For me, I'd rather have a strong one-act than a full evening padded out by a lesser work. "A Memory of Two Mondays" has not stood the test of time, and "White Lies" seems to have been equally forgotten. And I find that most 20th Century three-act plays are full of filler that could easily be pared down into a leaner evening.
Meanwhile, the 90 minute, intermission-less form dates back (at least) to the Greeks. There's something satisfying and powerful about a short, sharp, focused and sustained trajectory through a crisis. Of course, you'd be right in pointing out that one got three tragedies and a comedy for the price of admission back in the day, but we're also talking about a theater-going landscape in which the performances took up an entire day. We do sometimes see companies putting on longer performances that emulate the epic nature of the Dionysian Festival.
I share your frustration that a lot of dramas are short without much purpose, due to a lack of compelling dramatic action. But that goes back to my initial complaint with this play, which is that it's anemic, rather than simply brief. |
