| Another perspective | |
| Posted by: aleck 04:00 pm EST 11/26/17 | |
| In reply to: THE PARISIAN WOMAN (mild spoilers) - AC126748 11:07 am EST 11/26/17 | |
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| I saw The Parisian Woman last week and I liked it, but not for the reasons I think the playwright and production company would have appreciated. To me it like one of those plays that used to be produced in London with regularity about 50 years ago. A star vehicle for some well-known actress -- Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns, etc -- that allowed them to wear different dazzling outfits and stroll around presenting their on-screen, on-stage personas. The play itself -- like those plays of yesteryear -- is completely inconsequential and so cliched it's like it was written by a computer. But the audience reacts to each of these cliches -- and the topical references sprinkled in -- with appropriate laughs and gasps. (The Blair Brown character was the most cliched of all and she played it with every possible emphasis of cliche that the role allowed. The audience ate it up.) All kinds of twists and reversals in the plot, like a Somerset Maugham or Terrance Rattigan play, that has worked for about 100 years. In all, the play is not taxing for either the audience or the cast. Thurman looks great and most of the time is able to deliver the lines in a quasi-believable manner. Plus, I was in the "Dress Circle" -- once called the mezzanine -- and there is a bar a the rear that is exactly like the beautiful "Dress Circle" bars you find in London theatres, where, you probably know, the Brits prefer to sit instead of the orchestra section For me, the whole experience was like taking a vacation in London fifty years ago. I had a great time. That said, all of the plot details -- and I mean ALL -- are rehashes of many, many political plays -- Best Man, Advise and Consent, even State of the Union, etc. -- and many, many boulevard drawing room comedies of manners. The audience reacted exactly as I am sure the playwright and everyone else wanted them to, just as they have to similar plays for eons. In this case, it was all done in 90 minutes. Unlike earlier 3-act versions of the same thing that is talk, talk, talk, talk, talk (like The Constant Wife), this is just talk, talk. I thought it was underwritten and would have been happy for another hour or so of it. There were some witty lines. But nothing too jarring, original or uniquely insightful. I looked at the play from the perspective of the playwright, trying to imagine if he really thought he was writing something original or did he go back and look at many other plays and movies and pluck out different specific scenes in a cynical manner to piece together this as a star vehicle. I hope it's the later because to think that someone so delusional to sit down and tap out this script thinking they were writing something original is beyond my comprehension. But, again, I think the audience appreciated revisiting these old chestnuts with a contemporary setting. It was comfy. Thin, but comfy. And that set. I was ready to move right in because it too was a complete cliche of old-timey sets. You know the kind. There's a sofa center stage facing the audience -- which if there was really a "fourth wall" would be facing a wall. Two chairs flank the sofa. So you know you are in for a lot of talk with people sitting down. Then in the back there's an alcove leading to a landing with a staircase to the upstairs on one side of alcove and presumably a door to outside on the other side. It was an invitation for someone -- the star -- to enter from either the staircase or the door. And we weren't disappointed! Ms. Thurman entered from the off-stage door to allow us all to give her the star entrance applause expected -- by both the audience and the star. Only thing missing was a maid answering a telephone to set up the situation and provide some background on who was who and where they were. It was great! The set, the costumes, the play, the performances were so clinched it was almost like a pastiche. |
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