Yeah. I caught a local production which was set in the appropriate time, but somehow (don't ask) managed to have a flash-forward into the present. And it utterly failed to work for me. Letting the piece speak for itself with the occasional none-too-subtle jab at the present was more than sufficient, but when they tried to hit you over the head with it, I thought it fell apart. I'm sure this is a YMMV situation, but I didn't like the change at all. It somehow managed to cheapen both the director's point and the original piece.
Sometimes it works. (I can think of one case where making the commentary explicit completely worked for me, but it may count as a spoiler for a different show, so I'll just be vague about it.) But I think you do this sort of thing at your peril -- to the point where even if you can assume Every Single Person in your audience agrees with you politically, you may STILL turn them off by taking too many liberties with the play. |
