Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: THE PERPLEXED at MTC | |
| Posted by: stan 09:38 am EST 02/16/20 | |
| In reply to: THE PERPLEXED at MTC - student_rush 09:14 am EST 02/15/20 | |
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| The title, I presume, comes from the "Guide for the Perplexed" which is a marriage manual and great ethical work by the Jewish philosopher Maimonides. It was written to reconcile ancient texts and traditions with modern (medieval) thoughts and values. Unfortunately, this "Perplexed" stinks (and I've like some Greenburg works a lot). If some Brave Soul stayed for the 2nd Act, I would like to know what happens -- Please append Spoil Alerts for those who still have tickets. | |
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| Views of Someone Who Liked the Show, In Part -- Plus Requested SPOILERS (Afterward) | |
| Posted by: TomE 09:06 pm EST 02/16/20 | |
| In reply to: re: THE PERPLEXED at MTC - stan 09:38 am EST 02/16/20 | |
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| I liked Act I quite a bit, and was looking forward to Act II. Unfortunately, to my taste the story and dialogue went seriously downhill (with some exceptions) post-intermission. As someone over on show-score suggested, it seems to me there's a good shorter play in this extremely uneven long one. Without giving away any details, I'd say that a lot of the action in Act II is tied to the idea that violence may be a defensible approach to the world's evils. Unfortunately, there was just way too much lame dialogue in which decades- and perhaps millennia-old ideas are presented by characters as though they've just discovered something new about the "current" generation. I see that this may be a valid criticism of the characters and not of the playwright, but it made for some very weak passages in Act II. (Also, with characters named Lysander and Cyrus, references to the Babylonian Captivity, etc., I'm guessing there may have been a lot of Jewish historical echoes that passed me by as far as providing potentially deeper meaning.) SPOILERS FOR ACT II As I recall (and understood, perhaps inaccurately) re: Act II -- As Frank Wood's character has already described in Act I, his billionaire father had, decades before, put him through institutionalization and electroshock therapy in order to "cure" his homosexuality. In Act II, at the wedding ceremony, Wood's character physically attacks his father -- something he has been longing to do for decades, but which the semi-rabbi character has only now (inadvertently) given him the courage to do. However, the very old father kicks the old son's ass. Another character later says that the seemingly decrepit father's dementia, etc., is about 70% an act to let him get away with horrible behavior. The very old father's caregiver accurately witnesses the entire attack. She says that, although she dislikes the father and likes the son, she is required to report the son for an assault on an elderly person. The seemingly dim groom turns out not to be at all stupid (as his bride has already said in Act I, to the general disbelief of most other characters). The groom edits the attack footage that he shot on his phone so it looks like the father started the fight and the son simply fought back. He shows the footage to the caregiver -- and whether she's really convinced or not -- she uses this opportunity to not report the incident. The son likely will not face assault charges. Toward the end, the son (Wood) seems to finally be accepting his homosexuality, in a way he couldn't totally even just prior to his finally fighting back. He asks his own son -- who does gay porn -- if he has ever felt "rapture" when doing it. The reply is, Yes - sometimes. Wood's character is happy to hear that and says so. If the entire play had been streamlined to emphasize that strand of the story, I think I would have liked it more than I did. However, in Act II we get much, much more -- sometimes very silly in the most lamely old-fashioned, bad-theater ways and sometimes quite interesting -- but simply way too much in the aggregate. |
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| re: Views of Someone Who Liked the Show, In Part -- Plus Requested SPOILERS (Afterward) | |
| Posted by: stan 09:05 am EST 02/17/20 | |
| In reply to: Views of Someone Who Liked the Show, In Part -- Plus Requested SPOILERS (Afterward) - TomE 09:06 pm EST 02/16/20 | |
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| thanks. | |
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