Threaded Order Chronological Order
| Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 10:45 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| MARY JANE first. Carrie Coon is terrific. But for short of two hours we watch and listen to a single mom in denial of how serious her childs medical condition is. She has learned to live with and accommodate the toughness of her situation. And thats about all that we learn. I didn't find any depths of character to pick up on or fee my mind. Just her relentless acceptance/cheeriness about her child's condition, up to the predictable on page one conclusion. I'd love to see Ms Coon in A DOLLS HOUSE or as Sonia in UNCLE VANYA. But this play left me cold. OFFICE HOURS seemed endless, repetitive, and to tell us nothing, really. Its multiple scenarios are a nice gimmick, but not original (we suffered thru this in La La Land, among many other places). And I was left wondering why a young, fashionably dressed, adjunct prof of English is compelled to play amateur psychologist with a dangerously disturbed student. And not play it very well. Lots of VERY long monologues that loop back upon themselves. Am I too old? Has seeing thousands of productions of thousands of plays and musicals (I'd guesstimate 12,000 or so) left me only able to respond to 'great' work? I don't think so ... I've enjoyed many mediocre plays and musicals over the years, just as I have been mystified by the success of many hits. While I read encomiums to these plays all over at the moment, both bored me and seemed able to make their point fully in 10-15 minutes. I don't regret going - I want to see whats on writers minds - and I find amazing plays that way. But these are equally tedious to me as the spate of feckless youth plays we had, up til a few seasons ago. You know, young folk, taking drugs, living in horrible apartments, being awful. Great. Thanks. I have to see people behaving badly I'd opt for WHOS AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, or CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, or MACBETH. |
|
| reply to this message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Last Edit: lowwriter 10:45 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
| Posted by: lowwriter 10:41 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - NewtonUK 10:45 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| I found Mary Jane engrossing but by the end, I wanted something deeper. I felt the writer didn't know how to end the play, though I guess we know the fate of the child. I agree the acting was excellent. Office Hour had me tense for its entire length. I thought this play was a meditation about storytelling. To have the Asian student be a potential violent threat might have come across as somewhat racist if the teacher had been white. I was quite involved watching a play that pitted two Asian lead characters against each other. Rarely happens in plays I've watched for decades. |
|
| reply to this message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Posted by: BillEadie 03:48 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - NewtonUK 10:45 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| Can’t comment on the New York production of Office Hour, but I reviewed the South Coast Rep production of it (linked in the other thread). I went in kind of dreading it, but I was impressed by the interplay of the teacher and student meetings. Pulling off this part of the play is tricky, I think, and its success level will vary by production. I, too, was annoyed by the other teacher and wished him gone as quickly as possible. Bill, in San Diego |
|
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Posted by: StageManager 01:44 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - NewtonUK 10:45 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| Only to say if you think the mother in "Mary Jane" is in denial of her child's plight, then you didn't see the same play I did. What is chilling I think is to see a mother who totally gets what's going on, and has chosen to look it right in the face and deal with it. And deal with it by cool, professional strong clear doing and caring. There's another play somewhere where the mother rants and raves and punches the furniture. This isn't that play. We found it moving and quite beautiful. Your mileage may vary |
|
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Last Edit: Ann 02:26 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
| Posted by: Ann 02:25 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - StageManager 01:44 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| I also thought and said at the time that she was in a kind of denial. But it was the kind where she put aside thoughts of / attention to the inevitable, because that was the only way she could get through the interim. After the conclusion, I thought, she can now let that go. ... a mother who totally gets what's going on, and has chosen to look it right in the face and deal with it. I do not feel she was looking at his death right in the face and dealing with it. She had enough to do with dealing with the present, and being his advocate. I also thought it was moving and quite beautiful - a superb production. |
|
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 11:00 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 11:00 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - NewtonUK 10:45 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| Contention is useless in pitting subjective opinions against each other. But I'll just add: I didn't see that narrow a premise in Mary Jane. If anything, it's a extended portrait of letting go, the eleventh hour. Rather than simply denial, Mary Jane is gripped with holding onto the ritual that the 24/7 care of Alexander has given her. As awful as it is, it defines her life. It's who she has become, the loving overseer of this child here so briefly. It's no accident that everyone in the 2nd half calls her "Mom." She's exclusively defined by it. The play is dramatizing what that costs her, but also what it has given her. A reason for being. It's just so much richer than simple denial. She has wisely been on top of the child's condition since birth, has had her share of wins, providing evidence that the medical establishment she depends upon was wrong. It's painful to watch, but also exhilarating to behold, this woman who has a Zen approach to the seemingly impossible. She's not selfless, she is revealed through her caretaking. I found it enthralling, and the ending infused with humanity. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 11:43 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - Delvino 11:00 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| Thanks so much for that. And I did love the performances. I get it ...! | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Posted by: lordofspeech 11:09 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - Delvino 11:00 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| This play MARY JANE sounds so interesting. I may try to catch it before it closes Sunday. But I must say I'm wary, and in that I guess I've become like a conservative theatre-goer. I would like to know that I'll be uplifted or relieved or have some sort of positive shift at the play's end and not be left in grief or despair about disabilities. Can anyone help me out with this? (And it's not a question I'd have asked when I was 17. I loved the movie "Other People" in which Molly Shannon played the mother dying of cancer, so I'm not a wuss about human suffering. But I don't know that I'd want to sit through "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" again, for instance.) | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Posted by: summertheater 03:32 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - lordofspeech 11:09 am EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| Mild spoiler - Mary Jane picks up towards the middle when the hospital emergency happens, but before that it's mostly boring small-talk, all of which could be cut to save 40+ minutes from the rather lengthy running time. It's as if the writer just kept writing and writing to fill up 100 minutes. An 80 minute version would have been much stronger. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Posted by: Ann 03:40 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - summertheater 03:32 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| It's depicting a situation realistically. You can't always convey something in a quick 80 minutes. The audience should feel something of what she's feeling, and her life is not very exciting and is without relief. I'm not saying you have to be bored to understand, but I think the audience gets a sense, and feels it, of what such a life is like. I found nothing about it boring, and making it shorter (just to make it shorter) would be cheating the characters. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE | |
| Posted by: Delvino 07:46 am EDT 10/25/17 | |
| In reply to: re: Anyone else in my camp re OFFICE HOURS and MARY JANE - Ann 03:40 pm EDT 10/24/17 | |
|
|
|
| Agree entirely. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
Time to render: 0.034532 seconds.