideas are not just postulated they're animated and the play is dynamic. Beyond this though, and some lovely theatrical effects, the play doesn't really move.

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