| I'm Glad I Saw It, and It's Worth Seeing At Least Act 1 | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 01:48 am EDT 05/27/18 | |
| In reply to: LIGHT SHINING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE last night - manchurch03104 08:55 am EDT 05/25/18 | |
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| A friend recently remarked that the New Theater Game is whether you stay for Act 2. I didn't, primarily because I wasn't invested in the story. Still, I found the first act generally worthwhile, and I appreciated the attempt. I don't think Chavkin quite knows what to do with the play, but it is a difficult script. I was a bit confused by the cultural lens. The story I got was that the vastness of America's oppressed underclass are connected enough by their oppression that they will unite disparate groups to rise up against the wealthy conservative patriarchy, fighting the system and each other. It's a great tale to tell, but I'm not sure that it's in the text, which is unwieldy enough. This felt like an awkward fit, particularly in the way that Chavkin Americanized the play, which is very specific to Britain. Still, she is trying to say something interesting, and it's a much more nuanced and accurate political analysis than the one offered by "Dan Cody's Yacht". There were some moments of great spectacle, and I felt like most of the actors were compelling in at least one of their roles, but none of them have the precision and versatility to play as many parts as she asked of them. I wish the Workshop had hired a few more bodies, even if that meant cutting or simplifying the way that the physical space changed when the play's dramaturgical lens changed. More actors would have helped clarify the story she was telling, and I think it might have enlivened up the night a bit. Overall, I'm glad I saw it, and I'm thankful that that the Workshop has made an effort to get theater artists in to see it. It will be far more memorable to me than most of what I see this year. If nothing else, it had an intelligence that is rare to find in the American theater these days. |
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