| Yeah,not a pan... | |
| Posted by: | garyd 10:39 am EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Ishy pans SYLVIA in the Times - TheHarveyBoy 07:48 am EDT 10/28/15 |
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| Tbe performances are "fine', the direction 'nice", and the sets "handsome". Isherwood does not care for the play. No argument from me on that point. | |
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| re: Yeah,not a pan... | |
| Posted by: | Delvino 10:40 am EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | Yeah,not a pan... - garyd 10:39 am EDT 10/28/15 |
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| Nor from me. I saw the original. People were convulsed around me; I was not. We all have different tastes. | |
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| a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? | |
| Posted by: | Chazwaza 05:57 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | re: Yeah,not a pan... - Delvino 10:40 am EDT 10/28/15 |
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| I haven't seen or read the play, but I have heard about it for years. And it struck me reading about it again now, how odd it seems to me in 2015, to have a play where a woman plays a man's pet dog. I'm surprised it hasn't struck a negative chord in this sense - that someone hasn't bashed it as clearly just the male fantasy and the treatment of women. I'm not saying it does express that or that they'd be right, I'm just saying based on the premise that I'd surprised it doesn't come up. Does it seem strange to watch it as a play? Or does it just SOUND like a potentially iffy idea. | |
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| re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? | |
| Posted by: | Delvino 07:04 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - Chazwaza 05:57 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| To the issue you raise, which I support, I'm in the minority, I get what Isherwood responded to. It has nothing to do with being overly sensitive (or a "cat" person, as he quipped). The premise, for my sensibilities, is cloying, and allows the middle age man losing his mind over a chick to become a middle age man losing his mind over a young bitch, literally. It still has an slightly icky horniess to it, sorry, and that's what makes all the ass scratching and crotch sniffing so obvious and tedious to me. It has some clever lines. Yes, it also reminds people of the way dogs are fawned over and humanized. Still, it's impossible for the play not to conjure fantasy, and if it were, say, a cute male dog in skimpy togs that crawled over Broderick and wet the floor, how would we respond? Isn't the intended heterosexual appeal the very gendered response of Broderick's character? (Yet do people really seize the gender of their dogs as even a partial basis for their affection? I haven't found that true.) It's how I felt at MTC when I saw it with his cute, hot wife, who played the titular character the first time. People truly love it. They giggle, they guffaw. They awwww. I didn't, and if others disagree, I certainly take your point. | |
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| It might be a better play... | |
| Posted by: | garyd 09:37 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - Delvino 07:04 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| if Sylvia is, I dunno, "Sam", a middle aged male dog dressed in khakis and a sweater vest. Greg just wants to "connect", to have someone with whom he can talk and someone who will listen minus the analysis and criticism. Sooner or later, according to Gurney, Greg still has to realize that his best friend is the person with whom he has shared a life, not a vertebrate who rolls over on command. | |
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| re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? | |
| Posted by: | MikeR 06:46 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - Chazwaza 05:57 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| The dog is female. Would you rather she be played by a man? | |
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| re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? | |
| Posted by: | Chazwaza 07:42 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - MikeR 06:46 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| I wouldn't rather anything. I'm just bringing something up. There are implications with anything. But I really wouldn't have been surprised if this production switched the genders and made it a female owner and a male dog. | |
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| But that's not what the play is about. (NM) | |
| Posted by: | Seth Christenfeld (tabula-rasa@verizon.net) 10:02 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - Chazwaza 07:42 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| Seth, for pete's sake | |
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| re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? | |
| Posted by: | KingSpeed 06:44 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - Chazwaza 05:57 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| What does 2015 have to do with it? | |
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| re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? | |
| Posted by: | Chazwaza 07:39 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - KingSpeed 06:44 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| it's a shorter way of saying "in this day and age" ... referring to it being so far along in time, and knowing this is a year when the rights and respect for women are on many lips and minds and it is a very visible and popular issue. It might not have been given a second thought 30 years ago, 20 years ago, but it might now. | |
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| re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? | |
| Posted by: | Chromolume 07:27 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - KingSpeed 06:44 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| This is all sounding more like Sylvia the GOAT rather than Sylvia the dog...;-) | |
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| Maybe... | |
| Posted by: | garyd 09:44 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
| In reply to: | re: a woman playing a man's pet dog, in 2015? - Chromolume 07:27 pm EDT 10/28/15 |
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| but Sylvia the Goat is a much better play/examination of a similar topic. | |
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